Featuring Marietta Taylor - Your Voice Or Mine?

Today, in a departure fro the kid-lit realm, I am happy to be hosting Marietta Taylor, who will be talking about a very important aspect of writing - maintaining your own voice.  Marietta, please tell us your story.

I am a member of a writer's critique group. For the most part I enjoy the group. However, there was one session that really rubbed me raw like a sandpaper burn. I was having some devotional work critiqued. They were written from the perspective of the Proverbs 31 woman. I thought I had a pretty cleaver idea since much had been written about her and how women could be like her, but nothing was written from her perspective.


One of the other writer's told me my work wasn't believable to her because it wasn't written in what she called a “true Jewish voice”. She proceeded to give me the name of a Christian romance writer. She instructed that I should read this woman's books and the pattern my “voice” after hers. That really got under my skin. And it stayed there for a while.

I actually stopped working on this book because of her criticism. I just recently picked it back up to review and decide if I was going to continue. I may actually change some of it, but I'll tell you what I'm not going to do. I'm not going to mimic another author's voice. As a writer, I need to be authentic to myself. Voice is who I am as a writer. It is how I uniquely communicate my message to my readers. If I try to mimic someone else, it will come across as not being authentic.

While I understand that we can learn a great deal from other writers, I'm not a believer in being a copycat. I don't mind being influenced by another writer's strong voice. I just don't want to steal it and try to pass it off as my own. At the end of it all, I've got to be me. And I think that's important for every writer. Each one has their own unique voice. They attract readers based on communicating with their own voice. One of the things we as writers keep hearing is “Find your voice”. Once you do, go with it. I think it's the strongest part of your identity as a writer.

Readers can connect with me in the following ways:


Website: http://www.mariettataylor.net/

Personal Blog: http://www.marismorningromm.blogspot.com/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/raleighgirl

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marietta.taylor2



Buy my book:

Paperback:

http://shop.theextremediva.com/Surviving-Unemployment-Devotions-to-Go-6139.htm



http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Unemployment-Devotions-Marietta-Taylor/dp/1934626139/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1304686934&sr=1-1


Kindle Edition:

http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Unemployment-Devotions-Go-ebook/dp/B004T3FPUE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1301968884&sr=1-1


Thanks for stopping by today, Marietta and for giving us a chance to get to know you and your book.  Best of luck to you.