I recently had a (somewhat) interesting conversation with a customer in the children’s bookstore where I work. She came up to the counter and set down the second book in the Dragon Rider series by Cornelia Funke—who happens to be one of my favorite authors. And before I could say, “Oh! That’s one of my favorite authors,” she looked at me kind of snidely, tapped her finger on the cover, and said, “She really likes the sound of her own voice, doesn’t she?”
She then proceeded to tell me how she and her son slogged through the first book in agony, but because they didn’t want to just quit in the middle of a series, they were preparing themselves to grin and bear their slog through the next two books as well.
First of all, what a sad way to read—and, full disclosure, one that I have been guilty of myself and only just recently reformed from. (But more on that another time).
Second of all, and to jump to the immediate defense of one of my favorite authors: Cornelia Funke is German and, granted, I have a very limited understanding of the German language, but I am not wholly unfamiliar with the fact that they often use a single word to express an entire, often quite philosophical, concept. So, yeah, of course a translation from German to English could probably get a little wordy.
And third of all, what a weird thing to say about a writer.
I mean, does this same person chide singers for “loving the sound of their own voice?” Or berate painters and illustrators for “loving the images in their own heads?” Or look down her nose at dancers for “loving the movement of their own bodies?”
Because, in case you couldn’t tell from my classic long-windedness, all artists and creatives love the sound of their own “voice”.
Or rather, they love and have faith in the ideas they have and the worlds they create, and they think other people could benefit in some way from experiencing them, too. But the thing about artists is that they have no way to communicate these thoughts and ideas directly, and so they utilize their creativity instead.
This is because a lot of artists, for one reason or another, seem to have trouble communicating in general. Maybe they are often misunderstood by the people around them; maybe they grew up in an environment where they never had their voices actually heard, or were at the very least given the impression they wouldn’t be heard even if they tried; or maybe they’re just shy. To be frank, a lot of us just don’t have the natural charisma it takes to get people to notice us, let alone listen to us, even when we desperately want them to. And so, we create.
So, yes. Writers love the sound of their own voice. Much in the same way YouTubers and TikTokers and politicians and therapists and tour guides and actors and pretty much anyone who dares to put themselves out there in any way love the sound of their own voice.
We all love the sound of our own voice because we all think we have something important to say that is worth saying. And for some of us, the best way to say it is to write an entire freaking novel that takes us ten years of our life and still barely scrapes the surface of what we want people to see.
And sometimes we can say it with a pretty picture.
Night Owls, what is your “voice,” and what do you like the most about the sound of it?
