I'm preparing to write a book myself (albeit non-fiction). One quote that stuck with me was in the first episode of The Silkworm, Tim McInnerny's character Daniel Chard said: "And I've been in books all my life. A writer's voice is particular."
Can my voice be particular or original if I like certain writers and their styles? I don’t want to feel an imitator or a fraud. You can unconsciously absorb certain techniques or turns of phrase.
Thanks for any guidance.
Kind regards,
Simon Stiel
Thank you Lorraine.
I was reminded of what O'Brien says to Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty Four.
"No book is produced individually, as you know."
I find that true. Do you?
Simon, no man is an island - and no writer is without some kind of influence, even if it was absorbed unintentionally in childhood. Whatever taught us to love reading and writing is picked up along the way from somewhere.
What we do with that love is entirely down to each of us. Everyone has their own voice, and their own way of saying something. You like the style of a writer, but do you want to reproduce it? Or does it actually correspond with something in your own style, so that your liking is really a kind of recognition?
Your subject may differ from theirs, and how you approach it may well differ as a result. The important thing is that you find your authentic voice, and use it well. Write from inside yourself, without comparison with that other person's work.
The one piece of advice I always give is to write with your ears. If necessary read your work out loud. You'll feel really daft at first, but it will teach you what you've written, not what you think you wrote, and to hear how it will sound to another person. By doing that, I think you'll spot any occasions when you come close to copying someone else's style, (if indeed you do), and you'll also find out what your own authorial voice should sound like.
Simple answer, though - write: it's the only way to find out what will happen!
Good luck,
Lorraine