Welcome back to Notes from New York! Its about time we get back to our usual schedule of updates don't you think? Well let's jump right and talk about "trying too hard".
Is there such thing as "trying
too hard" in the writing world? After all, we all put our blood sweat and tears
into our manuscripts. Some days it feels like we can never be enough. How can we ever put in enough effort? But actually there is such a thing as trying too hard, and
it usually shows in your prose in the form of forced immitation.
In my internship, there were many occasions when I opened up
a query, read the sample pages, and found myself reading a piece of literary
fiction that was putting way too much effort into flowery prose. They
used lots of big words that, theoretically, could be put to beautiful use. But
it just didn’t sound natural. This is often a case
of forced imitation. The writers behind these pages really wanted to
emulate their favorite authors so they tried to mimic their style. But when
you’re mimicking and trying to force your prose to be flowery through an
overuse of adjectives and large words…it can verge on sounding fake, unnatural
and pretentious.
Why is this? Well because this isn’t your style. It’s
someone else’s that you are forcing yourself to emulate. Pro tip, a reader can
always tell when a writer is faking it. Its something about the way the words
are strung together. They come out stilted rather than flowing. Confused rather
than clear.
Forced imitation shows in the work of commercial fiction
writers too, of course. Sometimes you can tell an author is trying way too hard
to mimic the style or sense of humor of one of their idols. I had a phase
myself where I strove to recreate the sarcastic wit of Maximum Ride. It came out
very forced and cringy...and honestly, the sense of humor in those books was
already forced and cringy.
The best way to fix this problem? Get to know your own
style. Heck, maybe your style is literary, with prose like honey. Maybe your sense of humor is a riot. But as long
as you’re simply imitating, you won’t find that genuine voice that
sets you apart from the others.
Of course you may continue to draw inspiration
from your favorite authors. Of course continue to read, read and read more to improve
your own writing. But remember, imitation at the detriment of your own voice is
a killer. An agent doesn’t want ‘the next blank’. They want someone new and
fresh. Take a risk on your voice and maybe you’ll find something special.
