Sounding Like Me

A couple of weeks ago Dr. Snit and I sat with her Young Man on the upper deck of Six Feet Under an enjoyed conversation over dinner. Well, most of the conversation anyway. Toward the end of dinner we ended up in a heated discussion with at least three different layers. The crux of the issue was Young Man blowing off a reading recommendation for his senior thesis because he didn’t want what someone else wrote to influence his fictional voice. Leaving aside the writing of a fictional piece for a senior thesis and the associated scholarship issues, doesn’t everything you read or do inform your writing voice in the moment of writing?

Young Man switched from the creative writing program to religious studies because he felt that reading and understanding dead white guys, like Shakespeare, would adversely mess with his writing style. I understand how immersing yourself in the writings of someone else could, for a time, change how you approach writing a sentence or setting up a thought exercise; but, don’t those small changes to form reflect your life in the moment? Young Man’s desire to be considered a good writer without knowing who’s company he kept bothered me most about the whole conversation. There are many good writers, and many of them learned their skills through other traditions; but, I don’t understand why one would purposely avoid them when given the opportunity to learn from what has gone before.

Large swaths of Quo Vado? are about my voice, what I have to say and how I need to say it. When I’m borrowing a style or approach from someone else, the thoughts still mine. You won’t often find me framing my thoughts in iambic pentameter; but, when you do, they’ll still be my thoughts twisted to fit the form in my own way. As I read through the archives, I’m struck how what I wrote three years ago, doesn’t sound like me anymore. I’ve grown. I’ve experienced new things. My voice has grown with me. Even with the influence of Shakespeare.

Comments

[Krazy Kitty]

Isn't that a bit... preposterous? If you really didn't want to be influenced by others in your way of forming sentences then there's no way you'd even speak English. Developing your own style also stems from assimilating what other people wrote, digesting it, making it your own, realize how it influences you and control that influence, I think.