Writers, Have You Found Your Voice?
Voice is an elusive creature that creeps in the shadows, mocking us, daring us to find it. Voice is also near-impossible to define. I gave it a shot back in 2016 on the Kill Zone (btw, I stand by that post, but it needed more). Droves of new writers pray to the literary gods each and every day to find their voice, even if they haven’t yet grasped what it is they’re searching for. Many things go into to a writer’s voice. Ready? Here we go for round two …
One day the clouds part, the heavens open, and your prose sings.
Until that day arrives, I hope this post will help those still struggling.
For years, I kept hoping to find my writer’s voice, but I had no clue where to look. Deep within myself? Through hours and hours of practice would it suddenly appear? What was this mysterious “voice” everyone spoke about? And why didn’t I have one? Perhaps it’s the perfect blend of style, rhythm, and cadence that make up the mysterious writer’s voice. Maybe it’s a bit like trying to define the difference between graffiti and street art. We might not be able to put it into words, but we’ll know it when we read it.
When I look back on those early days I wish someone had told me, with a clear definition, how to develop my voice. The thing is, there’s no one-size-fits-all way to do it. Over time, with study and practice, a writer’s voice becomes as unique as a fingerprint. Voice is the combination of syntax, diction, punctuation, dialogue, sentence rhythm, and character development across their entire body of work. Just as a flute doesn’t sound like a clarinet, neither does one writer from another.
How awesome is that?
We all use the same 26 letters, and yet, no two authors will tell the same story in the same way. One writer might use run-on sentences, another might load their prose with short, punchy fragments. Neither is wrong; it’s a matter of personal style.
Style is just one facet of voice.
Another is characterization.
By knowing our characters intimately, by understanding their hopes, their dreams, their backgrounds, scars, flaws, nervous ticks, religious beliefs, world views, what they fear, what they strive for, what they want more than anything else … we’re able to slip into their skin and write using their voice. Not only in dialogue, but in the narrative as well — also known as narrative voice.
Take, for instance, the protagonist in my Mayhem Series. Shawnee Daniels is a wise-cracking, snarky chick who had a brutal childhood. Raised in foster care, she escaped to the city streets at an early age. So, the way she views the world is much different than her straight-laced best friend, Nadine, who was raised in a loving and often sheltered environment. Shawnee is overly cautious, with language to shame the devil. She has huge trust issues, and in a lot of ways, she’s her own worst enemy.
Where Shawnee sees danger, Nadine sees an innocuous situation. Nadine never swears. Instead, she uses words like “ship” and “fleakin’.” She’s a glass-half-full type of girl. Shawnee’s glass barely has a drop in it.
Nadine’s dialogue is filled with words like “Woot!” She waves jazz hands and bounces on her toes when she’s excited. Shawnee is the polar opposite. She’d rather catch a bullet to the chest than wave a jazz hand in the air and she certainly would never use the word “Woot.” Because she’d never do these things in the dialogue, I can’t let her do them in the narrative, either, or the story would lose its narrative voice.
If we write the narrative from our perspective rather than our characters’, we limit the point of view. Author intrusion is a big no-no when writing in deep POV. For more on deep POV, check out this first page critique on the Kill Zone.
What about word choices?
Without question, the words we choose matter. Some writers have a more literary bent to their voice, others shy away from flowery prose. Some writers world-build more than others, some describe everything — from weather to the buttons on clothes — and some only include a quick sentence or two. Our technique helps to define our voice.
Same holds true for the way we convey a story.
As writers, we’re influenced by the books we read, the television and movies we watch, the music we listen to, and the world around us. So, it makes sense that all those influences will bleed into our writing, as well. Life experience adds another dimension to our storytelling.
Is that all we need to know to find our writing voice?
No.
The following snippet is a major influence on a writer’s voice.
“Writers are at the outset a scared species. It’s not our fault: we’re told that it’s a bad idea and unless we want to prepare for a life lived inside a palatial piano crate we should just buckle down and become accountants. And so I think there’s a lot of bad psychic voodoo that clogs the works, and until we start to clear that out, it’s really hard to find out who we are on the page and what our voice looks and sounds like. Finding your voice is then synonymous with losing the fear of not just writing but of being a writer.” — Author/Blogger Chuck Wendig
So, what is voice and where do we find it?
By remaining true to our characters in dialogue as well as in the narrative, by our use of syntax, diction, punctuation, dialogue, pace, and sentence rhythm, combined with our ability to write beyond our comfort level and share our demons, our past, our life experience as a whole, by writing “in the zone” with authenticity and honesty throughout our career, with consistency, by daring to reach into the darkest recesses of our soul and spill our joys, fears, sorrow, pain, hopes and dreams on the page, our distinct writing voice blossoms. Thus, voice is an extension of our truest self.
Did I miss anything?
Readers, what authors’ voices have stuck with you, and why?
If you enjoyed this post, please share. Thank you!
Sue Coletta
Sue Coletta is an award-winning crime writer and an active member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Feedspot and Expertido.org named her Murder Blog as “Best 100 Crime Blogs on the Net.” She also blogs on the Kill Zone (Writer's Digest "101 Best Websites for Writers"), Writers Helping Writers, and StoryEmpire. Sue lives with her husband in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. Her backlist includes psychological thrillers, the Mayhem Series (books 1-3) and Grafton County Series, and true crime/narrative nonfiction. Now, she exclusively writes eco-thrillers, Mayhem Series (books 4-9 and continuing). Sue's appeared on the Emmy award-winning true crime series, Storm of Suspicion, and three episodes of A Time to Kill on Investigation Discovery. When she's not writing, she loves spending time with her murder of crows, who live free but come when called by name. And nature feeds her soul.
