The Writer's Voice: Forging One's Own Language

Every writer has a unique voice. By voice, I mean what you say and how you say it. So often, we think that we must follow the standardized rules for writing. This can make the work generic. This is why using A.I. to create work is a mistake. The longer I write and the longer that I teach writing, I understand how important it is to enable a new writer to listen and observe their own tendencies, to note what is unique or new in their writing and to follow this thread.  

Every person has unique perceptions. Each has unique locations, observations, and experiences. This is true even inside the mind. Each has particular landscape, particular encounters and events that happen in the families, in work settings, in relationships and in communities. These perceptions can be explored and developed into the "writer's voice." Partly, it comes about by following one's intuition, one's fascinations, one's tendencies.  In fact, I think this is key to forging one's own voice. 

I found this interview,"Writing is 80% Looking," that speaks so well to the idea of craft and what works in poetry or writing.  I'm not impressed by the interviewer (I hate his commercialization) but I am impressed with Ocean Vuong. He is an amazing poet and writer, and he has some very intriguing insights about the process of creating new writing. He speaks about the writing workshop, and I love how he (later in the video) analyzes the history and evolution of poetry/ news/novels/literature. 

If you are interested, look at this video about the writing workshop, particularly starting at 1:45 through 8:00 minutes. 

https://youtu.be/kn4r4CmWmUw?si=KXGrq0FkMhniqfB9

Another writer who I have long admired is Jhumpa Lahiri. In this discussion published on Lit Hub,  Jhumpa Lahiri and Chiara Barzini discuss writing in another language and"the mother tongue."  Lahiri was Bengali-American and wrote novels in English. But early on, she fell in love with the Italian language. Eventually, she learned Italian, moved to Italy, and began to write in Italian. Now she has returned to the United States, and she has interesting insights into the writing voice, translation, and languages. To read the entire interview go to https://lithub.com/writing-in-the-interim-language-jhumpa-lahiri-and-chiara-barzini-in-conversation/

Jhumpa Lahiri: I’ll cite the French-Guadeloupéenne writer Maryse Condé who felt the conflicting expectations of writing in French and Créole and eventually said: “I write in Maryse Condé.” She liberated herself from the trap of either/or, and also, given that she is francophone, from the oppressive weight of a colonial language. Condé forged a French language of her own, a French she has interrogated, grappled with, and comes to identify with on her own terms. All writers must forge their own language and liberate themselves in this way. This notion of liberating ourselves from another strain of the binary—that which divides and defines what is native and what is foreign—lies behind what Proust says: that beautiful books are written in a sort of foreign language. Ever since I discovered James Joyce and Virginia Woolf I have been seeking my own language.

We can look at our own rough drafts to notice what is new, what is emerging, and embark on an exploration.  Writing is not just looking, but also a doing.  We bring in our curiosity, our languages (diction and lingo as well), and our eccentricities.  The writing voice is meant to be unique.