How difficult can it be to write a children’s book? No problem! I wrote a few scenarios, joined SCBWI, went to conferences, took classes, joined a writers’ group, wrote, wrote, wrote. I wrote fourteen middle grade novels, of which I thought maybe three or four were worthy of more than the recycle bin. I did not view this as a waste of time. I was preparing myself, like working in an apprenticeship or going to college, earning a degree in creative writing.
Writing is Not Enough
But I wasn’t prepared. It’s not difficult to write a novel if you’re persistent. What’s difficult is making it good, a gripping read, a satisfying adventure. The feedback I got from an agent – it lacked voice – showed me how undeveloped my writing was. I could draft a sentence. I could plot a story. But my writing lacked an elusive thing, that thing that sets you apart as a truly original work, like the difference between Wyeth and Pollock, so easy to see and feel, not so easy to develop or to know when you’ve got it.
James Scott Bell in JUST WRITE defines voice as: “Character background and language filtered through the author’s heart and rendered with craft on the page” (p. 129, emphasis in original). In YOU: THE STORY, Ruta Sepetys suggests heart is everything you need to tell a compelling story.
Distinctive Expression
Visual artists have the same spectrum of colors, musicians have the same seven basic notes, and writers have the same dictionary of words. How, then, is it easy to tell the difference between the creative works of McCartney and Bacharach? Mozart and Rachmaninoff? Warhol and O’Keefe? Messner and DeCamillo? And how do you acquire that distinctive expression? Is it really as simple as writing from the heart?
What’s your take on this elusive thing called voice? Is there a shortcut to acquiring it? Leave a comment or suggestion. Thanks! : ) Creative Lee