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For as long as there has been printed literature, there’s been an ongoing debate on the merits of Literature versus Popular Fiction. The definitions of what each is are very murky. What was considered Pop Fic during its own time period (Shakespeare, Austen, the Brontës, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, etc.) is studied as classic Literature in high-school and college classrooms across the country. Is that to say that a century from now, Grisham, King, Rowling, Grafton, Patterson, and Steele will be studied as classic literature of the 20th/21st centuries? Who knows. What I do know is that it’s time for the entire Literary vs. Pop Fic debate to end.

In 2003, as I drew close to finishing my undergrad degree, I was in quite a quandary. I wanted to go to graduate school to pursue a Master’s in Creative Writing. The problem was the only programs I knew anything about all focused on writing Literary fiction . . . the same mindset that led me to dropping out of LSU, where I had been majoring in CW. I even sent out some tentative queries to the heads of a few programs that looked most promising—and after a few e-mail exchanges, when they learned that not only did I write romance, but inspirational romance, I was basically told I would never be a good enough writer to get into their programs. Which was okay with me, because I didn’t want their narrow ideas of what creative writing is to corrupt my writing and my unique voice (which I had been developing through attending writing conferences and being a member of ACRW—now ACFW).

Then, one day, I was reading an article about graduate CW programs across the country and saw a quote from Dr. Lee McClain, program director of the Master of Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill University. Within six months, I was starting the program.

But even in the wonderfully supportive environment at Seton Hill, where I would sit in workshops and have my inspirational romance critiqued by horror, sci-fi, mystery, and other genre writers, the debate between what the difference in Literary and Pop Fic really is continued to rage. Many of my classmates had the same experience I did with being soundly rejected by traditional CW graduate programs across the country as not “good enough.”

So what are the differences? Well, according to most CW programs, Literary fiction is all about the art, about the language, about the expression of ideas. Pop Fic is about writing something to fit a formula in an effort to make money. Or, in other words, Literary fiction is high-brow and read by people who wish to improve themselves, while Pop Fic is low-brow and read by people who only want to indulge in the base desire for entertainment. According to Pop Fic writers, the difference is that we focus on story, on plot, on craft, while those writing Literary fiction don’t care about any of those three things and just write a bunch of angsty, navel-gazing drivel. Shall the twain ever meet?

In the January 2008 edition of The Writer magazine, there are several pieces on this debate.

In “Loot vs. literature: Genre and literary fiction,” Chuck Leddy points out that “most of the authors on today’s bestseller lists are writers of genre fiction.” He feels that this debate between Literary vs. Pop Fic has created an “elitist” perception of fiction. He also believes that the reading public is “schizophrenic” when it comes to choosing what we read:

. . . The major awards, the Pulitzers, the Nobels, the National Book Awards, have traditionally gone to literary authors like Updike, Roth, etc., authors who are regarded as artists, as opposed to genre “hacks” who regularly entertain millions of readers. As a literary culture, we are, alas, schizophrenic. If a novel sells millions of copies, it’s often considered inferior. “Art” is the preserve of the enlightened few.”

Leddy goes on to point out what I have—that authors considered “hacks” in their own time are now considered great artists, because they were great storytellers whether or not they were writing genre fiction.

The schizophrenia that has fostered the false dichotomy between art and commerce should end. Commercial success isn’t a curse, nor obscurity a perverse badge of honor.

About twenty pages later, there’s another article, this one by Joshua Henkin entitled “Letter to a (naïve) MFA student” in which he tries to debunk many of the long-held (but false) beliefs that students entering and graduating from most traditional MFA programs hold. And he should know, he teaches in the MFA programs at Sarah Lawrence and Brooklyn colleges.

The reluctance [to focus on plot] appears in various guises, but it comes down to the same thing: a belief, sometimes articulated, sometimes not, that storytelling is what hack writers do—it’s the territory of Grisham and Crichton—and that to think about plot is beneath them, because they write literary fiction. Meanwhile, the Grishams and Crichtons of the world are laughing all the way to the bank. . . . It would behoove [MFA students] to take seriously what writers of genre fiction know to take seriously: the need to tell a story.

I, personally, am of the opinion (as are many of the alumni of the SHU WPF program) that literary fiction is a genre . . . that it, like all genres, falls under the massive umbrella of “fiction”—that no writers have the right to say what they write is any better than any other type of fiction.

What the authors of the articles in The Writer failed to mention, which I have been thinking about for a while now, is that there has become such a divide between Pop Fic and Literary, we’ve lost sight of what we can teach each other. I’ve heard people at conferences (Pop Fic/genre conferences) say that they’re afraid their writing may be too literary. But I think this is an area where Pop Fic can improve.

At genre-focused conferences, we hear so much about craft—about paying attention to showing vs. telling, preferring active verbs, limiting the amount of description we use, not to use superfluous or over-blown language, etc. The problem with this is that we’re homogenizing what’s being put out. Sure, there are great stories being published, but are we guilty of de-literarizing popular fiction and widening the gap? Are we dumbing down Pop Fic as the literati have been accusing us of for generations? I do know that we are losing authors’ unique voices in the rush to focus so much on craft and making sure that every new author coming up through the ranks applies every single rule that’s ever been made about writing Pop Fic to their own work . . . to the detriment of genre fiction.

