It's Not What You Say...

It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. In life this can be so true. You don’t have to have lived much to know that an argument can start with someone just over the tone of their words. But I’m not sure how true that is for books.

Granted, a nonfiction book poorly written, doesn’t fill me with confidence in what they’re saying. They could be giving me the best advice of my life, but filled with spelling and grammatical errors, I probably won’t listen. But I think that while an author’s style and voice are important, but just as important is what they’re saying. One of my favorite authors just released a new book and I bought the 30$ hardcover, excited to read it. When I finished, however, I was disappointed. There was no story and she hadn’t had much to say.

So while how you say something might be important, equally, what you have to say needs to match. Voice is unique but it can’t carry a story that’s limping along behind it. Voice is just an element of the many things you need for a successful and interesting story.

That being said, for the first time ever, I’ve bought a book purely because of the author’s voice. Chuck Wendig posts hilarious lists that I read, no matter what he’s writing about, just because I know it will be funny.  Even though a lot of these lists (that I’ve already read) are also included in the book, I bought it anyway. I’m not sure if, by the end, I’ll even care what he told me. I just know that there has to be an exception to every rule and this one’s pretty great.