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What is Meant by the Writer’s Voice?

Voice in literary fiction is one of those intangible qualities that separate the artist from the craftsman. It is something no one can teach us, either to develop in our own writing or to recognize in the writing of others, because it is such an individual thing. It is the manifestation of a person on the page, and exists only in the writing of those for whom the pen or the keyboard transmits the soul. Voice is an audible quality, as if the writer himself were present in the room engaging our attention Read more [...]

The Great Canards of Creative Writing

Write What You Know Having read reams of online slush, I have labored through numerous manuscripts that give the lie to the principle of Write What You Know. IMHO, it leads to a lot of writing about mundane daily routines, what might be called the workplace novel, or perhaps, the house spouse novel, that could not be more atrocious as literary fiction. I cannot tell you how many novels I have glanced at that begin with waking up in the morning and getting breakfast together, or arriving at work Read more [...]