To Thine Own Self, Be True

With Angel: The Mithista Incident released, I have a bit of a breather. Not much, as the promoting aspect of this job is a never-ending task, but I have a little time before I return to Tal'Avern and get back to working on the last book in the Chronicles series.

 

As I sit here looking to my left where a paperback copy of Angel: The Mithista Incident sits, the reality of the past six months of work sinks in. With it comes the usual bouts of excitement that I've published another book which I hope people will enjoy, along with trepidations... nervously hoping that people will enjoy it.

 

Every artist goes through these feelings. That mixture of excitement and nervousness is universal, and it occurs to me that much of the reason behind those feelings boils down to something that can be summed up in a single word: style.

 

Every artist, whether musician, painter, sculpter, writer, actor, or any other which I haven't named, has their own style, their own unique flair. It's what sets them apart from all the others, after all. I suppose that's why I felt the need to write this, because that unique flair is what distinguishes each and every one of us.

 

If every musician played the same, we wouldn't be able to tell them apart when we heard their songs on the radio. If every actor used the same gestures and inflections in their dialogue, the only difference they'd have would be in their appearance. If every painter used the same kind of brush, canvas, colors, and methods, the only way we would be able to tell one painting from another would be by their signatures. And if every writer told their stories the same, the only difference from one romance to another, one fantasy to another, one sci-fi to another... would be the covers and authors' names.

 

What makes every artist unique is their own personal style. As a writer, like every other artist, I have my own unique style which is most easily seen by the amount of descriptiveness I use. In some places, my descriptions are full and precise, like watching a show on TV where everything is handed to you on screen, silently saying "this is how it is." In other places, my descriptions are very basic, almost like I was given a task and just did the bare minimum required to get that task done.

 

Why do I do that? Why am I very descriptive in some places and not in others? Shouldn't I keep things constant? Why not describe every blade of grass, every leaf on every tree, in order to give the reader that TV image in their mind? The reason is simple, and it's something which I've said quite often, which some will surely recognize:

 

 

I almost broke from my style with Angel: The Mithista Incident. I came close... closer than anyone will probably ever realize. For example, Dani, the main character, has blue eyes. I thought I needed to be more descriptive, so I looked up 'How to describe eye color' to get ideas. I found over a dozen ways to describe blue eyes based on the different shades from light to dark.

 

I started to look at the various descriptions. There was icy-blue, sky-blue, ocean-blue... just to name a few of them. As I sat at my desk trying to decide which would be the best one to use, it occurred to me that even those descriptions were vague. Icy-blue? That could be mostly white with just a hint of blue, to almost blue with a hint of white. Sky-blue? Which one? The morning sky that's very light? An afternoon sky that's a strong but beautiful medium shade of blue? What about right before the sun drops below the horizon and the sky turns a midnight blue?

 

At that moment, I realized that despite all the opinions I'd come across insisting eye color should be descriptive, doing so would change my style of writing - and I wasn't going to do that. So I decided not to follow those opinions. Not because I couldn't do it, but because that's not my style of writing.

 

Dani's eyes are blue. No more, no less. Why? Because that's not my part of the story to decide. It's the reader's. What one reader pictures could be the color of an afternoon sky. Another may see a deep ocean blue. Still another may think of the beautiful light blue eyes someone close to them has and so in their mind, Dani's eyes become that particular shade. I breathe life into the characters. But it's the reader who gives them their souls.

 

I almost stepped off that path. I almost took away one of the things that I hold so dear - my readers' ability to give the characters their souls... because I thought I needed to change my style and be more descriptive throughout the entire book, not just in some places.

 

It's that lack of description in places which allows my readers to see the story, not as I see it in my mind, but how they see it in their minds. This is my style. This is what creates an invisible, unbreakable bond between myself and my readers. What makes every writer different is that we each have our own unique style. Some will love a writer's particular style, others won't. That's just the way it is, and nothing can or will ever change it.

 

So to my fellow authors: Whether you describe every blade of grass and every leaf that falls from a tree or you give nothing but a basic description when you introduce characters on one page, since they just die on the next because they were wearing red shirts, never change your style. You can always improve your writing, but don't change your own unique, personal style. To thine own self, be true.

 

 

 

To my readers: I want to give you my most heartfelt thank you... not only for your continued support, but for making those decisions when the opportunities present themselves and seeing what you want to see in your minds. In so doing, you give the characters their souls.