I’m struggling a little with Bend of the River. I’m afraid in my efforts to make it all things to all people, it’s become muddled and choppy. I see many re-writes and reconsiderations in my future, but for now I have to re-find my author’s voice.
You see, I thought that maybe I should try another project for a while, one that would be more mainstream (because let’s face it, my stories are not exactly mainstream). But as I tried to come up with new ideas, I found myself completely confounded. That’s when I faced the truth. I have to tell the stories I have to tell. They may find an audience–I certainly hope so–or they may not. However, these are my characters and these are their stories and every other attempt at a creation of substance is futile.
So I’ve come back to my original motivation to write. You see, each of us has a unique voice, the one that we write with that is unlike anyone else’s. Obvious? So you say, but no, not always. It is so easy to get caught up in the need to publish and sell that a writer can forget that he or she is here to add something to the canon of literature that has never existed before. There are genres, types and archetypes, but what we do with them is the thing that sets our places in this world apart from every other person who has ever lived.
And so my cup of coffee and I sit here at the computer on this Sunday morning and contemplate my unique voice.
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