So many Pop Fic authors (especially unpublished, or whose work hasn’t sold well) complain about the lack of craft of authors who are on the bestseller lists. They didn’t follow the rules. They head-hop. Their character development is poor. They use passive verb forms all over the place. They include tons of backstory. They have flashbacks (gasp!). They tell what’s going on, or what happened earlier. And yet they’re on the bestseller list. Why?

Because they told a good story with their own unique writing style. Would Charles Dickens be considered the gold-standard for 19th century literature if he’d followed all of those rules? No, of course not. His writing would be just like ever other author’s writing. It’s because of the way he wrote his stories that they have stood the test of time. He didn’t try to emulate anyone else. He just wrote. Same with Jane Austen. Same with Henry James. Same with every other author we had to study in literature classes.

Does that mean we scrap the rules and just write however we want? No, again. Knowing the rules of POV, showing vs. telling, plotting, and the other elements of craft can only strengthen our skills and abilities to tell a good story. But we should never allow those rules to constrain our voices, to rob the unique way we have of saying something.

So let’s start closing the gap. Yes, study craft. Learn the rules. Build your writing skill . . . but don’t lose your voice by doing so. Study classic literature as well as modern Literary fiction, just as aspiring artists study Michelangelo and Monet and O’Keefe and Warhol. Don’t eschew description or poetic language as “too literary” for your Pop Fic piece. And don’t ignore good storytelling and developing a strong plot for your Literary work. We’re all part of the same family of fiction, and we need to start learning from each other.

How well do you write in the male and female viewpoints?

“Inspired by an article and a test in The New York Times Magazine, the Gender Genie uses a simplified version of an algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and Shlomo Argamon, Illinois Institute of Technology, to predict the gender of an author.”

The Gender Genie will test a 500+ word sample of your prose (longer is better) and tell you whether it has been written by a male or female.

So I entered the first three pages of William’s opening scene in Ransome’s Honor:

Words: 632
Female Score: 563
Male Score: 647
The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!

Yay! The voice of William’s viewpoint is masculine!

Let’s try the first three pages of Julia’s opening scene:

Words: 636
Female Score: 963
Male Score: 714
The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: female!

Apparently in Julia’s viewpoint, I’ve used both masculine and feminine words with higer points values, as the total scores are higher, but I’m pretty proud of the fact that a computer has confirmed that I’m on track with really getting inside my characters’ heads in this story. It’s also good to see that my word choice apparently changes when I switch viewpoints, resulting in the difference in total scores.

How does your writing come out? Are your hero’s scenes too feminine? Read over the list of “Masculine Keywords” the Gender Genie gives along with your score. Can you incorporate more of those words and fewer of the “Feminine Keywords”? If you’ve written different genres, try comparing scenes from each. What do you learn about your writing?

I’ve got a bunch of stuff at home to try out on this thing this weekend!

I think somewhere back in my education, I took some kind of bookkeeping or accounting course—or maybe it was in a math class. What I do vaguely remember learning is the concept of simple versus compound interest. Now, I know it’s more complex than this, but here’s my understanding of it:

Simple Interest: Interest accrues only on the original amount of the debt.

Compound Interest: Interest accrues not only on the original amount, but on the growing total as interest that is not paid off builds up each month (or whatever the debt’s term is).

Now, I know most writers have just read this and thought—eew, I didn’t come here to read about economics.

WAIT! Before you click away, lemme ’splain what I’m talking about.

When we write, every time we introduce a question or a conflict to the story, we are incurring what’s known as narrative debt—in other words, we are building up toward the payoff at the end in the climax, where all of the reader’s expectations will be (or should be) paid in full. When we incur this debt, we have two choices when it comes to the “interest” that goes along with it: simple or compound.

With simple narrative interest, the debt is paid off by the end of the scene/chapter—in other words, the question is answered, the conflict managed/solved before the next chapter starts. The lost dog is found, the contract on the house comes through, the long-anticipated event goes well.

But the underlying foundation of most plots is compound narrative interest—some conflicts or questions linger and the interest compiles and compiles until you have to pay it off or risk losing your reader. This is like maxing out a credit card and then only paying the minimum payment each month. Yes, you’re keeping your account alive and in “good standing” but you’re not paying it off. It’s a big debt-monster sitting there waiting to devour . . . wait, this is about writing, sorry—flashbacks.

Take, for instance, the Suspense genre. Not only are there going to be breathtaking, spine-chilling scenes where our heroes or heroines are in peril, but then—whew!—are safe again, there is an undertone—a compounding interest—of unease or fear that pervades the entire narrative. Even when things seem to be going well, the reader can sense something isn’t quite right. This can be done through tone—through the words the writer chooses to use in the narrative (see my series on Showing vs. Telling for more hints on how to do this). It’s like the duh-dut, duh-dut of the theme song for the movie Jaws. When first watching the movie, you may not even notice the score. But then subconsciously, every time that music starts, you know something bad is going to happen.

Even though we want to avoid both of them in real life, in writing we want both types of interest—the simple interest to keep the reader satisfied with little payoffs that keep the story moving forward, along with the compound interest that keeps the reader turning pages because they have to find out how the ultimate debt of the story will be paid off.

As we solve conflicts or answer questions in our narrative, we should always keep in mind how these solutions/answers feed into the compounding narrative debt. The best way to do this is to create new conflicts or questions with the resolution of the one that came before. If the heroine gets out of one scrape, the escape may create two new ones down the road.

