Mission Confirmed: Write My Own Story My Way

This weekend I attended the Moonlight and Magnolias Conference hosted by the Georgia Romance Writers of America. My writing friend and I managed to survive our trip of four plus hours with little incident (uh, well there was that weird pick up line by an unwashed person in McDonalds and a strange toothless person who quite liked my buddy and a wild animal chaser running across the freeway, but I am happy to report no lives were lost during the incident.... but I digress--come on a road trip with us one day and have fun).

But here's the deal: all these adventures are worth the end result for me. First, I bond with a fabulous writing friend as we discuss our writing, life, and the universe. Then I get to hang out with amazing authors, writers and workshop leaders. And I get to celebrate the MAGGIES.

So first up, I attended the workshops. Allison Brennan doesn't plot and I LOVE her for that!! But what I really love is this wisdom: write YOUR story YOUR WAY. Michael Hauge's workshop was about plot and structure and the hero's journey and I learned so much my head ached by the end of the day. But here's what I really learned beyond my ah ha moment about the ying and yang of the conflict of false ego running from true essence as revealed by relationship with another who sees one for who she/he is inside: I learned to BELIEVE I DESERVE TO WIN.

My epiphany. My story. My end result. Someone else might have another one. But this was mine. I own it.

Finally, goal setting with Kelly Stone. Hmmm. I always set goals, so what could I learn? But I learned I had limited my goal setting. I set them by the year and break them down. Now? Oh, wow. I set them by 20 years, by 10 years, by 5 years. I want to see what it will taste like. It will be good. It will change. It will be fluid. But it will be good. Why? Because it is MY STORY TOLD MY WAY IN MY TIME AND I AM STOKED.

Okay, so I am on a conference high. And on a little *ah, I got a first place in the Emerald City Opener Contest and a second place in the same contest* high. Yeah, and I might have had a bit of chocolate. Oh, some champagne. Oh. Yeah. Some dancing occurred, too. All good.

But at the end of the day, here is what is really wonderful. I have a fortune cookie fortune in my jewelry box that I have kept for quite a while. It says: YOUR ABILITY TO FIND THE SILLY IN THE SERIOUS WILL TAKE YOU FAR.

This is my VOICE! Seriously. I mean it. A cookie fortune has pegged my voice in a nutshell. Or perhaps  in a cookie shell? Whatever. This is me. This is my voice. This is my story.

I have the ability to find the silly in the serious, and it will take me far.

Oh, and if you want the lucky numbers? I can be bribed with dark chocolate and champagne.

Voice: Not a Song, but Your Heart on the Page

I've been haphazardly plowing through my MAASS book, WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL as I work on my huge revision. I tend to revise in pieces: write a little, read a little about craft, ruminate a lot, read through my pages in advance, generate ideas (occasionally brilliant, often not) and write some more.

Some of my writing/blogging friends like Martha and Gwen have a more scheduled way of blogging about their writing and craft work and prompts (read the daily squirrel or prompt). I do not. I blog the way I write and I write the way I think. Basically, I am a bipolar writer/or left to right brain to left again writer. I cross the lateral a lot.

I can be logical and organized, making my neat little Scrivener scene cards, or I can be a musical mess of a jumble of hand written index cards flying around the house. I've got charts, graphs, hard copies, soft copies and a bundle of in-between stuff as I work.

Reading through the Maass book this week, I generated a lot of cool ideas or thoughts about my current WIP in Revision and I also revisited the core of my writing: voice.

What is voice? Is it style? Is it a unique way of writing that sets you apart? Is it tone? What is the elusive quality of "voice" that people are talking about when they talk about a writer's voice? I think Maass covers it very well in his book:

... voice is a natural attribute. You can no more control it than you can control the color of your eyes--nor would you want to. Plenty of breakout authors have a distinctive voice.


To set your voice free, set your words free. Set your characters free. Most important, set your heart free. It is from the unknowing shadows of your subconscious that your stories will find their drive and from which they will draw their meaning. No one can loan you or teach you that. Your voice is your self in the story.


POWERFUL!

Eloisa James said the same thing in a very eloquent way during her Keynote Luncheon speech during the 2009 RWA National Conference. Pour your soul onto the pages. Pour your heart into your writing. Mine your feelings.

You have a story to tell. It's YOUR story. Whether you write romance, gothic literature, vampire YA novels or mysteries, YOU HAVE A STORY.

How we approach writing the story might very well reveal our writing voices. Just as no two writers approach their writing the same way, no two writers have the same writing voice. They can't. They're different people.

Yes. Read other amazing authors' books. But be sure to remember that as much as you may admire their work, only YOU can write a book with YOUR voice in it.

Nurturing My Writing Voice

I am in the midst of my revision for book 3. I feel like I've been dealing with these people FOREVER. But with each new revision or change, I find I like the book more and more.

Part of this is the discovery of CRAFT and learning to polish my writing. Another part is taking the Book in a Week class which helped me rediscover HOW I DEVELOP my story. My unique way of getting into my characters' heads.  And the final part of this is through reading some amazing new books published by fellow writers I respect and admire. There, sometimes, the "rules" of CRAFT  and CONTEST are blurred because the STORY is the key. 

And I LOVE THESE BOOKS!! 

I only read other books at night, or when I am on vacation, right before beddie-bye. If I read them during the day, I will lose precious writing time. Right now I am on a mission! I must finish the next seven chapters (THE LAST SEVEN) in revision in 7 allotted writing days. Then I get to dive into my fourth novel and play around with those wonderful people (who are starting to get very impatient with my constant dabbling with book 3).

The flow of the words in the books I read has infiltrated my own writing; not as an exact duplication, but in the idea of how my characters think, act, talk to themselves, and face the world. In that world, overused words are, well, allowed, and echoes can occur, and "ly" words exist, and "was" isn't a demon word. 

Thus my inner critic is silenced to allow my people to become who they are: internally. 

Love that feeling.

And the writing is tighter. No doubt about it. The weaving in and out of elements is more precise. I like the new flow. Will it appeal to an editor or an agent? I don't know. But I do know it appeals to the deeper part in me who enjoys reading a well-crafted romance with a fabulous hero, though flawed, and an independent heroine who's itching for a bit of subduing. 

It's like first draft writing but it's a tighter blend of writing for self, writing for the reader or critique group, and writing for the editor who might one day request it and then accept it with the codicil: more revision required.

I'm determined to move forward with this book. I want to pitch it at the conference. I am ready to try to sell the work. If no one asks for it, well I'll try elsewhere via queries. Then I will lovingly set it aside and use what I've learned by writing it in all my future novels as well as in other revisions. 

This is why I love to write. It challenges me, it changes me, and it moves me beyond preset boundaries. 

And I've learned that is quite all right to be a "delusional masochist" while pursuing this grand obsession.