Rambling: NaNoWriMo: Things I'm learning while slacking off

This NaNoWriMo thing has inspired me to dig around Google, reading about writing. Rather than, y'know, actually writing. While all this research isn't the least bit likely to lead to me Becoming A Writer, I've run across a few things that I'd never heard of before.

Most recently, I read a discussion of voice and voice slippage. The concept of maintaining voice - the idea that a writer should maintain a consistent style and personality in his writing, or should have a plan and a darn good reason when it's not consistent - isn't altogether new to me, but the term is, and a term is always useful for bringing something into clearer focus. Halfway through reading the article on that link, it occurred to me that when I throw a "Warning: Rhapsodizing follows" line into a post, I'm reacting to a monstrous voice slippage on my part.

So I should probably cut that out. The voice slippage, that is, not the warnings; if I'm going to rhapsodize anyway, I think that some safety precautions for the reader are called for.

That's just about all. But go read the linked article; it's very interesting.

Image: Wikimedia Commons