Practical Advice on Literary Device
Wednesday, January 17th, 2024
by A.M. Carter
Do you want to write well, or do you want to be published?
I can almost hear the sardonic snort of your answer: “Well, both. Duh.”
I know, I know, but it’s a valid question. There’s a lot more to consider than meets the eye.
A few months back, I read a book called The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. I highly recommend it. It’s the sort of book that inspires an existential crisis, just in the very best way. In it, author Mark Manson discusses how one’s life purpose is to:
Accept that life is suffering.
Separate the aspects of life into two groups: those things for which we’re willing to suffer and those we’re not.
Abandon all things for which we’re unwilling to suffer.
Not only embrace those things for which we’re willing to suffer, but embrace that suffering.
It seems easy when put into a list; sounds easy when said aloud, but, if you’re anything like me, this leaves you with nothing but questions, including but not limited to:
How are we supposed to determine which camp each aspect of life falls into?
How are we supposed to just abandon unwanted suffering? You’ve heard of PTSD, right?
Do you want me to fall into a nihilistic depression? I mean, really, Mark, you’re going to say this:
“No matter where you go, there’s a five-hundred-pound load of shit waiting for you. And that’s perfectly fine. The point isn’t to get away from the shit. The point is to find the shit you enjoy dealing with.”
- Mark Manson
I could happily spend several posts delving into the content of this book, but that’s not why we’re here. So, how does any of this relate to finding your authentic author voice? Well, now that Mark has laid down some optimistic nihilism, let’s reframe the original question: are you willing to suffer to write well, or do you just want to be published?
That changes the game a bit, doesn’t it?
As Mark explains in the book, it’s the difference between climbing Mount Everest and experiencing the summit.
Image from Ian Taylor Trekking
Everyone wants to stand at the top of the world and take in that vista. It’s utterly spectacular, or so we're told, like looking off the edge of a brand new world, seeing our home with new eyes. However, at an altitude of 29,032 feet, you’d have to be damn near insane to climb Everest.
Aside from the -55 degree temperatures, winds of 100mph, and some of the single most unforgiving terrain imaginable, climbers are dealing with injuries, exhaustion, lack of oxygen, and High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE), which includes ataxia, fatigue, and altered mental states. It’s no wonder approximately 300 people have died in the attempt, 200 of them still up there, frozen in time.
Image from r/MapPorn on Reddit.
Writing well is the climb.
Publishing is the summit.
An authentic voice can make or break a writer. It’s a calling card, a lingering scent of perfume left on a pillow that unmistakably identifies the owner. No matter the characters, setting, plot, or genre, the reader knows you. Like an infant drawn to its mother, they see your name and immediately know the tone, cadence, vocabulary, prose, and depth they will find in your catalog. When I pick up my Unabridged Works of Edgar Allan Poe, I’m guaranteed a darkly humorous and cliché dose of emo metaphor, horror, and angst, all captured in an old English prose.
Hence, I love Poe.
I was a scene kid in the early 2000s. Sue me.
This bit of something distinctly you is the heart of your story, the reason any author has a following, and a following is publishing.
I've been writing intentionally for about a decade now and, as far as I can tell, the only path to an authentic voice is to fall irrevocably, passionately, madly in love with the struggle of writing a story well. I can’t give you an elixir, cheat sheet, or formula. I can’t bottle “Authentic Author Voice” and sell it on Etsy. No one can, not even you.
Passion can’t be taught, learned, or faked. It’s a deep, internal well-spring from which your thing will bubble, no matter how novice the soul. It's like an unhealthy attachment, existing on an intrinsic level where you’re so possessed of words that you can’t do anything but gush them. Even when it robs you of a social life, sleep, and alternative focus.
Nothing short of obsession will endure that climb.
So, is that you? Are you madly in love with this sexy meme?
If your answer is yes, I feel for you. We’re in deep, deep trouble because writing well isn't some objective understanding you can learn. Even if you are doing it well, there's always going to be someone who says otherwise. Even with passion, an author's voice is honed and practiced and ever-changing, growing as you grow. Again, I can't offer you the keys to this kingdom, but I can make the following suggestions:
Write what you know. The world, the characters, and the story come from you. If you’re forcing any of those elements, you know it and so will your readers. It’s fine to step out of your comfort zone, pivotal even, but if you haven’t lived and breathed what you’re writing, it won’t feel real for anyone.
Drop the pretense. You aren’t Tolstoy. You aren’t Shakespeare. You aren’t Dickens, Woolf, or Joyce. You aren’t a walking thesaurus and random, million-dollar words stick out like acne. Stop trying to be perceived as intelligent or cool or deep to appease the snobs I discussed in my first blog post. Stop trying to be something you’re not. You’re you. Accept yourself and you’ll become yourself.
Get real. Pour your heart out. Scoop out your metaphorical intestines, all of them, the grotesque and breathtaking, and lay it all down in bloody words. Hold nothing back in your honesty.
Publishing doesn’t matter. You can want that summit. You might even deserve it, but you have to let it go. This is about the climb. Write because you love it and without expectation. I’m not a spiritualist. This isn’t a “laws of attraction” moment. Publishing is unnecessary pressure, the sort potent enough to kill passion and leave you frozen on the mountainside. Absolutely submit for publishing, but that’s no longer the goal. The goal is to write well.
And, if you aren't crazy in love with writing, well, that’s okay.
Read that again. If you don’t want to get bloodied and bruised to write well ...
That. Is. Okay.
Maybe you just want to post your fanfiction and ride that kudos high. Maybe you just want to journal. Writing might not be your passion but something is, and you don’t want to waste your life pursuing the wrong summit. Write for fun and keep your eyes open. Your thing is still out there, and that’s the only summit that will ever satisfy.
Bukowski was a deeply troubled, reclusive, and unsettling man. He didn’t know how to live, but he knew how not to live.
“If it doesn’t come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don’t do it.”
- Charles Bukowski
That’s my practical advice.
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A.M. Carter
A.M. Carter is a freelance author and RV enthusiast moving out onto the open road with her pack of chihuahua babies to see the world and write stories. You can read her other works at amcarter.net and connect with her on X, Instagram, and Tumblr.
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