after so many years of school where ive had to analyze literary techniques and write bullshit essays about analyzing literary techniques i find myself unable to write fiction that isnt fucking boring to read because it reads like an essay
how do i drop this and gain a style that not only doesnt bore the piss out of me when trying to write and read
Just read. Simple. My best motivator to write is to read, inversely. The more you read the more you can see other writing styles and shit. This does cause you to sometimes write unintentionally as a specific author (like myself, I love Neil Gaiman and find myself writing like him alot) but its still good practice. Oh yeah, second thing you should do is just write. Non-stop, and no matter what piece-of-shit writing you produce it is valuable, "cause every author produces shit" or something like that. Anyway, simple as that. Read and write. Hope you appreciate me saying things you probably thought of on your own.
Read, and write. Keep a journal, write down your random thoughts, as well as bits of whatever stories you're working on. Don't worry about 'finding your voice' you'll find it when you've had some practice. People tell me I write exactly how I sound, so I suppose I've 'found my voice'. But it wasn't always that way, it took years of plugging away at my writing. Good luck.
It might help to hand write things out, as well. I find that when I get stuck or bored with something, if I hand write it out it's a lot easier and I am more creative. Don't plan everything out. It takes practice, that's all.
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Anonymous2009-01-14 2:50
Just do the opposite of everything you'd do in an essay. When writing an essay, you attempt to repeat yourself as many times as possible so people actually follow what you're saying. When you write fiction, try to put every detail in as sneakily as possible. If the sentence comes out ungainly, you must delete things and hide them elsewhere. This can be pages earlier if you like. You are now writing fiction.
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Anonymous2009-01-14 5:45
Don't think, feel and you'll be tanasinnOrson Scott Card.
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Anonymous2009-01-22 0:17
Read as much as you possibly can. Especially people who have a particularly strong voice in their writing. You'll pick up bits here and there.
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Anonymous2009-01-24 0:47
Essayists can do great fiction. Just don't try to be all flowery. Focus your energy on story instead of description and detail, let those either develop themselves or be inferred.