Since I am taking a creative writing class as an independent study, I was able to choose some of my own reading material, and one of the books that interested me is How to Read Like a Writer by Francine Prose. I have come to be convinced in the past few months about the importance of reading a lot and reading a lot of different stuff as an important part of the writing procese; this is a point that Prose emphasizes.
In that process of reading and writing, I think one of the most valuable lessons I learned from Reading Like a Writer is about the freedom of expression we have in writing. As I have picked up writing again in the past few years, one of my biggest struggles has been about trying to write in the appealing way that other people write. And it’s been difficult because many of those people–people whose writing I really respect and admire and even, at time, think is brilliant–write in a way that I don’t write and I have never written.
This is not to say that I haven’t learned from the influence, but Prose helped me to understand that writers write in vastly different ways with vastly different voices, and while someone might suggest a “rule” that should never be broken, another might break that rule and do it well in a way that seems to be the most appropriate thing that could have been done. (Of course the challenge is in doing this well so that it is appropriate.)
All of this is to say that I have felt a lot of freedom in my writing lately, so instead of being stuck because I’m not sure if what I’m writing sort of fits into the mold of expectation or even trendiness (tsk!), I am finding a voice.
