An Outfit For Your Novel’s Voice
A Word of Advice from Stephen King
After searching, scanning, and surfing the web this week I have come to the conclusion that I must start to read Stephen King’s book, “On Writing: a Memoir of the Craft”. One thing I found that inspired me to do so was this great article from Literary Rejections, 10 Rules of Writing. One rule in particular really struck a cord with me.
Language does not always have to wear a tie and lace-up shoes. The object of fiction isn’t grammatical correctness but to make the reader welcome and then tell a story.
As I began to write my first draft, I didn’t know that much about grammar. (I admit it; I graduated college with a BS in science and therefore took practically zero courses regarding literature, writing, or anything of the sort.) I’m not completely oblivious to it, but I’m in no way an aficionado. This made me overly cautious on what rules I was breaking, and it ended up effecting how I told my story.
After re-reading the first few pages of my first draft I could tell that I tried (and most definitely failed) to be too “grammatically correct”, and on top of it, it caused my prose to carry a lackluster feel that would only be acceptable while waiting in line for a security check at an airport. It was stiff. I cringed.
So this is where Stephen King’s brilliant words on grammar come in to play. I decided I needed to take a long look at what my grammar would be wearing throughout my story; it’s “outfit”. After searching through fashion sites, watching hours of re-runs of “What Not To Wear” (okay, just kidding about those two), and visualizing the “look” of my voice, I came up with a collage for my voice’s.
Step Into My Voice’s Closet:
Note: I am writing in first person POV, so this influences my voice’s “outfit” to look like my main character. Also, this is an eclectic college of my voice from beginning to end. My voice changes from the very first word to the last, and so does its’ outfit. This is a working college, and very well may change dramatically by the time I hit “submit” on query letters.
After already writing my first draft, and knowing what it is I want out of it (for the most part) it was fun putting together this collage, and I know it will be helpful when I’m re-writing. If you want to create a collage for yourself, check out Pixlr.com/express. It’s real easy to use.
