The Two Most Important Things IMHO
When it comes to the craft, no matter what you are writing, there are two things that are worth investing more time developing than any other aspect of craft, number two is 'voice'. 'Voice' is the manner in which you tell the story. The words you choose, the sentence structure, the familiarity you can invoke. It has to be either a voice the reader is used to or a voice that is so compelling it sucks your reader in completely.

I'm quite good at voice. And like all people who are quite good at something, I love it. I love voice too much. I always feel like if I get the voice right, I'm 70% of the way to a great story. I get the impression John Marsden feels this way too. He is an Australian King of voice. Nick Earls is too. They're doing well using great voices. I know this because I have developed a great 'ear' for 'voice'. It looks like most other ears, a couple of piercings, regular shaped lobes, not too big, not too small, not too sticky-outey. I reckon if my 'ear' can learn about 'voice' then it can't be too hard to master.

The reader has to read the story and feel like the protag is speaking using their thought patterns. Writing is not a thing where you try to impress the reader with your prose. Writing is something where you try to show the reader a story using their words. It's a completely giving thing. It is my humble opinion that writing should suck a lot out of a writer. If a writer finds it easy, I immediately suspect that he/she is doing it wrong. Of course, it may just be harder for me than other writers. I'm pretty sure Neil Gaiman writes faster than me, for instance. Of course, he knows people are waiting for what he writes. What I write has to endure months of slogging around looking for a home. That's how it is down here in the doldrumous sea of mid-list writers (is doldrumous a word?).

Things like word choice, tightness, flow, sentence structure, are all very important when trying to get a voice that readers will appreciate and reading great writers is a fantastic way to observe 'voice' in action. You can't get a university degree in 'voice'. It is an intuitive thing. If you have it, you can develop it. The check list in "How to be a Children's Writer' outlines ways to tell if you have an innate knowledge of good 'voice'. If you have 'voice' start paying attention to the way good authors use theirs.

The number one most important thing when it comes to writing is the 'great idea'. It's sad for me. Here I am, all crafty with fantastic 'voice' and I still have to come up with the 'great idea' or it's all for nothing. Sometimes 'great ideas' get published and the author has an off or slightly stilted 'voice'. That's very annoying to me. I know I could write the 'great idea better... but then I didn't come up with the 'great idea'. Let's face it: great 'voice' is something you can develop, great ideas/extrapolation/plots require a higher starting point. But still, they can be developed.

Now the first 100 'great ideas' you dream up will have already been done by someone else. Sad, isn't it? You need to dream up the 100 and 1th 'great idea' or possibly the 200 and 2th 'great idea'. Come on, do you want to be a writer or not? It's not like you're the first person to ever tap on a keyboard! Not only will you have to come up with a rare 'great idea', you'll have to have it in a rare setting, with rare, yet exciting, compelling and somehow familiar characters. Is it too much to ask?

Now, I don't know how other writers do it without using the mediums of speculative fiction. Let's face it, science comes up with a hundred new story ideas a day... it goes where no man has gone before after all... even history and ancient fable reveals a little more of itself every day and the horrors known to man keep increasing and getting messier. Forgive me if I'm being biased, but aren't these all fodder for the speculative fiction writer? I suppose the world is changing so fast there is fodder for comedy, romance and crime fiction as well... okay, I'm genre biased. Anyway, the world provides plenty of opportunities for the next 'great idea', shove it all into your head, let it mix about for a while, and when it regurgitates, all you have to do is combine it with the 'amazing plot' and the 'sensational ending'. Do that and you're 70% of the way to a great story.


Hotel MacDibble Inmates: 4... any minute now...
Projects of the Week: Painting back wall of house
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Reading this week: Poor Cruel Folk - Arkady & Boris Strugatski
Writing this week: Oubliette (a children's ghost story based on a true story)

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