Writing and Reading

It’s remarkable how eyesight sharpens a little the more in depth you get into your own writing or how much you research into the theory of writing and creativity and brainstorming and plotting. What I mean is now I can pick up a certain book by, say, Stephen King, one of the greatest horror writers of this century (and the previous century, too), and recognize his voice in the writing, or simply his mannerism and common diction. The same goes for Terry Goodkind. I’ve read other authors lately just out of curiosity and have been able to pull out the voice between the lines in each book. It’s sort of exhilarating.

I never could do that before when I was younger; but the more I think about it, it’s not something I ever had focused on in the first place. Until now. Being as focused as I am on writing, that’s become a major ’sixth’ sense, I guess. A different kind of eyesight.

I’ve studied creative writing, basically. I have a Bachelor’s in it from the University of Illinois at Chicago, so I’ve done a healthy amount of critiquing and writing and studying of the art of creative writing. But I had never even thought of the uniqueness of voice within a manuscript before.

It’s probably because I’m reading more often. And I’m stepping out of, I guess, my comfort zone; for instance, a number of months ago, I opened up BLOOD NOIR by Laurell K. Hamilton and actually read her work for the first time! She’s been writing since 1994, and I can honestly say I had never heard of her before. After reading just a chapter or two of her latest Anita Blake novel, I understood why! Let’s just say her content is somewhat…intense. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t fun to read (I blush as I write this. Thank you, Laurell, if you’re reading this).

It’s slowly becoming a revelation of mine that the fluidity of voice and an understanding of its play in writing can be one of the greatest strengths, assets, features of any work. I find myself knowingly, willingly counting pages, checking paragraphs, looking at the chapters, how they start off, how they end. When I pick up a book now, I don’t just read it for an escape. I read it as research now. It’s helping to sharpen my eyesight, like an ability to see the lines and traces of a sculpture before using that chisel and hammer. I can see my writing even better, even before I actually start, well…writing.

Absorbing various styles of voice and pattern can be one of the greatest weapons in any writer’s arsenal. Remember that. Every other weapon–the simile, the metaphor, the well-placed fragment, detailed series of concrete words, skilled plotting, character sketches etc etc.–they’re deadly and can really romp a reader and send a reader into a different place. But without a doubt, depth in your own voice, depth in your own writing, your style, a unique style developed out of research and expansion and a sort of evolution due to consistent reading and researching works from many different kinds of authors out there, all of that not only sends your reader into that different place. It keeps the reader there, too.

And we all know how important that is when it comes to writing a good book. A writer needs to keep the reader there in that created world until the very last page.