Finding Your Voice: How to Put Personality in Your Writing [Paperback]

Les Edgerton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 8, 2003 | ISBN-10: 1582971730 | ISBN-13: 978-1582971735

Find your voice–and make your writing sing!

You know a great literary voice" when you hear it: David Sedaris' humorous cynicism. Elmore Leonard's weary, smart-mouthed dialogue. Nick Hornby's simple yet imaginative descriptions. It's the kind of writing you should aspire to, right?

Well...not quite. Each of these authors found success in part by developing their own unique voice: a writing style that helped define - and throw the spotlight on - their work.

Now Les Edgerton shows you how to develop a voice of your own, one that rises above the literary din because of its individuality, not in spite of it!

Inside, he provides guidelines, advice and dozens of exercises for recognizing and developing a natural style that will make your characters, stories and dialogue better and more memorable. You'll learn:

• How to make any piece you write unmistakably yours and yours alone
  
  
• What agents and editors really think about using your own voice
  
  
• How to write better by ignoring the rules
  
  
• The keys to getting your voice and personality on the page
  
  
• How to get back the unique voice you may have lost by trying to write like someone else

Whether you write fiction, non-fiction or poetry, Finding Your Voice is a must for your personal library. Let's face it - editors, agents and readers all want to read something fresh and new. By finding your voice, you'll be giving them exactly what they want!"

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books (March 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582971730
• ISBN-13: 978-1582971735
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #555,483 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Les Edgerton has published fifteen books, the latest being two novels from StoneGate Ink, the noir thriller "Just Like That", the thriller, "The Perfect Crime", the short story collection, "Gumbo Ya-Ya from Snubnose Press, and his latest, the noir thriller "The Bitch" from Bare Knuckles Press. His most popular book is the writer's text, "Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go." His own favorite is his collection, titled, "Monday's Meal," which received a glowing review from the NY Times in which he was compared favorably to Raymond Carver.

He has a blog on writing at: http://lesedgertononwriting.blogspot.com/ he invites you to visit.

He lives with his wife Mary and son Mike in Ft. Wayne, IN. He has two daughters--Britney and Sienna--from a previous marriage. He teaches a private writing class online as well as a class via Skype for the New York Writer's Workshop. In the past, he has taught creative writing for the UCLA Extension Writer's Program, Trine University, St. Francis University, and was Writer-in-Residence for the University of Toledo for three years.

Edgerton is an ex-con, having served two years of a 2-5 sentence at Pendleton Reformatory in the sixties for second-degree burglary. The sentence was the result of a plea bargain where it was reduced to a single charge from 182 burglaries, two strong-arm robberies, an armed robbery, and a count of possession with intent to deal. Today, he's completely reformed and you can invite him into your home and when he leaves you won't have to count the silverware... Prior to this little "trouble" Les served 4 years in the U.S. Navy as a cryptographer who had "up close and personal" experience with the Cuban Crisis and the beginning of the Vietnam War.

After making parole from Pendleton, Edgerton obtained his B.A. from Indiana University (Honors of Distinction), where he was elected Student Body President, and then received his MFA in Writing (Fiction) from Vermont College. He teaches workshops nationwide on writing, specializing in classes and seminars on the writer's voice and story beginnings. He also coaches writers on their novels and the fee is $100 per hour.

He was born in Odessa, TX on Feb. 13, 1943 and grew up in a variety of places, including Freeport, TX and South Bend, IN. He is the oldest of five and has two surviving sisters (his sister Jo passed away) and a brother. Growing up in Freeport, his family ate all their meals at his grandmother's bar and restaurant, and before the age of twelve, Les had worked every job in the bar, including serving alcohol and food (those were different times, before the government assumed the job of parenting and protecting us from ourselves). When he turned 12, his grandmother told him he was old enough to learn the taxi-cab business which she owned and he began his first day on the midnight shift. An hour after he began, one of the cab drivers shot and killed another driver who was tormenting him with a rattlesnake, and he made the call to the police. Later, he was called on to testify at the man's trial and the defendant was found innocent as he was acting in self-defense.

These days, he's working on a memoir, a new writer's how-to, several novels, several nonfiction projects and appearing at various workshops. He invites readers of his work to contact him. His contact info is on his blog at www.lesedgertononwriting.blogspot.com/. His newest novel is a noir novella forthcoming from New Pulp Press titled "The Rapist.

His novel "The Bitch" was a finalist in the Snubnose Magazine "Best Novel" in the Legends category and was the winner of the best novel in the 2011 Preditors & Editors award. His first novel, "The Death of Tarpons" was awarded a Special Citation from the Violet Crown Book Awards.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 48 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fresh Perspective May 6, 2003

By Sally E. Herman

Format:Paperback

I cannot CANNOT--say enough about this book! I'm an aspiring writer who had been circling for years--forever stumbling around in the dark searching for some missing ingredient. Les Edgerton provided that ingredient.

In his book, Finding Your Voice, Les throws a hand grenade into the marshes of dull writing. Not only does he give you permission to be yourself when you write, he SHOUTS that you must!
Many a non-published writer constructs barriers to getting published because of an ailment he tags as a "writerly" style. Such writing, he says, stems from trying to write like someone else, or by adhering to some "acceptable standard." All this expenditure of energy and effort not only kills creativity, it drowns out the writer's own voice. It's akin to attempting to draw something via tracing. Successful and effective writing-as in drawing a picture--occurs as the artist surrenders to the freedom of instinct and free-form.

"Voice" is rooted in individuality and PERSONALITY. He points out that readers aren't looking for Hemingway when they pick up your book -- they're looking for you! If they have a hankering for Hemingway, they'll seek out Hemingway. The reader who picks up your book wants to meet you, and they will do just that as you let go and allow your personality to permeate the pages. As a result, reader and writer take off on some joint venture. The experience is far more gratifying for the reader than reading mere dead words.

His book effortlessly exemplifies the very things he espouses. For instance, far from being obscure himself, Les exudes personality-HIS PERSONALITY-on every page. He's transparently friendly, intelligent, witty and totally likable. It seems possible to reach right through the pages and shake his hand. You know this man--he's a new friend.

Finding Your Voice is also a font of abundant and invaluable tidbits. For one thing, Les illuminates the techniques and usages that appeal to our culture today, and that invariably attract editors and agents.

His book is informative, entertaining, and freeing.

Get out there and get it!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing - 1 Solid Chapter, 2 pretty good ones, and 9 Chapters of Filler July 1, 2010

By J. Sexton

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

First, let me say that I'm a pretty big fan of Les Edgarton's Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One & Never Lets Them Go and I was ardently hoping that this book would be just as solid and useful as the first book of his that I had read. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Finding Your Voice had 5 Chapters of stalling and padding, a few solid chapters on voice, and then another bunch of filler. Take a look at the Table of Contents and you'll see what I mean. This book wasn't worth the asking price, let alone the time to read it.

Now there aren't many books dedicated solely to "voice," but there are a few that have a few chapters on it with material that is more than the equal of this book's. So here's what I'd recommend you buy instead:

Movies in the Mind, How to Build a Short Story

and

The New Strategy of Style

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars i love this book March 17, 2005

By ricky1818

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

as a writing coach, i have recommended this book to everyone who sits down to write. the author uses his own authentic voice to give us permission to be ourselves. his voice is at once down-to-earth, clear, funny and enormously valuable. a book for every writer's library!