Changing your voice.

I'm noticing that with some of my work that I revise, I find my voice in the story changing to match the revisions. Every writer strives for that voice or in extrodinary cases, voices that set that writer apart from others. It is true that all successful writers today and in the past have an individuality to them where you pick up there books and read the first page and go 'oh yeah, this is classic so and so.' I want that desperately but find after four or five revisions that my voice becomes... I hate to say it, generic. Making my original story (draft) just like everything else out there.

So I guess what I'm asking is, Can revisions be done without changing the true voice in a story? Is it a natural born talent to be able to weave your revisions and your draft and have them meld perfectly into a polished peice of work? I just want my voice to be consistent with the draft I wrote in the beginning, the one that said 'oh yeah this is no doubt me.' Any advice?

"In my head and out of my mind."

Soo ... Greg ... do you know "who" you want to be?  Have your identified your style yet?  Start out short, sweet and simple - or the KISS system.  I much prefer to write a short piece and find my mark as opposed to trying to do the whole manuscript at once.  I'm sure you have your own style in there somewhere.  Go find it first - then move on.

Good Luck,

Mother's Happy Child

You know the whole 'there's no dumb questions thing?' Well I'm finding out with this question that after 14 hours of writing, too much coffee and not enough REM sleep. I asked a question I just didn't think hard enough on. I would even go so far as to say my question missed the mark of making sense. 

I do have my own style. But my small support group of readers (family) have seen so many different sides to my writing over the years. Then, when I ask for advice on making a story better, I get a collage of requests. I try to satisfy everyone and my story is not my own anymore.

Thanks MHC.

"In my head and out of my mind."

 "Then, when I ask for advice on making a story better, I get a collage of requests. I try to satisfy everyone and my story is not my own anymore."

There's your problem, Greg. Stop trying to please everybody. Take their advice, but think for yourself. If you dilute your voice with someone else's thoughts, you get a muddled version of what it should be. Sure the basic concept is there, but the essence of your idea is gone. 

I guess my advice to you would be to remember that there are always going to be people who hate your work. I know this first hand, as does any writer who thrusts themselves unto the harsh scrutiny of the public eye. However, there will be people who love your work. You can't please everybody. 

I hope I've helped. 

My Work: http://dubbedpublications.com/mattgannon/

I too vote for keeping your story in your own style.  Stick to your guns (am I allowed to say that?).  Try one paragraph at a time.  Make it your own.  William... has a point there.

I read your story (there's no way for me to go to it right this minute), but, it was the one about the poor old guy and the man who decided to take him a dinner with his 20 dollar bill.  I thought it was good and well developed.  A few minor changes and I think you might just have something there.

Keep going!

Mother's Happy Child

I've had that problem too.  I have come to believe that it stems from two indisious things:  (a) a lack of confidence in ones own "voice" because we are, as yet, unpublished and (b) too much reliance on unfiltered feedback - by that I mean trying to make the work pleasing to members of the critique group in the belief they represent at least a cross-section of the future reading audience.  As a result, the originality becomes strained and the voice loses its spark and becomes a bit contrived.

I'm hardly a paragon of writing success but here's what I've done so far to tackle this problem:

1.  If you really enjoy the writing, if it gives you a feeling of creative relief when you've captured an emotion or a scene, then you have "voice."  Stop worrying about that - it's like "trying too hard" to understand calculus.  The more you fret over it, the more difficult and frustrating it becomes. 

2.  When soliciting feedback, don't ask the readers open ended questions like "how did you like it".  Instead, give them specific questions oriented more to the craft than this vague thing we call a voice.  For example, ask if there was ambiguity about the chronology of events.  Could they follow the action?  Did it drag? Was the dialog realistic? Did they think this or that character was realistic?  Focus on the story and the pace of the action.  At the end of the day, it's all about the story and the voice is the enzyme that makes it happen.

Hope this helps!

Manifest, I am so appreciative of your feedback.  It's been quite the month since I posted that question.  I've done a lot of thinking and a lot of writing.  I asked myself this one question: Am I a writer or am I trying to be one?  I knew the answer but asking the question helped me to realize some of what you brought out in your reply.  I was running on zero self-confidence. 

If that wasn't enough, I was if fact getting my feedback from a very small audience that was giving more of a personal imprint to my writing than what I really needed which was true constructive criticism on the parts of my writing I am trying to improve. 

It was just causing a vicious circle.

Happy to say I've had a complete turnaround in attitude.  My confidence is way up.  I'm very excited about most of the work I've done over the last month.  I can see so much improvement in several aspects of a story now.  And I have started zeroing in on exactly what I need to know about a story from the people reading my work. 

So let me thank you again for your feedback.  It has reminded me of how far I have come and what I am to achieve.  Hope to hear from you in the future.      

"In my head and out of my mind."