Unlike in life, in writing incurring debt is a good thing. Just like in life, paying it off is a very good thing.

Please make welcome Linda Windsor, Bryan Davis, and Robert Elmer.

Linda Windsor has written quite a collection of historical and contemporary romances as both Linda Windsor and Linda Covington. Windsor’s historical novels are known for her distinctive voice and flair for incorporating history with romance and adventure, while her contemporary romantic comedies are guaranteed to warm the heart, lift the spirit, and tickle the funny bone. One reader commented, “Be sure to keep tissues handy. I laughed so hard I had to keep wiping off my glasses.” Windsor insists that nothing is more entertaining than life itself, be it past or present. Linda’s newest writing venture is The Piper Cove Chronicles with Avon Publishing’s new Avon Inspire romance line. Wedding Bell Blues releases in July 2007.

Bryan Davis is the author of the four-book Dragons in Our Midst series, a contemporary/fantasy blend for young people. The first book, Raising Dragons, was released in July of 2004. The second book, The Candlestone, followed in October. Circles of Seven debuted in April of 2005, followed in November by Tears of a Dragon. Bryan is the author of several other works including The Image of a Father (AMG) and Spit and Polish for Husbands (AMG), and four books in the Arch Books series: The Story of Jesus’ Baptism and Temptation, The Day Jesus Died, The Story of the Empty Tomb (over 100,000 sold), and Jacob’s Dream. Bryan lives in Winter Park, Florida with his wife, Susie, and their children. Please visit Bryan’s website for more information on his books: http://www.dragonsinourmidst.com/

When Robert Elmer was in grade school, he created a family newspaper and wrote essays for fun. In high school, Robert took every writing class available. His parents, both from Denmark, passed along a love of language and books. Writing naturally came from that kind of environment. Right out of college, Robert did some freelance writing, some public relations/admissions work for Simpson College, and served as an assistant pastor at a church in Olympia, WA. He worked as a reporter and an editor in the community newspaper business for four years before going back to school in California to pursue a teaching career. After not landing a teaching job in Washington, Robert became a copy writer for an advertising agency. He now works full time writing and speaking. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, Ronda. Robert also serves on the editorial board of the Jerry Jenkins Christian Writers Guild and as a mentor for young writers. His most recent release is The Recital, from WaterBrook Press.

WPWT: How did you find your unique writing voice? Did you struggle to find it or did it come easily to you?
LW: I read and read and read historicals, which were my first published works. don’t recall ‘finding’ my voice. It just happened. I think it was a base of the voices or prose of authors I loved, hewn by my own. The same thing applied to my contemporary voice, which is totally different. I read favorite authors, watched contemporary TV shows to keep my dialogue current, and, I suppose, when I put them together with my inspiration, the result was my voice. I never really obsessed with a voice per se. I simply wrote the story in the best way I knew how.

RE: I think it’s a hard thing for a writer to accurately identify their own “voice,” easier to identify someone else’s. Ever heard yourself in a recording and think “That’s not me, is it?” Same way with writing. Other people recognize it more easily than we do ourselves. That said, I think I have a slightly different take on “voice,” because I’ve spent years imitating other people’s voices as an advertising copywriter. In advertising, my job was to discover the best of what other people had to say (usually about their products or services) and then present it to the public in the way they would have said it, only better. I think that’s a good exercise; in fact, I have all my young writing students in the Jerry Jenkins Christian Writers Guild do the same thing. I have never worried much about finding my own voice, since I’ve always believed writers should be able to write with many different voices, depending on the occasion and the audience. That doesn’t mean we compromise the integrity of our message, only that we learn to offer that message with different packaging.

WPWT: How would you describe your unique writing voice? What is it that you do to make sure your writing “sounds like” you?
LW: I would say that my own quirky personality and sense of humor/mischief invades my characters, especially my heroines, and hence, my voice. Add my imagination to the above and heaven only knows what will happen. On the more serious side, my personal experiences with life, chemical depression, parenting, Mars vs Venus, and faith come into play.

RE: Whoops. I think I dipped into this next question in my answer to the last one. But I suppose that if left to my own devices, my writing voice comes out slightly more conversational. I try to make it flow easily from one paragraph to the next, to sound like a good friend relating a heartfelt story. Although I don’t usually write in first person, I do try to make the narrative language sound as if it originates with the third person viewpoint character, or at least hint at the connection. If it sounds like them — whether it’s a 60-year-old New York piano teacher or a 12-year-old Danish boy, then it sounds like me. The voice comes through when the reader connects with their heart, and that’s what I’m after.

WPWT: What advice would you give to beginning/intermediate writers to help them find and develop their unique writing voice?
LW: Read voraciously in all types of genres, watch good TV shows for the writing and dialogue, take notes on what you like or admire–memory triggers, not a word for word to copy–and let your personality and imagination do the rest. It’s part magic, part miracle. I had a friend question me when I told him God wrote the greatest scene yesterday in a current project. He asked, “How do you know it was God and not you?” To which I replied, “Because He’s a better writer than me.” Nuff said.

