As a writer, it is important to find your individual voice, theme and view of the world that distinguishes you from all others. Such voice has two components: what is said and the way it is said. Here is an exercise that may help you, as a writer, discover your original voice.
The intent of this exercise is to create one sentence that is strong, incontrovertible and uniquely yours. Your first attempt may not produce your ideal expression, so save your results and try again later after thinking on it more. If nothing else, this exercise has provided yet another lesson in the shunning of the sentence that comes first, and honing, changing, polishing the words of a single sentence to test all of its possibilities. That's what a writer does.
It is recommended that you work through this exercise one step at a time. To that end, we will present a new step every Saturday. The first step follows immediately.
The intent of this exercise is to create one sentence that is strong, incontrovertible and uniquely yours. Your first attempt may not produce your ideal expression, so save your results and try again later after thinking on it more. If nothing else, this exercise has provided yet another lesson in the shunning of the sentence that comes first, and honing, changing, polishing the words of a single sentence to test all of its possibilities. That's what a writer does.
It is recommended that you work through this exercise one step at a time. To that end, we will present a new step every Saturday. The first step follows immediately.
This is excerpted from "Stein on Writing" by Sol Stein.
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