New Voices and Voice
First off, I want to extend big, major kudos and best wishes to all who have entered the New Voices competition. You guys rock, and having the guts to put your work out there in that setting is a huge, huge thing!!
Second, I was completely thrilled to get some messages this morning, both in my inbox and on twitter, letting me know that my beautiful and fabulous editor, Jenny Hutton, had done a video for New Voices about standing out in slush…and that she’d mentioned me!
It was cool for me to hear her side of things, to hear what she sees when she looks at my work. 🙂
She says something in the video about not being afraid to write in your own voice. And I really wanted to add a big YES to that. Voice is what separates one writer from another, in so many ways. And a big way to stand out from slush is to have a distinct, unique, voice.
I’m very American. Can’t help it. Just am. More and more, there are more American writers for Presents/Modern, so that’s not quite as different as it once was, but between US/UK/Irish/Australian/NZ writers, there’s a natural difference in pattern and sentence structure. One that I really enjoy. 🙂
Another thing is…have you ever seen Bill Engval? The comedian? He did a show called ’15 Degrees Off Cool’ where he was talking about how he tries to be cool, but he’s always about 15 degrees off. I consider my humor to be about 15 degrees off normal. More and more, I’ve embraced that as a writer and gone with the occasional joke that’s just a little…quirky.
We all have things that make us different as writers, and the point is that you have to embrace the things that make your voice unique, not try to streamline it so that you ‘sound’ just like someone else.
Anyway, now that I’ve rambled, here’s the video of Jenny talking about how to stand out from the slush pile:
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Brilliant Maisey, you have to download that file and keep it forever!
I wish I knew how, Susan! 🙁 I was so pleased to see the video this morning! I had no idea. 😀
But haven’t I told you all I have the most wonderful editor? I do. 😀
Jenny totally rocks and so do you. Your humour is fab in your books and is absolutely unique. I love it!
Thanks, Jackie. 🙂 I particularly liked that Jenny called me young. 😀
I love your humor too. Really. Your books always make me laugh out loud. (so much, I typed it out!)
Ditto what Jackie said. I get a kick out of the quirky, bring it ;). I hope Haven got extra brownie points for commenting first on youtube, very impressive!
Oh did he? **blushes** I didn’t even realize!!
And I’m glad you like quirky…speaking of…goodness Lacey your chapter on NV is REALLY something! So well-written!
He’s such a good hubby.
Aww thanks for saying such nice things about my chapter Maisey. That means so much 🙂
Watched the video last night and just grinned for you!!! Also meant to say I finally read your book this week – great stuff. And ordered a copy of your next one from Book Depository. I usually read most books on my eReader but just loved that cover so much I had to have it in my greedy little hands!
x
It’s all true, Lacey!! And yes, Haven is a wonderful hubby. 🙂
Thanks and thanks again, Rach!! I’m so glad you enojyed it! Enough to buy the second book too!! (and especially on the cover for book two, I so agree. It’s gorgeous!)