> On the other hand, I think my writer's > "Voice" is as much a compilation of traits I've abosrbed from > other writers as it is exclusively my own voice. Do you other > writers here find that to be true? I think we try on many voices and styles, shucking one after another, until we find ourselves -- if we are determined and more than a little lucky -- with our own voices. The bad writers simply ape other writers; some writers (like Raymond Chandler) begin their writing lives as hacks, doing it purely for the money, until (as an engineer frequently sees additional improvements that can be made in a prototype) they eventually hit upon their natural voices. My rule of thumb is that my notebook is my place -- I do whatever I want there, whether it means improvising paragraphs starting from someone else's opening sentence, or writing as passage as another writer might have written it -- for experimentation. Sometimes things emerge. Sometimes not. That's what a notebook is good for, in my experience. For others, there are different rules of thumb. One finds what works, then holds onto it for dear life. --tim