VOICE AND STYLE by Susan Tuttle
Thank you, Marilyn, for hosting me today. It’s a pleasure to be here and I hope your readers will enjoy my thoughts, and feel free to comment and ask questions.
As writers we dream of
developing a unique Voice, a Style that is easily identifiable by readers
everywhere. One that is unmistakably our own, inimitable in its essence. Think
of Shakespeare, Dickens, Agatha Christie, Rosamund Pilcher, Stephen King... A
reader could open any of those writers’ books and, not even looking at the
author’s name, know who wrote it simply by the way the story unfolds. By the
words and phrases, the sentence structure, the characterizations, the themes
and insights.
But Voice and Style are
difficult to define, because they are not just the skills that create them. If
they were we could simply take a class to learn them. But Voice and Style are
greater than the sum of the elements that go into them. There is an amorphous
quality, an indefinable element, that comes only through experience,
self-knowledge, and work. Through trusting our own nature and instincts. Only
one part of Voice and Style can be learned. The most important part
comes from within us, from our very essence.
Voice and Style are made
up of a lot of concrete elements that work together to create a separate entity.
They’re composed of the words we choose, the way those words are put together
and the way sentences are structured, the way paragraphs grow, and how scenes
develop and connect. Our education and life experiences also go into the
make-up of or own Voice and Style.
And there’s more. The
books we read and the authors we try to emulate play an important role. So does
rhythm and pacing, a sense of detail, empathy and sympathy for the human
condition, a sense of the absurd, a sense of humor, and a sense of both the
profound and the profane. The anecdotes of our lives, our joys and sorrows, and
our ability to improvise, to access our own emotional black holes, and our
willingness to trust that we have important things to say and meaningful themes
to explore all become a part of our unique Voice and Style.
Voice and Style, in
essence then, are us; who we are as human beings, exposed to the world in the
words we write, the stories we tell, the emotions we show to the world—and
those we choose to hide—the fears and hopes and dreams we tell no one but the
characters on the pages of our stories. Voice and Style can be exhilarating,
but they can also be terrifying.
One of the nicest
compliments I ever received came from a writer friend who was in the middle of
reading my paranormal suspense novel, Proof of Identity.
He told me that he could almost hear my voice as he read, telling him the story
of Danae Holloway. He could hear me on the page.
And though it’s completely
different in Style—one reader has likened it to reading Jane Austen—my latest
release, A Matter of
Identity, a literary historical
suspense tale, still resonates with my own unique Voice.
Me. My voice. My Voice.
Telling a story as only I can tell it. A story that is the compilation of who I
am and what I have done and learned in my life. What more could any writer ask
for, than to have a Voice that is uniquely theirs?
Thanks, again, Marilyn. I
had a great time here on your blog!
Bio: Susan Tuttle, a writing instructor and freelance editor,
is the award-winning, “slightly twisted” author of three suspense novels (Tangled Webs, Piece By Piece, Sins of the Past), one paranormal suspense novel (Proof of Identity)
and one literary historical suspense novel (A Matter of Identity). In addition, she
has one short story collection (Death in the Valley) and appears in 4
anthologies. Her critically acclaimed series 6-volume series Write It Right,
explores the 12 essential skills fiction and creative nonfiction writers need
to master. Active in both SLO NightWriters and the Central Coast Chapter of
Sisters in Crime (SinC), Susan lives on the central coast with her invisible
cat in a house filled with her (mostly unfinished) quilts and (mostly finished)
hand-knit scarves.
Contacts:
Facebook: susanwriter
Twitter: @STuttleWriter
LinkedIn and Goodreads
Book blurb:
A Matter of Identity:
American Marina Weston, just turned 20, is left orphaned and penniless in
London, England. Saddled with her father’s debt and tainted by the stigma of
his suicide, Marina has only three
options open to her in 1866: hire out for service; become a prostitute, or
starve. With the help of caring friends, Marina is offered a unique opportunity
and begins to build a productive life. But fate intervenes when she runs afoul
of some very powerful and unscrupulous men. Marina finds herself at their
mercy, thrust unknowingly into a diabolical plot that will put her sanity, and
her very life, at risk. She must find the strength to overcome the evil
conspiracy, but when one’s very identity has been undermined, what is left to
hold onto? Will Marina emerge with her sanity—and her identity—intact, or will
she end as a pawn in someone else’s game?
(I am so glad to host Susan today. She is a fellow Central Coast Sisters in Crime member and that's where we met. Unfortunately we haven't had nearly enough time together mainly because she actually lives on the central coast and I live in the foothills of the Sierra. One of these days, we're going to sit down and really visit over a cup of coffee or tea. Looking forward to it. Marilyn)
Comments
(The above was written in my own Voice, with whatever Style I could muster)