So, I was doing some self-analysis of my own work, critiquing myself, not only to compare that to the criticism of others, but also just to try and improve myself as both a writer and a critic. I quite easily pointed out an abundance of flaws but when it came to giving myself praise, that was much harder. All I could really say was that my book was fun. It was enjoyable. It was entertaining. What I couldn't quite place my finger on, was why.

After a lot of thinking, I came to one conclusion. Quite simply, my voice allows the book to be enjoyable. I then came to realise that voice is, without question, the most important thing in any piece of work, regardless of genre.

Voice is each author's own distinct writing style, how they and they alone put the words together. It makes each author unique, separating them from everyone else. This voice is not shown through dialogue, but rather the most important and most neglected character of them all: The Narrator. A book cannot live and breathe without a narrator. Done properly, a narrator makes the book spring to life, makes the words pop off the page, sucks you into the story until the only thing that matters in your life is finishing that read.

I say voice is important, because it is so clearly the biggest mistake I see in the Pokémon community on Wattpad. Every book feels the same. You could take a whole chunk of text from one book, place it in another and nobody would notice because it might as well have been written by the same person. Their voice is not distinct. It's boring. And we don't finish boring books.

In these books, the narrator serves to deliver exposition and describe things in particularly uninteresting ways. I'm not saying every sentence has to be jam packed with explosions and excitement, but even a boring sentence can be completely lit up with your own personal spark, giving it your own unique twist.

Coming back onto myself, I find I have a particularly distinctive voice. People always say my book is funny, but when you look at it, traditional comedy is seldom found. It's not like a sitcom at all. The situations the characters find themselves in aren't particularly funny. There are good one liners in dialogue here and there but these should feel out of place given the seriousness of most of the situations. It is actually the narrator who does most of the heavy lifting. Ordinary actions are transformed into ridiculous and memorable lines, setting the tone perfectly and putting a smile on the reader's face.

I decided it would be interesting to have a little experiment. I went on the PWA discord and asked for people to submit some sentences and I've placed a few of my own down below as well. Your job is to identify the ones written by me, or better yet who wrote every single line. If the authors involved have written well then you should read it and go "I know who wrote that! That just is them!" (Just a side note, some names were changed to protect the innocent and to avoid spoiling the characters involved as that ruins everything.)

Setting aside the fact that its body had an appearance that was much different from a human's, she tried to find an objective reason why a little creature that crawled on the ground and shot string from its mouth could be a threat to a sixteen-year old girl who owned no less than two Pokémon that could slice it in half with a single spin of their star-shaped bodies.

Adding a dash more milk and giving a controlled yet vigorous stir, Alex hoped he'd concocted the perfect brew.

Loose petals came away from the flowers and were caught by the wind, carrying them across the yellow-orange sky in twisting spirals.

Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particular about the knocker on the door, except that it was very large. It is also a fact, that Alex had seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence in that place; also that Alex had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the city of Goldenrod, even including—which is a bold word—the corporation, aldermen, and livery.

With my hood casting shadows on my face, my eyes stood out dramatically against the dark circles under them that had all but become a part of who I was at this point, appearing as rings of sky blue against near-blackness that made me look positively haunting to an unsuspecting witness.

I, meanwhile, was seriously doubting her ability as a guide.

He settled for not-so-subtly sneaking rolls from the platter that had been foolishly placed closer to him than anyone else.

Having finished his rather delightful morning meal, Alex stood up and checked to see that he was fully ready for this perfectly innocent activity.

The brisk autumn wind bit a red blush into Alex's cheeks when she pushed out of the building. She tugged her overly-fluffy pink coat tighter.

Every time he thought he'd undone the irritating obstacle, it seemed to somehow latch itself back together, as if it had a mind of its own and was determined to stop him.

And from the mushroom cloud of dust, Gliscor flew towards the dragon, the silver glow of Guillotine covering his pincers. Garchomp gave a thundering roar to the sky and met Gliscor in the middle with a powerful Giga Impact. The world turned white, and then Alex knew no more.

Still a little cranky about it, she was annoyed when her town gave her a warm welcome.

He felt that 'disconnection' from the world once the aged, ruined temple came into sight, along with the scenery faded by distance. There weren't even any insects or Pidgey here, just the ruined temple, the large green hexagon, and of course, Alex.

Without any further warning, he felt his mother's arms wrap around him, ensnaring him in their deadly trap.

The boy locks a cover over the panel with a tiny key and slides it over to me, reaching under the counter for the Safari balls that go with it.

The kiss that followed started slowly with both parties simply savouring the moment but it soon became a passionate affair, the contact between the two becoming increasingly more extravagant and wild, almost as though their mouths were engaged in some really weird, deranged form of combat and neither one was giving in.

He was a tall, scrawny human, reminded me of one of those weird Exeggutor that were from Alola.

How many did you get? Would it help if I told you that I wrote five of the above? I imagine most people would do fairly well in being able to spot the ones written by me. I tried to pick sentences that were both indicative of my writing style and yet weren't completely obvious, as I knew the examples I was going to receive generally weren't going to try to be funny and so my ones would stand out like a sore thumb. The exception that I just could not resist adding was this:

"The kiss that followed started slowly with both parties simply savouring the moment but it soon became a passionate affair, the contact between the two becoming increasingly more extravagant and wild, almost as though their mouths were engaged in some really weird, deranged form of combat and neither one was giving in."

Put simply, nobody else in their right mind would write something like this. Who else would describe a romantic making out scene in this totally barbaric way? This is what makes me personally stand out. I write things in ways you wouldn't expect, I like to spice up totally normal descriptions with my own personal flair, making my writing unique to me. This is what makes my writing lend so well to comedy; not because I'm particularly funny, or I write about funny things, I just describe things in a funny way.

Out of all of the extracts I was given, I particularly like this one from Sheldon. "He felt that 'disconnection' from the world once the aged, ruined temple came into sight, along with the scenery faded by distance. There weren't even any insects or Pidgey here, just the ruined temple, the large green hexagon, and of course, Mirror." Sheldon is an author who I admire for his excellent world building and this quick extract demonstrates the skills he uses to do that. In just two short sentences, he not only describes the scene, painting a vivid image in the reader's mind, but he also creates mystery and intrigue which gives him so much potential later down the road. What was this temple for? Why is it ruined? Why is nothing else here, not even life? Sheldon does all of this quickly and easily, using only his words and his style, transforming what could have been a very basic description into something much more interesting.

I also ran a second secret experiment within the main experiment. One of the extracts above is not from an author on Wattpad. They're not in the PWA discord server. They weren't even alive when Wattpad was created. So, have a little fun. See if you can spot which one was written but a little-known author by the name of Charles Dickens.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "But Gremlin, what was the point in all this?" The point, my slippery little friend, was to remind you of the single most important thing when writing. You. You are the most important thing about your writing. After all, what makes your work unique? You do! When you try to improve as a writer, it's easy to get lost in a sea of advice. You're trying to take everything on board and remember all the things you're supposed to do as well as all the things you're not supposed to do and let's face it, it's bloody difficult.

So just try not to lose yourself. Never sacrifice what makes your writing your own. Finding a developing a voice is not something that can be taught, rather it's learned over a long period of time. Keep trying, keep writing, keep being you.

Big thanks to @d_s_t_e @DragonsRose @ImberLapis @SGmijumaru @blastodon @SikanderESalazar @LunaRowlet and of course Charles Dickens for donating their extracts! Especially when I didn't even tell them what it was for!