RE: Build up your bag of tricks by listening to speech patterns of different characters, and then imitating them. Write down the expressions people use. Listen to waitresses or other locals when you travel, and try to pick up on regional differences — such as they are, any more. Pay attention to what makes people laugh and cry, what makes them worry or what angers them. Know your audience. Then, as your story allows, build in those unique linguistic and emotional spices in your own writing. In the end, though, don’t worry about finding or developing a unique voice. Don’t try to copy someone else’s written voice; that will usually backfire. But any time you focus on the heart, on the deepest emotions of your characters, the voice will emerge. When you stay true to the story and to those characters, the voice will find you. I don’t mean that to sound mystical, only that voice is a byproduct of stories well done.

Please make welcome Camy Tang, Gail Martin, and Shelley Bates.

Camy Tang grew up in Wahiawa, Hawai’i, a small town right in the center of the island of O’ahu. She’s loved to write ever since Junior High, and after putting it aside for several years, picked up her pen once again in 2003. She is now active in American Christian Fiction Writers and the Faith, Hope and Love chapter of RWA. “My writing has been heavily influenced by my interests: reading and action/adventure movies and shows. I am addicted to the TV show 24, and will watch anything with Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat and Jackie Chan.” Outside of writing, Camy and her husband and are staff workers with the youth group at Santa Clara Valley Japanese Christian Church. Camy is a contributing editor for Rubyzine, an online Christian magazine for teenage girls. Camy’s first book, Sushi for One? (Zondervan) hits bookstore shelves in September 2007.

Gail Martin’s first inspirational romance was published by HeartSong Presents/Barbour Publishing Inc. Seasons was released in November 1998 with another published in May the following year. In 1999, she sold her first novel to Steeple Hill for Love Inspired, and her career was on a roll. Gail has now sold numerous category romances—both romance and romantic suspense. In 2002, she sold my first single title to Steeple Hill’s Women’s Fiction line, and has recently sold a third to them. Gail is also a columnist for the ezine Spirit-Led Writer and has written over twenty programs and skits for adults and children to be used in churches or Christian schools. Before writing, Gail taught English and public speaking at a local high school and later became a guidance counselor. She retired in 1995 and worked as a part-time English/public speaking instructor at Davenport University. Gail’s latest title, The Christian Romance will be released from Writer’s Digest Books in December 2007.

Whether typing search warrants and making undercover phone calls as an admin for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or editing marketing material for the high-tech industry in Silicon Valley, Shelley Bates has found that everyone has a story. Most people have stopped telling her theirs in case she puts them in her books. Shelley has a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California at Santa Cruz and an M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania. She sold her master’s thesis to Harlequin after she graduated in 2002, and it subsequently became a double finalist in the 2004 National Readers Choice Awards.
Grounds to Believe, her debut novel from Steeple Hill Books and the first book in her Elect Trilogy, won the 2005 RITA Award for Best Inspirational Novel of the Year from the Romance Writers of America. The second book in the trilogy, Pocketful of Pearls, released in 2005, and the last book, A Sounding Brass, released summer 2006. Her latest release is Over Her Head (May 2007). She is contracted for six books for the Christian teen market over 2007 and 2008. Between books, Shelley enjoys playing the piano and Celtic harp, making historical costumes, and spoiling her chickens rotten.

WPWT: How did you find your unique writing voice? Did you struggle to find it or did it come easily to you?
CT: Both, actually. When I first started writing, my voice was very muted because I didn’t understand what a writer’s voice was. Then I started to realize that each writer needs to let her natural “voice” come out in order to distinguish herself from every other writer out there. If you pick up an Amy Tan book, you can tell the writer’s voice is very different from Helen Fielding’s (Bridget Jones). You’d never mistake one for the other. I wanted my voice to be distinctive like that. Once I figured that out, I let go of all inhibitions and wrote exactly how I wanted to write, regardless of rules, etc. I fixed things up in revisions, but my voice was there on the page, uninhibited and uncensored. Now, I make sure I always write with my voice, whether in fiction, or articles, or my blog (practice makes perfect, after all). I firmly believe it’s a very important part of being a good writer–to have a unique voice that will appeal to an editor, and your readers.

SB: I wrote a lot of pages … a couple of thousand of them … before I sold my first book. There comes a point at which a writer stops being derivative of all the other authors she’s read, and is so comfortable with craft and structure that the words going onto the page are her own. For me, I stopped hearing the voices of my favorite authors and just put myself on the page. Which is a bit of a risk, but one you must take.

WPWT: How would you describe your unique writing voice? What is it that you do to make sure your writing “sounds like” you?
CT: My voice is a bit breezy, rather irreverent, and I try to always keep it honest and open. In the course of writing all my manuscripts that DIDN’T sell, I figured out what my voice “sounds” like. It really was a matter of just trial and error, and lots of practice. Writing with my voice is a very conscious effort. It doesn’t just come out whenever I write. I have to make sure I keep it in mind when I’m writing, or else it’ll be muted. I think a lot of writers assume it just “flows” out, but that’s not the case with me. I have to deliberately write in my voice. It’s something I work to do for every chapter I write. It’s not difficult or a struggle, but it’s definitely something I have to constantly keep in my mind.

