Championing your Voice

By Kristin Billerbeck, author of The Theory of Happily Ever After

“Voice” is such an important part of “writing.”  We love authors for their individual voices and the way they tell their stories.  The wry wit of Jane Austen, the verbose word pictures of Dickens’s characters, the soothing Southern ambiance of Pat Conroy’s prose, they are all recognizable by their voice.  As writers, we must be brutally honest with ourselves about what we bring to the table as a storyteller. 

I published many books before I found my voice.  I was writing sweet, Christian romances about kindly, generous heroines. It turned out, I identified more with the heroine of “Bridget Jones’s Diary” than I did my own heroines. Even Scarlett O’Hara with her spoiled southern ways spoke to me in her clear cut fashion and survival nature.  I’m not proud of this discovery, but I had to admit, it was the truth.  

At that point, I sat at my desk and wrote one chapter in first-person present and told the awful truth as I understood it — as an aging Christian spinster in a church singles’ group.  That book became my best selling, “What a Girl Wants.” 

At the time, I didn’t hold back because I didn’t know any better.  I didn’t know it would be offensive.  I didn’t make it politically correct.  I wrote about the unfairness of being a good, godly young woman and waiting while all the eligible bachelors at church snapped up the young, hot chicks straight out of college. 

So you have to ask yourself when searching for your voice, what’s your truth?  When you look around your world, what injustice makes you feel undone? Maybe your voice and passion come in your settings.  Do the intricate veins on a leaf make you contemplate life as a whole? When you walk in a Civil War graveyard and read an epitaph, are you compelled to tell that person’s story and imagine yourself back in 1861?

If you were to sit down and write a tale about something that unsettles you and feels like a grand injustice in the world, what would it be?  What is your truth as an author? Your voice will come from that truth.  Write down something only your best friend knows about you. Is it part of your story?

Now for the negative. when you write the truth, it will polarize readers.  That’s why so many authors play it safe and write sweet, little stories that won’t stir the literary world.  

When I wrote my latest, The Theory of Happily Ever After about a research scientist bouncing back after a setback, I definitely heard from people who disagree with my take on overcoming depression as a Christian.  With What a Girl Wants I even got called a choice name or two — things that probably shouldn’t be uttered from a Christian’s mouth. (There are a few verses on judgment after all.)  But that result is inevitable if you voice your truth.  You’ll trigger someone. But look at it this way, you’ll make them feel something.  Maybe they needed their world rocked a little.

My best advice for finding your true voice is to think about what you’d write if there were no rules.  If you weren’t trying to fit into a mold and get published by XYZ Publishing, what would you have to say?  How would your character say it?  Where would your character say it from? What would their deepest truth be? What would they never do?  Now, what would drive them to do just that? 

You may show your voice in dialogue, setting or even in plot structure, but tell your truth.  It’s what sets your book apart and what makes any bestseller, special.    ________________________________________________________________

Kristin Billerbeck is the author of more than thirty novels, including What a Girl Wants and the Ashley Stockingdale and Spa Girls series. She is a fourth-generation Californian who loves her state and the writing fodder it provides. Learn more at www.KristinBillerbeck.com.

Historical Romance in the American South

By Dina Sleiman

When my agent asked me to write a historical romance, my next task was to decide on a specific setting. Prairie stories dominate the inspirational romance world, but I’m not really a prairie kind of girl. I long for settings with elegance and mystique. My favorite place on earth has long been a stretch of country situated on route 17 near Paris, Virginia, featuring rolling hills, vineyards, horses, and gorgeous old plantation houses. You see, I’m a transplanted Southerner. I’ve now lived in Virginia for twenty years, and for a decade, I would pass that spot on route 17 while driving to visit my parents in Pittsburgh. I fell utterly in love with it.

But alas, once I pinned down my 1817 date and the plot for my novel, I realized the best setting would actually be Charlottesville, Virginia. A location slightly to the south and east of my personal paradise, but every bit as picturesque and even more full of history and gorgeous plantations. There I found the legendary Three Notch’d Road and the lovely Birdwood Pavilion, which almost perfectly matched the plantation in my head.

Maybe you’re wondering why more inspirational romances aren’t set in the ideally romantic American south. I mean mint juleps on the verandah? Gone with the Wind? I think the answer lies in slavery. An issue far from romantic or ideal. That idyllic Southern existence was an illusion based on oppression, often even abuse. And inspirational romance fans aren’t the best audience for ugly stories about oppression and social injustice. So my challenge in choosing this Southern setting was to find a way to deal with this issue and still create an enjoyable, romantic read.

The solution I found was to face it head on. Several of my main characters are involved in the abolitionist movement. So the ugliness of slavery is not overlooked. Meanwhile, my primary plantation owners are kind to their slaves, treating them like family. And my main character, Constance Cavendish, often finds herself drawn to befriend the slaves around her.

Meanwhile, my reader is able to focus on Constance’s primary challenge, to teach the “scandalous” waltz to the twin sisters of her former fiancé, the man who jilted her when she needed him most. That gives the reader the perfect opportunity to visit those amazing plantation homes, including Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, and take a fun peek at the planter elite class of Virginia complete with its balls, fancy parties, and Regency fashions. They get to glimpse the culture of that day including music, dance, literature, and even science. They also get to experience the nearby mountains, frontiersman, and American Indians.

I call this my Scarlett O’Hara meets Jane Austen novel, and I’m glad I took the risk of setting my book in the beautiful South. Historical Virginia might have included a degree of villainy and oppression, but it was also a fascinating place full of beauty, excitement, and legendary figures, which I’m thrilled to explore in .

And I’m not the only author branching out to the American South. Mary Lu Tyndall has been using Southern settings for years. In her newest book, Veil of Pearls, she takes a direct look at the world of slavery. Tamera Alexander has set her most recent books, ALasting Impressions and To Whisper Her Name, on the plantations of Tennessee. And look for Magistrate’s Folly, a great short historical romance by Lisa Richardson set in Williamsburg that should be releasing early 2013. I’m excited about this shift in romance settings, and I know many other authors and readers are thrilled to visit the American South through fiction as well. I hope to continue exploring the rich history of Virginia for many years to come.

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Dina Sleiman explores the world of 1817 Virginia in her novel Love in Three-Quarter Time.  Per Amazon's Author page, "Dina Sleiman writes from Virginia Beach. She enjoys hanging out with her husband and three children, preferably at the oceanfront. Since finishing her Professional Writing MA in 1994, she has enjoyed many opportunities to teach literature, writing, and the arts. She was the Overall Winner in the 2009 Touched by Love contest for unpublished authors. Her debut novel is Dance of the Dandelion " Her website can be found at http://dinasleiman.com