So many writers worry about whether their language sounds good enough. Good enough for what, I’ll never know. As a result, they go over and over and over their pages until they’ve eliminated just about any trace of their own personal voice or style, thereby guaranteeing themselves a case of stilted writing.
What a shame!
The name of the writing game is not to turn your prose into a generic pot of mush, but rather to power it up with your own perspective and style. The key to your book’s success lies in your original ideas, stories, imagery, and turn of phrase. So, for now, quit worrying about anything but making sure that what you crank out reflects–and sounds like–you.
Start by writing a letter about your book to someone you trust. My clients are very familiar with the Sloppy Letter to Linden, which requires that you not worry about spelling, grammar, logic, continuity, or anything else. Instead, you just need to let the words flow in the world’s messiest written brain dump. There will be plenty of time to organize and edit later on. This is the time to explore ideas and free up that writer’s voice you’ve spent so much time squashing.
If you’re still afflicted with stilted writing even after purging on the page, ask a friend to sit down with you, turn on a tape recorder (you probably have one on your phone), and tell them about your book. I’m not talking about giving them that three-sentence elevator description, although you could start there as long as you make sure not to concern yourself with whether that elevator is stopping at the next floor or going up to the 137th floor.
Talk out the book’s premise and the first chapter or two, or whatever comes to mind if you’re not sure about the book’s organization. Share any stories–yours or your client’s–that could fit, along with any seemingly unrelated tales that come to mind. Don’t worry about whether they’ll work. The objective here is to loosen up and discover your writer’s voice–even if you have to talk it out to unearth it.
Have the recording transcribed at an automated transcription service. The one I use (https://www.rev.com/automated-transcription) charges $0.25 a minute. That means you can talk nonstop for an hour and only have to pay $15 to have it all transcribed. You’ll have to read through the transcription, which you’ll usually have back in a matter of minutes, for mistakes, but that part’s easy.
Use the transcription as a model for how to write the rest of your book in your own voice–or keep talking out your chapters if that’s what it takes–and you’ll have zapped your stilted writing for good.
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