Finding Your Author's Voice

Arthur Gulumian

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Maintaining Originality Through Influence
Hubpages | 2009

“To be great is to be misunderstood.”
- Ralph W. Emerson, Self-Reliance

An author’s voice is the mark and symbol of a writer’s influence on the reader. When reading the classic literature of Shakespeare, there is a certain tone or dialect present in his work that allows the reader to be able to distinguish a Shakespearian writing from an Edward Spenser. To leave a mark in literature is to give the reader a familiarization with the given work; allowing the reader to both understand, and more importantly, envision your great literature.

Breaking The Rivalry

In an effort to rival qualities of great authors, young and terribly frightened new writers often limit their abilities and originality by unintentionally using the “more qualified” tones portrayed by a recognized writer - such errors can leave detrimental consequences to literary works. A reader should only see a consistency in your great work, not the consistency of a previous author. Remaining self-reliant absolves the author of conformity and breaks the limits that narrow the imagination.

Upholding Confidence

An inexperienced author’s first step is to enter a world of erudite ideas - concepts and works that seem far beyond the simplicity of their writing at hand. Although the thought of recognition is within the author’s aware consciousness, the fact that the great authors once shared their same scenario is ignored. A world can only be as real as the perceiver perceives it - so why claim a limited reality? Uphold your confidence as vigorously as your inspiration to write - the lack of confidence could only worsen an effort.

Literary Tone

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born British novelist who wrote the very famous novel, Heart of Darkness - a story of “a journey into the deep psyche of the human mind” as the residential scholar, Amanda Var Larhooven, describes. Conrad’s voice was spoken through his literature and marked his work with an incredible tone.

“The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway. In the offing the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint, and in the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished spirits.”
                                                        - Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1)

Conrad’s tone is the main element that brought his work to recognition; although his tale influenced many to consider the full extent of the human’s capability of evil, his phrases and style served as a catalyst to reassure the reader to understand the solemnity of his stories.

Writing Is Without Limit

Without an iron chain the individual can run towards a greater distance, therefore an author without the burden of impressing the world can also write without limits. Great writers carry no bounds nor worry for the opinion’s of others - an author’s goal is to express their own opinion, not match the legitimacy or qualifications of others. Greatness can not be obtained - it is created.