During the MA Creative Writing degree at Rhodes University a few years ago they asked us to read widely. The aim of it, the lecturers explained, was to identify where your interest and talent lay as a writer. Ideally you would discover what type of fiction you wanted to write in order to find your own niche. I found this exercise very helpful and discovered that I like to experiment.
I wrote about ten experimental stories, allowing my imagination to run wild. One story was without punctuation, Running A Stop Street. Written with no full stops I inserted two horizontal lines where the text jumped over the lines.
Needless to say I had great fun.
In conjunction with all the reading, we had to emulate some of our chosen writers to find your voice. You had to study a writer’s way of writing to see what effect the writer achieved. After that you ventured out to find your own voice.
Feedback on my earnest efforts was that my voice was too strong and I had to tone it down. Imagine my surprise. And the deep deep doubt of a fledgling writer. If I could not write in my voice, which I didn’t even know I had to start with, what was I to do? Who was I? In the ensuing turmoil I started wondering: if I was a man with a testosterone-filled deep voice, would anyone dare tell me that my voice was too strong?
I tried my best to tone down my voice. Sometimes I succeeded and other times … well I tried. (As best as a strong-willed woman without a deep voice could).
In retrospect I wonder if emulating other writers to hone your own voice is a good idea. Do we all want or need to sound like Hemingway? Or any other published writer for that matter?
To me a writer’s voice develops as you write. Write, write, write more and more. In each story you write you will grow towards your unique ability and your “voice” will become a part of that growth.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
Running A Stop Street
This story is in my collection Eye of a Neeedle: And Other Stories. Click here if you’d like to read it.
Cornelia Smith Fick 
You are correct as a writer you must study other writers first before you begin on your journey to write, the are other things you should learn from others and develop your self.
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Good advice, thanks. However, I think some will write before studying the work of other writers and then the challenge is to improve your own writing.
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