SB: This is as difficult as hearing yourself on your answering machine. I always go, “Is that really me?” because what you hear in your head isn’t the same. Voice is a little like that. When you listen to Jenny Crusie or Barbara Samuel give a talk, they speak with the same voice that’s on their pages, only on the page it’s distilled into this wonderful liqueur with its own unique flavor. Barbara has a really useful worksheet on how to discover your voice at http://www.barbarasamuel.com/columns-17.html. We may as well learn from the masters!
WPWT: Shelley, how do you remain true to your writing voice when you write in different genres? Was it hard to transition from Women’s Fiction to YA?
SB: It wasn’t hard to transition, but I think the voices are a little different because the audience expectations are different. At the same time, I need to stay uniquely myself. My women’s fiction is more leisurely and I take more time to delve into the characters. In the YA, by virtue of the reading audience, the pace is fast and I develop characters through dialogue and experience rather than through internal monologue. But an author’s way of thinking and perceiving the world still comes through, no matter what genre she’s writing in. You can recognize the values of Suzanne Brockmann, for instance, whether she writes SEAL adventures or Regency spies (not that she’s ever written a Regency spy, but I bet she’d be really good at it).

WPWT: What advice would you give to beginning/intermediate writers to help them find and develop their unique writing voice?
One really good book is Finding Your Writer’s Voice by Thaisa Frank and Dorothy Wall. Not all the exercises resonated with me, but the majority of them are great for helping a writer to discover their writing voice. It’ll also help a writer develop their voice and bring it out with much less writing than I did to develop my voice (I mean, it took me 3 or 4 entire manuscripts!), because the exercises are so targeted. And like I said before, practice makes perfect. Strive to develop your voice with everything you write.

SB: Learn your craft (pacing, story structure, character
arc) so well that you don’t have to think about it when you write. Let those things process in the back of your brain so that the words can bubble freely on the front burners. And when you’re describing something, don’t settle for the first cliché that comes to mind. Use something out of your own experience or history. I remember reading a description of a woman’s face where, instead of saying she was “white as a sheet,” the author said “her eyes looked like two holes burned in a blanket.” Now, that not only gives a great description and develops that character, it’s a very earthy and concrete image that you could see coming from someone’s experience or family roots. That’s what helps to build your voice

Please make welcome MaryLu Tyndall and Kristy Dykes.

MaryLu Tundall spent her early years in South Florida. After graduating from San Jose State, she worked for a software company, got married, started a family, and began pursuing a career in writing. MaryLu now writes full time and lives in California with her husband and six children. She is breaking ground in the category of Pirate Romances with her first two novels, The Redemption and The Reliance.

A former newspaper columnist, Kristy Dykes is an award-winning author of 10 Christian fiction titles as well as over 600 articles in many publications including two New York Times subsidiaries. Her titles have been on the Christian bestsellers list and the Top 20 List at christianbook.com. She’s won many awards including Third Place in the 2006 Book of the Year Contest, presented by American Christian Fiction Writers, for “Reunited” in Wedded Bliss?, a Barbour 4-in-1. Kristy was voted to the 2004 Favorite New Authors List for HeartSong Presents. She writes a column for the ezine of the inspirational chapter of Romance Writers of America. She’s taught at many conferences and two colleges and enjoys speaking for women’s and writers’ events. Kristy lives in Florida, with her hero husband, Milton, a pastor. She’d love to hear from you: kristydykes@aol.com. Read her blog: http://christianlovestories.blogspot.com

WPWT: How did you find your unique writing voice? Did you struggle to find it or did it come easily to you?
MT: It came very easy to me. By definition, if you have a unique writing voice (which everyone does) you should already possess it and not need to work at acquring it. If you are struggling to find it, I suggest that you stop struggling, let go of other people’s expectations and all rules and just write from your heart. That’s where you’ll find your voice.

KD: Voice is something that is developed, generally speaking. Through my mind are running multitudinous author interviews I’ve read and gleaned from, and for the most part, this is what they say: that voice “finally” comes… I think I’m in the developing stage. I have 10 titles with Barbour, both Heartsong Presents novels and novellas in 4-in-1 collections. They’re all romances, with one exception, which is contemporary women’s fiction—my novella, Reunited,” in Wedded Bliss?, which won Third Place in the 2006 Book of the Year Contest, novella category, presented by American Christian Fiction Writers. My unpublished works are women’s fiction, both contemporary and historical, with strong romantic elements. I call them Christian love stories, and that’s what I titled my blog: http://christianlovestories.blogspot.com Everybody loves a love story, as the old saying goes. I certainly do. My latest WIP has some suspense-type elements, which was surprising to me, but they create conflict, which is so vital to a story. As I’m writing this story, I’m so exhilarated. I keep thinking, ‘This is it!’ My daughter and I were talking the other day about the plot of this story, and she said, “Mom, God made you a writer so you can write this story!” That made me tear up. I think I’ve at last found my voice!

WPWT: How would you describe your unique writing voice? What is it that you do to make sure your writing “sounds like” you?
MT: I would describe my voice as a very engaging voice–one that thrusts the reader into the surroundings, feelings, and actions of the story. Again, I don’t feel I have to try and sound like me. I just write what’s on my heart and phrase things the way that seem best to be.

