I don’t know about other authors, but I can’t write fiction and read it too. Nonfiction is not a problem. I guess it is a right brain-left brain kind of thing. Just like editing. Editing uses a part of my mind that is sequestered from the creative side. This has disastrous consequences in that I’ve often edited my voice right out of a story because I was editing not writing.
For some of you that might not make any sense. So let me explain. An author’s voice is the unique way she tells a story. It tells a reader without even looking at the name on the cover who wrote the book. It is a bit like a fingerprint, but only a bit. Why? Because, I tend to echo a writer’s style, using the words and cadence another brings to their story and aping it in mine.
Imagine a horror novel grafted onto a romance novel and you get the kind of wrong I’m talking about. It doesn’t work and my critique partners wanted to know exactly what my husband had done to make the work so angry. Considering, I was supposed to be writing a romantic comedy, you can understand why I had to go back and edit the story.
It turned out better than I anticipated once I’d transitioned into the genre completely. And because I was in the midst of creating, the editing didn’t resemble too much slash and burn. My voice remained intact.
Having been writing for longer than I care to admit, I know that my voice is unique. Some people really, really, really hate it and others not so much. And while my voice remains the same, the rhythm changes for each genre, the word choices get darker and violent or lighter and tongue in cheek.
The month of March is proving interesting for me as an author. Not only am I revising Redaction in preparation for the new chapters and the next books, but I’m reading 15 books for a contest (romance books), then I begin edit sessions for another paranormal romance due out this summer by Zumaya Publications, finish up the revisions for a romance due out next year and wait for the edits for two SciFi Romances that I’m publishing next month.
I think my brain is in for a serious case of whip-lash.
But I do love a challenge.