What are we talking about today?

I'll get back to theme days once I find a groove of posting regularly. In the meantime, most of my posts are about some variation of books, bikes, buses, or Broadway. Plus bits about writing, nonprofits, and grief from time to time.

This blog is mostly lighthearted and pretty silly. It's not about the terrible things happening in the world, but please know that I'm not ignoring those things. I just generally don't write about them here.

03 February 2007

I've had a revelation recently.

I've always enjoyed writing, ever since I was very young, and in fact for many years I thought writing would one day be my career. And I do still write regularly, even though I have more or less moved away from the idea of ever being published; my writing these days is for myself (and a little bit on my blog!).

So here's the revelation: I do not actually have a writing style. All those years in school when my teachers were agog at the writing I was producing, they were really agog at someone else. Not that I was plagarising, of course; but I do tend to absorb the style of whoever I'm currently reading. When I look back and re-read things I've written in the past, I can see that. In primary school, it was Laura Wilder; in high school, I was more influenced by speakers and teachers I knew well. In my adult life, there have been three main influences: Elinor Brent-Dyer, Terry Prachett, and J.K. Rowling. In fact, the things that I re-read that are the most "mine" are the ones I like the least!

What to do now? Well, I am not going to give up writing, certainly, although this does serve to confirm that getting published is probably a no-go for me, at least for the immediate future. Perhaps if I continue to write, my own style will develop. Or perhaps I will lose interest one day and move on to other things. Who knows?

2 comments:

Aaron said...

I never knew Terry Pratchett was one of your influences. I quite like the Discworld novels. What have you read from him? I'm slowly making my way through his books.

Kar said...

I don't know much about style; I've always figured life and writing would develop it over time. I love writing, too. (I guess we wouldn't likely have blogs if we didn't.)