Finding Your Writer’s Voice

By Maggi Andersen

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When I first began writing to publish some years ago, the first bit of advice I was offered at university was to ‘write what you know’. Was I to write a sort of autobiography? I hated the idea. The stories I wanted to write were not about me, or so I thought. But to ‘write what you know’ isn’t about the events in your life, it’s about the emotions you’ve experienced. Whether it be love, loss, longing, disappointment or jealousy. Have you ever wanted something so badly you might have killed for it (metaphorically speaking, of course)?

It doesn’t matter whether you set your story where you live or on the other side of the world–as I did with my first novel. If you’re drawing from your own personal emotional experiences, your readers will feel it. And hopefully, your characters will leap off the page!

A good way I found initially, was to free-write. Just let go and let the words flow. Interesting what can come from that. And even years later, my first drafts can be a bit wild. I like to experiment, because I can always take it back a peg or two, and fear can be a good motivator. It forces you to write about something that matters, and releases the unique quality we all have, our voice.

Voice, I believe, is not only a unique way of putting words together, but a unique emotional response, and a distinctive way of looking at the world. Publishers want to read an author who has an original voice. When you settle down to read your favorite writer, you know what to expect from them, their voice is recognizable in their syntax, in their descriptive world building, in their emotions, and in their basic outlook on life.

For newbie writers, I say express yourself in your own unique way. We don’t talk exactly like anyone else, so why should we write like everyone else?

All those years I spent reading Georgette Heyer, who set her characters in a charming world with such clarity and delightful humour, might have developed my voice for writing Regency romance. I hope so. I love writing them.

My Regency series features two families, the Brandreths (who first appeared in the Spies of Mayfair series) and the Baxendales five daughters. The two estates run together in Tunbridge Wells, a town frequented by the ton. They’ve become one big family since two Baxendale daughters married Brandreth sons. Each novella in The Baxendale Sisters revolves a young lady’s come-out and the trials she must face before she can marry the man of her dreams.

Buy Maggi's books here

Love to Love... Books on ‘plotting and structuring your novel’, but never seem to apply it to my work.

Love to Laugh... funny memes and pictures on Facebook.

Source: Funny Pictures Facebook Page.

Love to Learn... How to promote my books on a shoestring, and spend no more than an hour a week. That’s a work in progress.

Here’s an (unedited) sneak peek from Maggi's latest book, The Seduction of Lady Charity. The fourth book in the Baxendale Sisters series is released 20th April.

Lady Charity Baxendale has long dreamed of becoming a renowned portrait painter. After two significant commissions from esteemed family members, a rakish Scottish baron commissions her to paint his portrait, and she feels she is one step closer to that dream. When Robin, Lord Stanberry, with whom Charity has had a long friendship, asks her to marry him, she must choose between marriage and her career. He is heir to a dukedom, and Charity fears she would be unsuited to life as a duchess, and her burgeoning career would end before it begins. And besides, Robin has made no mention of love.

Due to tragic, unforeseen circumstances, Robin is now the Duke of Harwood. He feels himself unfitted for such a position. Robin was perfectly content living as a viscount in Tunbridge Wells, writing a book on ornithology. He’d hoped to have Charity at his side by the time he took his place at Harwood Castle in Northumberland, for her pragmatic nature and strength of character would be of enormous help to him. Should he have thrown himself at her feet and declared an undying love? Charity would have seen through it, for that was not the sort of friendship they enjoyed. But her refusal has brought him lower than he’d thought possible. Could he change her mind, despite the distance that now lay between them?


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