A Tiny Break And Thoughts On Voice

I’ve got The Weary Traveler out to beta readers which means I have two weeks while waiting for feedback to do WHATEVER I WANT.

Well, not really. The timing was actually perfect as the producer of the narration for The Association just sent me all the audio to review (audio book out soon!), and there are loads of other things I absolutely have to get done, I just mean I can’t work on my next release, so I gotta pick something else which is both incredibly freeing and super scary. I have a lot of projects to choose from, but too many choices does that paralyzed-by-having-to-pick thing to me.

So I spent Friday and this weekend reviewing audio and doing some administrative work in my for realsies life aka making phone calls and double checking to make sure very important things will go off without a hitch. It’s pretty funny to observe how much I usually squeeze in between sprints and revision sessions when I’m doing it all in a row over the course of the day. The good news is we’re closing out a 5 month hellfire journey in a few days, which means I might get a tiny bit of anxiety relief AND I can finally blog about everything that’s pissed me off the last half of a year.

I’ve also sort of immersed myself in some writing communities lately. I don’t take a big part in them, but I observe and sometimes contribute. One thing I’ve noticed is how my reaction to things has evolved. I try to think critically about everything I read, but when there’s a consensus on things, I take that into consideration too. Example: “Don’t use very” = everyone agrees. So I sort of packed that away and tried to remind myself to limit that usage in my writing.

But as time has gone on, I’ve realized two things: (1) rules are really there for you to learn them so you can break them correctly, and (2) if everybody follows these rules there will be no voice left to anything. “Very” is funny, guys. It’s just so great for comedy. I just cannot get enough of it. To be fair, I get that limiting its usage makes it that much more impactful, but fuck does it have its place.

And that goes for everything. So many writers spout off this “short concise sentences” bullshit, and, like yes, okay, that works for some people, and it definitely helps beginning writers out, and I know I can be a little too verbose and winding and can lose the reader, I’m super far from perfect, but I know how to avoid run-on sentences, and again, THAT SHIT’S FUNNY, YO.

All I’m saying is, I give a lot less fucks lately, and have a lot more…it’s not disdain, and it’s not pretention (I don’t think so anyway), just more “meh” about these things. Have fun, my dudes. Take good criticism to heart, be willing to try new things out, recognize you don’t know every(any)thing, but just write how you want.