The First Draft Is Allowed to Be Bad

Voice and style are not the same thing, though the two are endlessly confused. Style is the surface — the diction, the sentence shapes, the mannerisms — and it can be imitated. Voice is the sensibility underneath, the particular way of seeing that no amount of imitation can fake. Style is learned; voice is uncovered.

Beware the sentence that sounds clever the first time and hollow the third. Cleverness is the easiest thing to fall in love with and the first thing a good reader distrusts, because it so often exists to flatter the writer rather than serve the reader. When a line preens, cut it, however much it cost to make.

Reading slowly is a countercultural act now, and it is worth relearning.