KD: Whew. I’m glad you asked this because I just re-read my answer, above, and thought, Oh, no, I was focusing on genre more than voice. But really, the two go hand in hand. Your question is interesting. I’m not sure I do anything. I think voice just flows out of an author. It’s a compilation of their life experiences, the people around them, the events they’ve attended, the books they’ve read and gleaned from, how they were raised, what part of the country they’re from/live in, what spiritual experiences they’ve had, and more. It’s the sum total of “you.” I’ve written hundreds of published articles. I stopped counting at 600. My mother-in-law was reading an article in a magazine recently, and she thought, ‘This sounds just like Kristy,’ and she quickly glanced at the byline, and sure enough, it was me. Voice is not only the sum total of “you,” it’s even how you cast sentences. In my fiction, I tend to write long sentences. But I balance that with short sentences. And run-on sentences. And creative paragraphing. And other stylistic treatments. As far as “my” voice, I seek to do several things. One, I want to do what Charles Dickens said: “Make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait.” Two, I want to “put a smile on your face, a tear in your eye, and a glow in your heart.”

WPWT: What advice would you give to beginning/intermediate writers to help them find and develop their unique writing voice?
MT: Stop fighting it. Stop looking for your voice. Turn off everyone’s advice and opinions. Ignore the rules of writing for awhile. Put on some of your favorite music. Pray for the Lord to reveal to you the unique voice He’s given you, and then write from your heart!

KD: 1) Keep writing. Look for writing opportunities. Articles. Short fiction. Long fiction. Be thankful for writing opportunities. I’m so grateful to Barbour for letting me write for them. As a way of thanks and also because she is so deserving, I nominated, via a letter of praise, Rebecca Germany of Barbour for Fiction Editor of the Year, and she won! This was awarded by Advanced Writers and Speakers Association in 2004. 2) Keep studying the craft of fiction. Maybe it’s because I’m of the studious nature, but I constantly study technique, craft, writing by gifted authors, etc. 3) Read in your genre and out of your genre. Be well rounded in your reading. Novels of all types. Biographies. Self-help. History. And more.

Please make welcome Louise Gouge and Randy Ingermanson.

In 1986, Louise Gouge started college the same semester as her oldest child—talk about experiences to write about! Having a very busy imagination, Louise had always wanted to write books, and had already completed one novel, but wanted to polish her skills. Louise received her Associate of Arts degree from Valencia Community College in 1988, then enrolled in the University of Central Florida (the same year her oldest son started there) as a junior, graduating in 1990 with a creative writing degree. While in graduate school, in November 1994, Louise’s first novel, Once There Was a Way Back Home, was published by Crossway Books. Her second novel, The Homecoming, was published in January 1998. Louise earned her Master of Liberal Studies degree from Rollins College in May 1999. Her thesis was a historical fiction novel entitled Ahab’s Bride. Louise currently teaches English at Valencia Community College and continues writing. Her newest title is Then Came Hope, hitting bookstore shelves in May 2007.

Randy Ingermanson tags himself as a “Physicist, Novelist, Speaker, and All Around Troublemaker.” If you haven’t heard of his Snowflake Method for novel plotting, you might subscribe to his Advanced Fiction Writing Course or E-Zine, or you might have read one of his books. Randy was both class nerd and class clown. He’s now an award winning novelist, a physicist, and a fiction teacher. He wants to be Supreme Dictator For Life and First Tiger. He’s getting closer every day!

WPWT: How did you find your unique writing voice? Did you struggle to find it or did it come easily to you?
LG: Not meaning to cause a problem, but I really must ask, “What is ‘voice’?” I must also take a quote (loosely) from Flannery O’Connor: I just write what I write. And my writing definitely does not come easily to me. I labor over every word, every passage.

RI: When I got started, my writing style was pretty vanilla. I did some things well and some things really badly. Style is made up of a lot of different components, and voice is only one of those, but it’s a very important one. I went to a critique group for probably two or three years before my style really started gelling. I know some writers do it much quicker, but I had a lot of unlearning to do. And I did it by writing every day and taking my work to my critique group every month and seeing what worked for my critiquers and what didn’t.

WPWT: How would you describe your unique writing voice? What is it that you do to make sure your writing “sounds like” you?
LG: With my first answer in mind, I must tell you that I have an amateur acting background, backed by a few drama classes in college. As such, I have always taken on the character of my, um, characters. Brandilyn Collins has a terrific book entitled Getting into Character, which explains this approach. I become my characters in order to discover their motivations and actions. With my husband’s help, I even take on the characters of my heroes. Further, as a historical writer, I rely on my family history. My maternal grandmother, who was born in 1875, had a big influence on me in my early years. I hear her voice in my head AND on one fading audio cassette (made when she was over 100 years old) to capture the nuances of a nineteenth century heroine. Maybe it’s her voice that people hear in my writing.

RI: For starters, my writing voice is AUTHENTIC. I don’t have to put my voice on–it’s just a reflection of who I really am. I think that’s a key thing–don’t try to be someone else. Just be yourself. My writing voice is a weird mix of “deep thinking” and “whackball humor.” Both of those are essential to who I am. I’m a physicist from Berkeley, for heaven’s sake, so there’s bound to be some depth to what I write. But I’m also pretty crazy (Berkeley is Berzerkely) and I put that craziness in my writing. I like to tell people that I was both class nerd and class clown. Those are the key components of my writing voice. As for how to make my writing sound like me, it’s not something I do, it’s something I don’t do. I don’t censor. I just pretend like I’m talking out loud and then I jam it out on the page. Yes, I’ll edit that later. But to get it down on paper first, I just write as if I were talking. And that often means throwing in a random line about “ironing the cat.”

