LOSING YOUR VOICE AS A WRITER

I started working on my second book, which follows on the first one, and I felt as if my narrative voice completely changed. I have previously written it more than halfway and left it to edit my first manuscript. Now I can't get myself to write the second novel with the same or at least similar outlook. I am now stuck with a novel which is half me of 6 months ago and another half that is me at the present time.

I read a lot of books, fiction and nonfiction a like, the past few months and I thoroughly enjoyed most of them. But now I am not the same writer I was just a few months ago. I know that you are supposed to read as many books in your genre and of your favorite authors, pick up on their style, see what makes their writing brilliant, while still maintaining that essential thing that makes you...you.

Well I screwed up big time. My whole attitude and style of writing has changed. Which I suppose can be a good thing. Growing as a writer is necessary. In all the books I read, about helping one write better, the authors always talk about growing and your writing evolving. So maybe that is what I am experiencing.

But is there a chance that one can lose oneself in all those books? Can it be that reading so much about rules, do's and don'ts and what ever others offer as wisdom, make you lose your originality, writing personality or in my case, writing voice?

I think I just have to read through my book and try to recapture the essence of the novel. Make myself understand why I wrote what I did, when I did.

So what do you think? Can one lose one's voice as a writer or is that just nonsense?

It is official - I am a Moron

It is official Ladies and Gentlemen. I know many of you have thought it but now I can finally admit it is true. I am a Moron.

I read Gift by Ursula Le Guin and I am sorry to say it but I didn't like it. No disrespect to Ursula Le Guin. After all she has written more than 60 books, most of them if not all are bestsellers. Who am I to say I didn't like this book? A nobody! But I will not be finishing this book. Sorry.

The way the book begins and the way the whole story flows and progresses...I just didn't find it stimulating. It felt like a chore reading it. I refused to have paid for another book and not have read it. I finally stopped at page 100.

Why buy it if you or not planing to read it? Honestly, I have never read any of her other works but according to the Internet she is a must read author. I also picked her book because she is said to be the best Fantasy writer alive and because the first page read so easily. And to be honest that should have been a hint because the first page starts telling a story and by the third page I flipped to the front to see if there hadn't been a book written before that one because I was feeling lost already.

I read the reviews for this book online and all of them said that the book was excellent, easy to read and easy to comprehend. So yeah, I am a Moron. I seem to be the only person who read it and not like it.

Signed the Moron.

Feeling good when you want to cry

I got some bad news yesterday and it was the kind of news that can have an impact on the rest of my life. But anyway the point I want to make is that I have been sulking about it, in fact I still am, and I shouldn't be. Everything that happens in our lives happens for a reason or so I believe.

So I was wondering what would be the best way to get over the bad news and get on with my life? I can't sulk forever and at some point I am going to get over what ever it is that is bothering me. But why wait till then? Why not speed up the emotional recovery process? If that is possible. And if it can be done, how do I go about doing it?

Here is what I did:

1. Comfort food helps, though I won't specify which because to each his own.

2. Exercise. I know that when you feel down in the dumps the last thing you want to do is exercise, but exercise provides your body with endorphins which in turn makes you feel happy.

3. Think happy thoughts. I know that it is a stupid thing to say but if you think negatively you will feel negative emotions.

4. Surround yourself with positive people. The last thing you want to do when you are already feeling down is listen to friends complain about their problems.

The most important reason for my search for a quick fix is that when I feel better I also tend to write better. I never want my writing to suffer because of my emotional instability in my personal life.

But I am over myself and focusing on the future and worrying about things that I actually can change instead of worrying about something that I can't.

Happy writing!

Alert: MyFreeRead.com Is Spamming Again

I just read about this scam on Writer Beware and I thought I should let you all know about it.

Alert: MyFreeRead.com Is Spamming Again

TOO ''FAT'' FOR LIFE

I finally got my test results back after two painful needle pricks and one uncomfortable sonar moment that revealed more about my own body then I wanted to know.

Anyway moving along. The specialist doctor I was referred to (sonar woman a.k.a the villain) felt that the reason I have been having problems with ill health was the fact that I am just too fat. That if I was thin I wouldn't have problems with fluctuating hormone levels and bad health. Basically she spent 2 minutes telling me I was fine, that there was nothing wrong with me (out of the ordinary) besides that I was fat. Then she spent the next 15 minutes lecturing me about being fat. Basically she just hates fat people.

In my defence I have started with a life change. I started counting my calories and exercising regularly. OK, I don't lose weight like crazy but I do lose weight. According to my previous dietitian predictions losing 0,5 kg a week is good and healthy. But no, ''Miss Sonar woman'' thinks that if I was really counting calories that I would have been at my goal weight already.

Moving On. I have been prescribed medication that I will have to be on for the rest of my life to keep my hormone balance stable (this is the same problem I had when I was skinny by the way. But according to her I was still fat then too). The funny thing is the medication my own doctor prescribed me is the same medication I used before when I packed on the weight I have now. But apparently it is the best. A trial and error process. So lets hope it doesn't make me even fatter.

So yeah, I am feeling a little down. But I have a reason to be. To have someone basically talk to you as if you weren't even human, as if you were some grotesque alien specie is hurtful. She was almost at the point of implying that every bad thing that ever happened to me was because I am fat, which was even more upsetting. Usually I would have said something back but I was in too much shock.

To make matters worse...when I went back to my own doctor to get my prescription the receptionist said ''Hi, I hear one of these days I am going to see a skinny you instead'' which meant ''Miss Sonar woman'' had put that into my results report for my doctor to read and because the receptionist handles all the administration she had read the report too. She is a sweet lady but I don't want everybody discussing me! Oh... the horror!

I only started having problems with my health lately when I started losing weight. So as a fatty I was healthy. But I feel a lot better now that I talked about this. I think blogging can be therapeutic.

So according to ''Miss Sonar Woman'' I am just too ''fat'' for life.

THIRD REJECTION LETTER

Today is not one of my better days. I had more tests done for the doctor and when I thought my day was over, my third rejection letter was already waiting for me in my inbox. This time it said that my project was not right for their agency.

The writing of my second book is going well. Should be able to finish it before the end of this year.

Still smiling but craving cake.

BRILLIANT READ

I just finished reading THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL by ANNE FRANK and I thought it was brilliant. Written from her perspective while she was 13 - 15 years of age.

Her maturity and out look on life at her age was shocking. At her tender age she grasped concepts about life and love that most of us adults will never begin to understand. I think what made it even more moving for me was that she explained things so clearly that it wasn't hard for me to see things through her eyes. Anne Frank had a wonderful spirit that refused to be broken no matter what. Her courage was admirable and as I came to the end of the book I found myself wishing and hoping that the book ended differently but it didn't. When I was done I wanted to cry. She was a brilliant mind and she had such a love for life.

Which made me think to myself that I should be grateful for the few loved ones I have and for the fact that I am as blessed as I am. Because she too deserved to survive and live her happily ever after, but as you know she never did. And like most of us she too wanted to be a writer. And what a talented writer she would have been.