Reclaiming my literary voice

After a long hiatus, I am finally back at work on my novel. By the time it’s finished (I’m predicting April—there it is, I’m accountable!), it will have been almost ten years in the making. Ten years. It had better be pretty darn good, no?

What I want to talk about, though, is the awesome—in the almost spiritual sense of the word—feeling of returning to my own writing. How strange is that? Isn’t anything I write “my own”? Yes and no.

Over the last two years, I’ve accumulated something around sixty published bylines, in addition to press releases, website copy, and other marketing materials floating around in the world. While I’ve made it my practice to never write anything I don’t believe in (read: support, take pride in, claim ownership of), there is something inherently different about reclaiming my own literary voice. And ultimately, I think that knowing who I am as a fiction writer will only improve my magazine and newspaper writing, my marketing writing, and even my relationships with clients.

Who are you as a writer, a reader? And if you’re in the position to hire writers, what do you hope to see in their work?

20.10.2008. 00:57

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