Into the Fire

My friend Mick Silva posted this on his website Your Writer's Group, Weekly Meditations:

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Monday-Motivation-from-Mick.html?soid=1105786650508&aid=u6jTGYKr014

The paragraph which jumps out at me is this one:

"But those pesky impulses! Too focused on being capable and competent to be uniquely special, we're still trying to play the right notes at the right times with the right force and feeling. But beyond practice is a new world where we've forgotten the specifics, the rules, and we'll simply play."

The ways to learn to write are innumerable. Add to just plain writing: writing fiction, and you come up with a whole new set of rules and regulations – and even writing a novel can break down those stipulations to different genres and add a complete new set of them! From this standpoint – and the fact that Mick's an editor – this paragraph resonates.

Finding "voice" which Mick discusses briefly adds a dimension to new writers that can throw them into the literary dictionary of indecipherable terms. "Style" when it varies from the mundane often catapults those used to formulaic fiction and proven unadventurous demographics into "it won't sell" mode and causes insecure writers to scurry back to the predictable iron rules for writing.

Voice isn't that hard to find. It's you. It's how you put words on paper or screen. It varies according to what you're writing, but it's quite frankly all about you. It's how you portray characters, it's how they speak through you, it's how you describe a scene, setting, individual, mood, or someone else's voice. Know yourself: know your voice.

I adhere to rules that make sense to me. If they don't apply, they're out. Writing is creative when it applies to novels. Whole set of other rules if you're writing a dissertation or non-fiction (not creative non-fiction). Yes, they're necessary to know. Well. But they don't "rule" and reign when it comes to writing fiction. Voice and style should matter most. Otherwise: it's just another novel. Know the rules, practice, but as Mick said in his paragraph: beyond practice is a new world where we've forgotten the specifics, the rules, and we'll simply play.   

Father, please continue to bless Mick in his writing and all of his endeavors that serve you. Please lead us all as writers because your instructions matter most. Help us to honor you above all others. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.