Lyrical happenstance

Over at readergirlz.com they have these darling (and useful!) bookmarks with book recommendations, Best Books for your BFF. Apparently two of my books are featured! How cool is that? I know people think that these things don't matter to writers after a while, but the truth is, it's always cool when people love your books and recommend them to others. Always always.

Since I'm not able to answer emails anymore (less time, more emails), I try to watch out for frequently asked questions and respond to them here. This is a surprising question that I get quite often:

"How do you write so lyrically?"

First, thank you! Second, I don't think it helps to think of yourself as any type of writer. When goose girl came out, the reviews started to use that word, "lyrical." I'd never been called that before, not in the previous 19 years I'd been writing. I'd read "lyrical" writers and "poetic" writers, whose stories were full of "lush imagery," but I never thought of myself that way at all. I thought it admirable, but I never aspired to be that kind of writer because I didn't think I was that kind of writer, never dreamed I could do it. By the time goose girl was released, I was nearly finished writing enna burning, I read those "lyrical" reviews and I panicked. All those people thought of me as a lyrical writer now, but enna burning wasn't like that. Everyone would see through me then. They'd point and call it a hoax. "goose girl was lyrical," they'd say, "but now we see with enna burning that she was just pretending all along!" Then enna burning came out, and again, that word was applied--lyrical. I was stunned. The same thing happened with princess academy. And river secrets. Who knew?

I never try to be poetic. I'm just trying to describe things the best way I can, hoping that the two-dimensional letters can lead the reader into a five-senses experience. I wouldn't worry about applying those impossible adjectives on yourself. Don't describe yourself. Don't try to analyze your writing style. Do your best to tell the story you want to tell in the best way you can, and let the marketing folks decide the market and the reviewers apply their own labels. You're just the writer. You don't have to be that smart.

[Edit] In the comments, Laura wrote this limerick in response to this post, but I have to paste it up here in case people don't cruise through the comments. It's just too brilliant to miss.

A guide for writing the lyrical:
(Not based on studies empirical.)
See, here is the thing;
You can’t MAKE the words sing.
Just write, and hope for a miracle.