Finding My Voice

When people discover that I write, they inevitably ask me what I write about. And I usually answer – everything! I write fiction, non-fiction, poetry, suspense, romance, travel stories, humor, women’s literature, irony, etc. Every time I am asked to choose a genre that best fits my work, I freeze.

What kind of writer am I?

I don’t follow a prescription for a particular readership and I think today’s women are too bright, diverse, and accomplished to read a lot of single thread stories. I know what I like to read echoes this. I want it all in a book if it is going to keep my interest. I desire adventure, suspense, romance, mystery, witty dialogue. And if possible, I’d prefer enough description of the location – a real place that I could actually go to and experience for myself – to make me feel as though I had been there just by reading the book.

Wow! That’s a tall order.

But it’s completely do-able. And once it has been accomplished, choosing the genre is a major event for me.

A group of online writers, SheWrites, has helped me clarify that without having to do much work. Having recently joined, I was busy going through the ‘introduction’ and ‘getting started’ pages when I came across a listing of sub-groups that I could join.

Oh my gosh, it was like an amusement park for writers and I just needed to choose which ride I wanted to experience and get in line. There were groups for struggling writers, (that’s me), and one for poets, another for paranormal, and one for fantasy writers – the list was amazing. I could picture myself in many of them.

And then, like a dazzling sunburst, I saw it: Southern Writers! That’s my lane, and that’s the right line. I am Southern, and even when I am writing about New Zealand it is through my Southern voice. Wherever I go, it comes along for the ride. My humor, irony, story-telling, and love of beautiful places, comes directly from my Southern roots and upbringing. Everything I write about may not happen in the south, but it is told through my perspective as a Southern woman.

So thank you, She Writes, for helping me already. The next time someone asks me what kind of writer I am, I’ll tell them – Southern!