Q&A: Inspiration and personal voice

Learning how to write

Welcome to the first of what I hope will be a recurring Q&A feature. I’m trying something new today and am protecting part of my answer, which I hold near to my heart, behind a paywall. Please email me if you would like a comped subscription, no explanation needed.

This question is about my writing practice. Although the reader asked it in the context of working on a novel, I’ve answered with respect to all the writing I’ve done since starting this newsletter.

Over the past year and a half, I’ve sent 56 letters, including this one. I’ve completed seventeen legal briefs, filled two giant Moleskines as well as pages from other notebooks of varying size, and submitted an article to be published this spring. And since November, I’ve written and outlined substantial portions of the manuscript that I hope you will someday get to read.

I list this because it’s important to note that I write across multiple genres, including fiction, nonfiction, and legal writing. What I learn through one necessarily influences and affects the others. I feel lucky to get to engage in a broad range of work.

The advice I have heard and continue to find true across genres is that good writing comes from good thinking. The written word does not mask so much as reveal what our thoughts contain or lack.

I hope you enjoy this exchange, and I welcome more questions. You can submit them by replying to this email or clicking the button below.

Inspiration and personal voice

When you are writing, do you have in mind any authors whose writing you admire or enjoy? 

This question evokes the tension between mimicry and inspiration. One of the simplest ways to learn something new is by copying how someone else does it. When I first started writing appellate briefs, I looked to other lawyers’ filings for examples. Learning to craft arguments was somewhat like learning a language. I mimicked and impersonated and, after seeing an array of samples, began to determine what works. Over the years I’ve grown confident in my strategies and preferences. I don’t need to refer to other briefs as much. But for a time, I used them like training wheels on my way to developing logical balance.

Starting a newsletter was similar. Although I’d published short stories, I had never publicly blogged or written personal essays before. When I look back at my earliest posts, I can see the influence of other writers. As a fledgling personal essayist, I tried on the styles, formats, and topics of newsletters I admire.

The thing is, I don’t recall mimicking anyone when learning to write fiction.