WPWT: What advice would you give to beginning/intermediate writers to help them find and develop their unique writing voice?
LG: Write. Write, write, write. Discover yourself. Abandon rules. Follow rules. Act out your story. Seek counsel from those who embody your characters’ qualities. (Cop, doctor, teacher, homeless person, Starbucks clerk, etc.) DO NOT struggle to find your “voice.” It will come naturally when you begin to master the art of telling a compelling story with real, compelling characters.

RI: Write a LOT. And then toss it out there and see what works. When I said above that you should “be yourself,” I don’t mean that you should never bother learning what works and never modify your style. Some aspects of “you” will just work better than other things. You want to learn which parts to select and amplify in your writing. And that’s a matter of trial and error. These days, I think a blog is a great way to do that, because you can get immediate feedback. Write a piece, toss it out there, learn from your mistakes, and then go do it again tomorrow. There really isn’t any substitute for that pesky hard work.

Please make welcome Deborah Raney, Chip MacGregor, and Terry Burns.

Deborah Raney grew up on a farm in Kansas and, inspired by Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series, first tried her hand at novel writing at the age of twelve. But after accidentally putting airplanes in a story set in the 1700s, she tore up her manuscript in frustration and vowed never to write historical fiction again. Two decades later, she began work on her first novel—a contemporary story—after an intriguing discussion about Alzheimer’s disease with her husband, Ken, and their young teenagers. A Vow to Cherish was published by Bethany House Publishers in 1996 and won an Angel Award from Excellence in Media. It has been translated into the Swedish, Danish and Norwegian languages, and is also available in a hardcover large-print edition from Thorndike Press. Steeple Hill Books recently released an updated and expanded version of the book. It also inspired a TV movie by the same name. Deborah’s books have won the RITA Award, the National Readers Choice Award, The HOLT Medallion, the Inspirational Readers Choice Contest, and numerous other awards, as well as finaling in the Christy Awards. Deborah is currently working on her fourteenth novel. Her most recent release is Remember to Forget from Howard Publishing.

For Terry Burns, telling stories comes as natural as breathing. With a combination of a strong faith and a legacy of Irish storytelling and Texas tall-tales, he writes Christian fiction set against a western canvas. Even when trying to be serious, he finds it hard to keep his subtle West Texas humor out of his writing. Terry just can’t buy the notion that all Christian fiction is written for female readers and his simple, fast moving writing appeals to male readers, though he admits he has more readers among the ladies. “I don’t have a problem with that,” he says. “I love to interest one of those pretty ladies in a book, then watch them talk hubby into reading it. You’d be surprised how often that happens.” In addition to writing, Terry is also a literary agent with Hartline Literary Agency. A list of Terry’s titles can be found on the books page of his website.

Chip MacGregor is an extraordinary Literary Agent with a comprehensive knowledge of the publishing industry, from book development to writing, acquisition to production, marketing to sales. He has secured more than one hundred book deals for authors with all of the major publishers in both CBA and ABA. Chip has written more than two-dozen titles, including two books that hit #1 on the bestseller lists in their category. He has also been the collaborative writer on books with people like Howard Hendricks, Joe Stowell, Andre Kole, and Bruce Waltke. This longtime agent has represented such luminaries as Brennan Manning, Michelle McKinney Hammond, Jill and Stuart Briscoe, Alistair McGrath, Neta Jackson, Donna Partow, the MOPS organization, and Hearts at Home. His work with Lisa Beamer and Ken Abraham led to Let’s Roll hitting #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List, eventually becoming the bestselling nonfiction book that year.

WPWT: For Deb and Terry—how did you find your unique writing voice? Did you struggle to find it or did it come easily to you?
DR: I honestly have never been sure I even have a unique writing voice. People tell me I do, so I’m beginning to believe it, but it’s certainly not something I set out to “create.” If I struggled, it was with the worry that I didn’t have a unique voice. But other than studying the craft of writing, and honing my craft through practice, I haven’t done one thing different from the day I began writing until now. So I don’t think one necessarily has to work at finding their voice.

TB: In my opinion if somebody is struggling to find “their writing voice” they’re trying to force it. My writing voice is not the way I talk, my West Texas Drawl, it is who I am. It is the sum total of my education, my upbringing, my faith, my family, my experiences and it comes through in the way I write, even when I am trying to craft dialogue where the character speaks far differently than how I would speak myself. Some of my characters would speak much as I do, others speak far differently, but always no matter what is going on in the dialogue there are ways I would phrase things and ways that I wouldn’t. There are things I would allow in my writing and things I wouldn’t. The way I craft sentences, the pacing of my writing, these are the things that make up voice, not the way I speak or make my characters speak. I think far too many writers mistake dialogue for “voice.”

WPWT: How would you describe your unique writing voice? What is it that you do to make sure your writing “sounds like” you?
DR: Readers who know me say that reading my books is like sitting down across the table from me and having tea. So I guess I’d describe my voice as conversational, chatty even, and easygoing. I suppose what I “do” to make it that way, is just not be too concerned with it. I just write the only way I know how, and my voice is what comes out!

TB: My writing style is simple, because that’s what I am, a simple old cowboy. If I tried to write complicated literary fiction it wouldn’t work because then I would be outside my voice. I write simple, fast-moving stories and even if I’m not trying to do so, my faith is still evident. As long as I stay true to my upbringing I don’t have to worry about my voice, it’ll be there.

