Finding Your Voice: How to Put Personality in Your Writing

by Les Edgerton

Book Overview

Find your voice - and make your writing sing You know a great literary "voice" when you hear it: David Sedaris's humorous cynicism. Elmore Leonard's weary, smart-mouthed dialogue. Nick Hornby's simple... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1582971730
• ISBN13: 9781582971735
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books
• Length: 241 Pages
• Weight: 0.87 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Finally... somebody who really gives a damn whether you learn someting

This book was, by far, THE most in-depth how-to book that I've ever read on writing. And I've read more than I have fingers. Seriously. I don't work for them. This book raises the bar. I wish the author would write a series on all the other aspects like: plot, setting, and characters. Unlike most books I've read, this one gives specific examples for every topic. Concrete, systematic techniques delivered without that authoritative tone that intimidates the aspiring writer more than instructs him/her. Before reading this, I didn't even realize that my first person manuscript wasn't written in the voice of the viewpoint character. I was using words that would be foreign to "Devin," describing things he wouldn't notice. He wasn't telling his story. I was. I'm soooooo glad I read this book before I gave my manuscript to anyone. I made highlights and typed up notes from this book that I will use repeatedly. This book can be used as a guage of the quality of every other how-to writing book you read. Seriously...

Feels like opening the windows of a dusty house!

This book is for aspiring writers not for professional writers. This is an important point, because other reviewers have said this book gives too basic advice. Basic, but paramount. The basic idea behind this book is that many authors suffer from a terrible affliction. He calls it "the writer's inferiority complex" It results from an overadulation of the published word. Some might say that it is obvious that one should be original. The fact is that as aspiring writers we are constanly studying the good stuff, good authors, and we are always studying technique. The result of this is that we have a tremendous and heavy influence to carry on our backs. The danger is real: if we are constantly trying to study the best, we might end up becoming a copy of them. Which, paradoxically, is far from being the best we can. The solution is simple. Buy this book if you have noticed that you write too much like someone. If someone tells you that you write too much like someone else... buy this book. If as you write you begin thinking "oh, maybe I shouldn't write this because MR. X or MADAMME Y wrote in this other way... so, maybe I'm not writing good enough", then you should seriously consider getting this book. So you can overcome your self doubts when you compare yourself to your heroes. If you have an original voice and are very aware that you are not copying (even by osmosis) someonelse's work, then skip this book. Here is a quote from the book that I particularly liked: "The astute artist in any field knows that he or she can't "be everything to everyone," and so cultivates his or her own particular and inimitable style, thereby appealing to some and not to others. That's fine. That's the way it should be". It certainly is fine... how boring it would be writing like your idols!

i love this book

as a writing coach, i have recommended this book to everyone who sits down to write. the author uses his own authentic voice to give us permission to be ourselves. his voice is at once down-to-earth, clear, funny and enormously valuable. a book for every writer's library!

A Fresh Perspective

I cannot CANNOT--say enough about this book! I'm an aspiring writer who had been circling for years--forever stumbling around in the dark searching for some missing ingredient. Les Edgerton provided that ingredient. In his book, Finding Your Voice, Les throws a hand grenade into the marshes of dull writing. Not only does he give you permission to be yourself when you write, he SHOUTS that you must!Many a non-published writer constructs barriers to getting published because of an ailment he tags as a "writerly" style. Such writing, he says, stems from trying to write like someone else, or by adhering to some "acceptable standard." All this expenditure of energy and effort not only kills creativity, it drowns out the writer's own voice. It's akin to attempting to draw something via tracing. Successful and effective writing-as in drawing a picture--occurs as the artist surrenders to the freedom of instinct and free-form."Voice" is rooted in individuality and PERSONALITY. He points out that readers aren't looking for Hemingway when they pick up your book -- they're looking for you! If they have a hankering for Hemingway, they'll seek out Hemingway. The reader who picks up your book wants to meet you, and they will do just that as you let go and allow your personality to permeate the pages. As a result, reader and writer take off on some joint venture. The experience is far more gratifying for the reader than reading mere dead words. His book effortlessly exemplifies the very things he espouses. For instance, far from being obscure himself, Les exudes personality-HIS PERSONALITY-on every page. He's transparently friendly, intelligent, witty and totally likable. It seems possible to reach right through the pages and shake his hand. You know this man--he's a new friend. Finding Your Voice is also a font of abundant and invaluable tidbits. For one thing, Les illuminates the techniques and usages that appeal to our culture today, and that invariably attract editors and agents.His book is informative, entertaining, and freeing. Get out there and get it!

An entertaining and insightful guide to effective writing

Finding Your Voice entertains while it educates, providing writers with invaluable advice in language that is clear, colorful, and candid. The book has so much personality it almost seems alive and about to leap off the bookshelf -- no one but author Les Edgerton could have penned this particular how-to. Advice is delivered in chapters rich with examples and anecdotes to illustrate Edgerton's key message: that the attempt to "sound like a writer" often results in stiff, self-conscious prose -- and that writers should write to express, not impress. An excellent and useful addition to any writer's bookshelf.