When I studied Creative Writing a few years back, my tutor emphatically told the class that to write you need to find your own voice and decide on a genre. Well I’ve found my voice twenty-seven times. Yes, I have multiple writing-personality disorder. And I’ve had more genres than hot dinners. (My tutor also said avoid clichés – so pretend I didn’t say that)
The thing is, I’ve written ghost stories, murder mysteries, comedy (well attempts at), love stories, chick-lit, tear-jerkers, factual articles, a children’s novel – oh, and now I’ve completed a thriller novel - but I still can’t find my voice or my genre.
Plus, I’m continually drawn to writing in first person. I pop myself right there in the protagonist’s head, and, well, talk like them. A thousand voices – but which one’s mine? Ooh, I feel like Rory Bremner.
So this whole 'voice' thing is a bit complex then, isn’t it? If you write in first person, then you are that person, that character – they can’t all be you, can they?
I suppose, then, I’m still experimenting. And if, by some sort of miracle one of my VERY different novels are ever snapped up – I would develop that voice and run with it.
In the mean time, I'll continue to have fun experimenting with different styles and voices. In fact, I’ve got a comedy, tear-jerker with lashings of ghosts, a dollop of murder mystery and a smidgen of love interest - written through twenty different first person viewpoints, on the go right this minute. You think I'm joking. :-)
