Boring writing drives me nuts. And you?

The problem? Most writers don’t have a distinct voice.

My good friend Randy Ingermanson is a genius in a number of areas, but the one I appreciate most is his voice that makes everything he writes fun to read.

Rather than give a (boring) explanation of what “voice” is let’s peek at an e-mail Randy sent recently to a writers loop Laura, he, and I belong to.

The question to the loop was What was your first sale? Here’s Randy’s answer:

“My first article had the scintillating title ‘Another Look At The Gauged Wess-Zumino Effective Action’ and was published by the first magazine I submitted it to, NUCLEAR PHYSICS B, the standard journal in elementary particle physics theory. But the dirty rats didn’t pay me a dime for my article.

Not long after that, I started writing fiction and I spent NINE YEARS writing about 500 hours per year without selling one blessed thing. Then in the tenth year, I sold a short story to the local computer geek magazine. The story was titled “Computers in Hell” and it speculated on what sort of computers they use, um, Way Down Under. I earned $150 for this masterpiece, which works out to $15 per year, or (if you do the math, @ 500 hours per year) 3 cents per hour.

“Computers In Hell” was widely read (by several of my co-workers), all of whom thought it was not bad at all.

A postscript: In my eleventh year of writing, I sold my first nonfiction book and a novel, and I was, as they say, launched.”

Randy doesn’t overdo it. But adding words and phrases like “scintillating title” next to an obviously non-scintillating title, “dirty rats”, “geek magazine” “computers they use, um, Way Down Under” “this masterpiece” “widely read (by several of my co-workers)” all take his e-mail from being a mundane report, to entertainment.

I’m not saying you have to have the same voice as Randy, but strive to keep your writing from sounding like everyone else. No one listens to Charlie Brown’s parents and teachers saying, “Wah, wah, wah.” Why? Because to kids, they all sound the same. Same with writing.

By the way, if you write fiction and are one of the five remaining authors who don’t know about Randy’s stellar blog, check it out here: http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/blog/