WPWT: What advice would you give to beginning/intermediate writers to help them find and develop their unique writing voice?
DR: Don’t work too hard at it. Don’t try to “affect” a voice, or it will certainly come out seeming less than genuine. Just write your story the way it comes to your mind, hone your craft, and then apply what you learn to that foundational writing—and what you’re left with will be your voice. One thing I would warn against is trying to emulate another writer. None of us can help but be influenced by other writers—and the more we read one particular author, the more their writing will inform what we write. That’s fine. But to purposely attempt to copy another writer will undoubtedly hinder the unique voice that’s trying to come through your writing.

CM: Write something you’re passionate about. Kill the teacher in your head. Write something for yourself. Read it out loud and make sure it sounds good on your ear. Try to stretch your vocabulary, broaden your imagery, and strengthen your rhythm.

WPWT: For Terry and Chip, when reviewing submissions, what do you look for in others’ writing? How do you identify a writer’s voice?
TB: Is the writing natural? I don’t try to identify a writer’s voice and style but I can tell when it is contrived, when it is not natural. When it is forced it can seem pompous, the story doesn’t seem to flow easily, it sounds like the writer is using words and phrasing they are not comfortable with. It feels very much as if they are trying to be something they aren’t.

CM: Brightness. Likeability. Consistency. Passion. Clarity. Smoothness. The ability to get your character onto the page. A good voice will offer good character, which will lead to good stories, which make up a good book.

Today, I’m thrilled to have Rachel Hauck and Lena Nelson Dooley, two of my writing godmothers, as my guests talking about voice.

Rachel Hauck is an alumna of Ohio State University and has traveled the States and the world with her job as a software trainer. Rachel always wanted to be a writer. “My dad used to tell me, ‘You’re a writer.’ I have letters he wrote me post college, exhorting me to write. In this, I believe he had the heart of God.” In 1993, Rachel started “an epic WW2 novel with two plots.” When it was rejected, she took a break and focused on her work. But the siren of writing beckoned, and in 1999, she took her pen up again and started writing. With encouragement, help and prayer support from friends, Rachel’s first book, Lambert’s Pride—a HeartSong romance—was published in 2004. Since then, Rachel has published several romances and has recently broken ground in the new “red-neck” branch of chick lit with Georgia on Her Mind, Lost in NashVegas and Diva NashVegas.

Lena Nelson Dooley has been a professional writer with a free-lance writing and editing business since 1984. In that time, Lena has written curriculum for public schools, private schools, and three different denominations—including working on a team that developed a two-year American History course for at-risk students. She has also written material for a Christian comedian as well as editing and designing training materials for an airline. Lena’s first novel was published by HeartSong Presents in 1992, her second in 2002. Four books came out in 2004, and one in August 2005. Lena had five releases in 2006, with another four already scheduled for 2007. Information on her titles can be found on the BOOKS page of her website.

WPWT: How did you find your unique writing voice? Did you struggle to find it or did it come easily to you?

RH: Great question. I wasn’t very aware of voice when I started writing. I tried to simply create authentic characters who sounded “real.” But when I started writing chick lit, I knew I’d found my voice. First person in particular. I sort of stumbled into finding my voice, but I know it is a struggle for many writers. I suggest keep writing, keep a journal, speak on the page from your heart, to hone your voice.

LD: I write what I feel, with my emotions as well as my thoughts. My writing style has evolved over time, because of being on a learning curve. I believe that we all should be constantly on a learning curve.

WPWT:How would you describe your unique writing voice? What is it that you do to make sure your writing “sounds like” you?

RH: I’m a quirky, snappy dialog sort of writer. My voice is most felt in dialog and musings of the protag. And my characters have to be someone witty or sarcastic, they see the irony in life. They catch the inconsistencies around them and comment.

LD: I use descriptive snippets to ground the reader into the setting. I love description, but I’ve learned how to use it better. Word choices and the rhythm of sentences and transitions are a part of the voice. I do believe that the Lord helps me with the creative process that becomes my voice.

WPWT:What advice would you give to beginning/intermediate writers to help them find and develop their unique writing voice?

RH: Read a lot. Read books you love in the style or genre you want to write. Be real in your writing. Don’t try to conform to what you think the reader will want or like, or even the editors. Follow publisher or industry guidelines, but try to speak truth through your characters. Go deep. Look below the surface. Really mull over your characters. Pray about them. Also, write the first draft, then read with a critical eye. I never hit my true voice on the first draft, often not the second. Don’t be in too much of a hurry. Write and rewrite.

LD: Study the writing of other authors that you like to read. Learn from them, but never . . . never try to imitate any of them. Pray a lot and let the Lord help you find your unique voice. He created each of us as a unique person, so He’ll help us find that voice that works best for us.

I am so excited about the responses I got to my requests for interviews with authors on the topic of Author’s Voice. Here are the authors who will be featured this week:

Monday, February 26:
Lena Dooley
Rachel Hauck

Tuesday, February 27:
Deb Raney
Chip MacGregor, Literary Agent
Terry Burns (Author and Agent)

Wednesday, February 28:
Louise Gouge
Randy Ingermanson

Thursday, March 1:
Kristy Dykes
MaryLu Tyndall

Friday, March 2:
Camy Tang
Shelley Bates

Saturday, March 3:
Bryan Davis

And more will be added to this schedule! Be sure to stop by and see what these wonderful people have to say about Voice!