Writer identity by Rebecca Seaton

 

Writer identity by Rebecca Seaton

 

What is your writer identity? How does this affect your work? Does it even matter?

 

It used to be common to question if readers could tell if a writer was male or female. After all, authors from the Brontes to J K Rowling have felt the need to use a male name to be taken more seriously. Would we know they were women if that information hadn’t come out? Perhaps. It is also suggested that men find it easier to write physical scenes and women are better at the psychological tension, hence the success of writing couples, like Nicci French: the psychological terror builds effectively but we are also left in no doubt as to the physical horrors the characters endure. There may be some truth in gender shaping author identity but I’m more convinced that it’s possible to tell a married writer from a single one. I love fantasy and it is definitely the case that if it’s written by a married author there’s a much higher percentage of characters who end up with a romantic partner! Interestingly, I was giving the pitch for my WIP at an agent event and an agent said she liked the female/female friendship at the heart of it as teenagers are complaining that too many YA novels centre around a romantic plotline, even when the book is not in the romance genre. Perhaps our author identity needs to be more aware of the identities and priorities of our readership.

 

Part of our identity comes from whether we consider ourselves an experienced or a new writer. We have to be careful this doesn’t hold us back. Experience shouldn’t lead to arrogance and lack of shouldn’t cause us nerves. The important thing is to use that experience, or that new-found enthusiasm, to the best of our ability.

 

Then there’s faith. We are ‘More than Writers’ after all. Readers don’t want a tract but, what/who is in us will always come across in our work. For myself, I always end up writing about forgiveness and redemption, often without really intending to. Who I know God to be is what matters and is what comes out of me. We have to be true to ourselves.

 

So know who you are. Write not just (as often advised) from a place of experience but from a place of knowing, deeply, who you are.

 

                                                                                                                  

Rebecca writes fantasy novels, magazine articles and the occasional play. She had her first novel, A Silent Song, published through Pen to Print’s Book Challenge competition and is currently working on the second book of a new trilogy.