Edgerton - Finding Your Voice: How to Put Personality in Your Writing

Finding Your Voice

how to putpersonality in your writing

by Les Edgerton

Blue Skies Books, 2012

FindingYour Voice: How to Put Personality in Your Writing . Copyright 2003 by Les Edgerton. Manufactured in the United States of America. All rights reserved.No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic ormechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems withoutpermission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quotebrief passages in a review. Published by Writer's DigestBooks, an imprint of F +W Publications, Inc., 4700 East Galbraith Road,Cincinnati, Ohio 45236. (800) 289-0963. First edition.

Published as an ebook by Blue Skies Books, 2012. Second edition.

Visit Les Edgertons blog site athttp://www.lesedgertononwriting.blogspot.com/ for information on the author.

08 07 06 05 6 5 4 3

Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Edgerton, Leslie.

Finding your voice: how to putpersonality in your writing / Les Edgerton.

p . cm.

ISBN1-58297-174-9 ( alk . paper)ISBN 1-58297-173-0 ( pbk .: alk . paper)
1. Authorship. 2. Creative writing. I. Title
PN147.E28 2003
808'.02dc21 2002191020

Ebook cover design by Bo Goff.

Permissions

On Writing Well , copyright 1976, 1980, 1985, 1988, 1990,1994, 1998, by William K. Zinsser. Reprinted by permission of the author.

The Woman Warrior , by Maxine Hong Kingston, copyright 1975,1976 by Maxine Hong Kingston. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House,Inc.

Autobiography of a Face , by Patricia Vecchione . Copyright 1994 by Lucy Grealy . Reprinted by permission ofHoughton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter , by Mario Vargas Llosa ,published by Farrar Straus & Giroux, copyright Feb. 1991. Reprinted inpaperback by Viking Penguin 1995.

Power Lines , by Jane Bradley, published by University of Arkansas Press, copyright Oct. 1989.

Living Doll , by Jane Bradley, published by The Permanent Press, Sag Harbor, NY.Copyright Sept. 1995.

Kaffir Boy , by Mark Mathabane . Reprinted with permissionof Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster from Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane . Copyright 1986 byMark Mathabane .

PetPeeves, from Waitingby Bruce Griffin Henderson, copyright 1995 by Bruce Griffin Henderson. Used by permission of Dutton Signet, adivision of Penguin Putnam Inc.

Paisley Girl , by Fran Gordon, published by St. Martin'sPress, copyright Oct. 1999.

Nature Lessons , by Lynette Brasfeld ,published by St. Martin's Press, copyright April 2003.

Carrie , by Stephen King. Used by permission of Doubleday. Reprint copyright Nov.1993.

Sanctuary , by William Faulkner, published by Random House, Inc., copyright Dec. 1993.

And the Desert Shall Blossom , by Phyllis Barber, Salt Lake City: TheUniversity of Utah Press, 1991, page 11.

Kindred , by Octavia E. Butler. Used by permission of Octavia E. Butler.

Jesus Christ'sHalf-Brother Is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservation from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight inHeaven, copyright 1993 by Sherman Alexie . Usedby permission of Grove/ Atlantic, Inc.

Scruples II , by Judith Krantz , copyright 1986 byJudith Krantz . Used by permission of Crown Publishers, a division of Random House,Inc.

Home Town , by Tracy Kidder, published by Random House, Inc., copyright April1999. Reprinted in paperback by Atria Books copyright May2000.

The Russia House , by John le Carre ,published by Alfred A. Knopf, copyright May 1989. Reprinted in paperback byPocket Books copyright May 2000.

Rainbow Mars , by Larry Niven ,published by Tor Books, copyright March 1999.

Looking for a Ship , by John McPhee ,page 31, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, copyright Aug. 1990. Reprinted in paperback copyrightJuly 1991.

Tracks , by Louise Erdrich , published by HarperPerennial, copyright Sept. 1998.

Going Postal , by Stephen Jaramillo, published by BerkleyPublishing Group, copyright May 1997.

Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Crafi ,by Janet Burroway , published by Harper CollinsCollege Division, copyright 1995.

Write from Life copyright 2002 by Meg Files. Used with permission of Writer's DigestBooks, an imprint of F&W Publications, Inc.

Fiction First Aid copyright 2001 by Raymond Obstfeld . Used with permission of Writer's Digest Books, an imprint of F&WPublications, Inc.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all those who were in my psychic gang backin public school. You know, the kids teachers calledthe Under-achievers. All us poor souls who didn't live upto our promise (whatever that was) or our potential. Which, translated, meant all of those poor slobs who didn't fittheir mold. The daydreamers. Theones who didn't know from kindergarten that selling insurance or beingPresident was their shining goal. That's the gang I was forced into ... and I'm glad I was.

It left myimagination in working order and I trust it did yours, too. After all, it's ourreward for being the daydreamers.

Acknowledgments

A very special note of gratitude to a hulking mouthbreather I only remember as Waldo in the fourth grade in Freeport, Texas, who used toviciously bully my skinny scared butt in front of the other kids. I beganwriting little humorous vignettes about Waldo {he may not have found themhumorous .. . ) and passing them around to myschoolmates, and that had two major effects on my life. Waldo quit bullying mebecause of the resultant public derision and I found out the truly awesomepower of the written word and became a writer. Wherever Waldo is today (prison,I hope) I say, Thanks, creep. I think he learned that old nursery rhyme aboutsticks and stones just isn't true. Words can hurt you.

They can also help.

Alot.

Just ask Waldo.

About the Author

Les Edgerton lives with his wife Mary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where hewrites full-time and teaches creative writing online for Phoenix College andfor a private class. He co-teaches a class on Story Beginnings with authorJenny Milchman for the New York Writers Workshop. Heformerly taught online for the UCLA Writer's Program. For three years, he wasthe Writer-in-Residence for the University of Toledo and for one year for TrineUniversity.

He has two daughtersfrom a former marriage; Britney, who works in the computer industry inLouisville, and Sienna, an artist who lives in Indianapolis and who just gaveLes his first grandson, the cute-as-all-get-out Logan. Les and Marys son Mikelives in Ft. Wayne and attends college for filmmaking and is a barrista at Starbucks and has one of those prized blackaprons. Les writes short stories, articles, essays, novels, nonfiction books,and screenplays. His fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, O.Henry Award, Edgar Allan Poe Award (short story category), Jesse Jones Award,PEN/Faulkner Award, and the Violet Crown Book Award, among others. One of hisscreenplays was a semifnalist in the Academy AwardsFoundation's Nicholl Fellowships and a finalist inthe Writer's Guild's Best American Screenplays competition as well as theBest of Austin competition. His existential novel, THE BITCH, was named theBest Thriller of 2011 by Preditors & Editors, andit was also a nominee for Spinetingler Magazines prestitious Best Novel Award of 2012 (Legends category).

Table ofContents

INTRODUCTION

The importance of writing in your voice and whyto give ourselves amuch better chance of getting published!

CHAPTER ONE

Why Writers Lose Their Original Voices

How da rules take us away from our personal voices. Who Critic Nag Dude isand why he needs to be smacked up alongside his ugly head and locked out of ourwriting spaces. Ways to tell which rules to follow and which to thumb our nosesat. Archaic writinghow to recognize it and thosevoice-crippling so five minutes ago writing techniques. Why synonymscan be dangerous to your (writing) health. The very best wayto learn to write. How to begin to regain your own wonderful voice!