28 Comments
Deborah Armstrong
Chick Corea, the famous jazz musician said while he was trying to find his style he shamelessly imitated the styles of other jazz greats. A creative writing teacher had us imitate the styles of authors we admired and post those assignments. It seemed counter-intuitive that it would work to find my voice by copying others, but I think the teacher was right.
Sue Coletta
Oh, absolutely, Deborah. Emulating favorite authors is a great exercise. Thanks for adding this tip. Maybe it’ll help someone who’s still looking for their voice.
jaye
It is mainly due to authors like yourself, Sue, that have helped encourage me to find my voice and be the best I can. Especially as you write in my preferred genre!
Sue Coletta
Aww, you’re so sweet, Jaye. Thank you for the kind words. <3
Robbie Cheadle
I thought this was very interesting, Sue. I have never thought about this before.
Sue Coletta
Thanks, Robbie. Voice is such a difficult thing to describe. I’m so pleased you enjoyed the post. 🙂
Staci Troilo
Voice is so hard to define. You did an excellent job. (And the examples of Shawnee and Nadine are fabulous. I love their juxtapositioning in your work.)
Sue Coletta
Thank you, Staci. <3
Garry Rodgers
Great stuff from a great voice, Sue! You know, I must be entering writer puberty right now ’cause my written voice cracks so frikkin often 🙂
Hey – I dug out this quote from the editing guide we worked on. Can’t remember who it’s attributed to, but it goes like this –
It’s your relationship with language—how you use language. Voice comes from the people you’ve met, the books you’ve read, the education you have, and the worlds you’ve inhabited—not just in your body, but in your mind. It’s your personality. It’s your attitude toward your writing. Your passion shining through your prose.
Voice is your distinctive way of choosing and stringing words together—your writing accent, your views, culture, biases, and formal training. It’s using some goddam profanity every now and then. It’s imagery. Being serious, stuffy, snarky, and sarcastic. Being funny, silly, foolish, and stupid. It’s your level of confidence speaking through. Your rhythm, cadence, tone, and mood. It’s your emotional guts spilling out. It’s relating gut to gut, not brain to brain.
Sue Coletta
Love the quote, Garry! They really nailed it.
P.S. All our voices crack once in a while. 🙂
Harvey
Thanks Sue. I kept clicking “I Agree” on your Privacy Policy popup, but it kept giving me the message “We could not verify the the security token. Please try again.” Over and over and over.
Sue Coletta
Gee, the plug-in was just updated by the developer. Thanks for letting me know, Harvey. I’ll look into it. Sorry for any trouble it caused.
Lucy Mitchell
Oh Sue – what a great post!
Lucy Mitchell
I have pinned it because it’s fab. I still haven’t found my author voice but just keeping writing. A bit worried as my writing is going darker and so my author voice is still changing.
Sue Coletta
You make a great point, Lucy. I think genre also plays a role. If I were write, say, an erotic romance book, my voice may change, because the genre demands a different storytelling approach. Welcome to the dark side!
Sue Coletta
Thank you, thank you, thank you! *curtsy*
JUNE LORRAINE ROBERTS
As always Sue, great POV (pun fully intended)
Sue Coletta
Haha. Thanks, June!
Mae Clair
What author’s voice sticks with me? Ray Bradbury without a doubt. Also Tana French. Her’s is extremely unique with fingerprints all over her prose.
John Sanford’s is also easily recognizable. It took me a while get used to his, but he’s got it nailed.
Cool post, Sue!
Sue Coletta
Thanks, Mae! Totally agree about Ray Bradbury. Haven’t read Tana French, but you’ve piqued my interest.
E. Michael Helms
Good stuff, Sue (as always!). In your opinion, can a writer’s voice change with POV choice? Most of my books have been first person. I’ve written one novel (published) in third person. I happen to like the intimacy of first person. Many don’t, feeling it’s too confined. Opinion(s)?
–Michael
Sue Coletta
Thanks, Michael! Somewhat, I guess it can, but your overall writer’s voice, that distinguishable tone, should remain the same. Meaning, all your books should be recognizable as yours. That’s where style and how you tell a story comes into play.
First person POV is my favorite, too, but we can get (almost) the same intimacy in deep third. When my debut first released I caught many reviewers off-guard by alternating POV’s between first and deep third, with dueling protagonists. That’s just how I like to tell my stories, with more than one POV character. I am tempted to write a story using first for my protagonist and my antagonist, but I don’t want to confuse my readers … yet. 🙂
Patricia Bradley
I have a friend who channels Southern rednecks and maybe that’s the answer–she channels her characters.
Sue Coletta
Awesome comment, Patricia! That’s a big part of voice, for sure.
C.S. Boyack
No idea, but it’s a cool topic. I think I’m about there. My books can be recognized as my writing, in my style. A big part of it, in my opinion, comes from writing those first million words.
Sue Coletta
Totally agree, Craig. You ARE there, btw. 🙂
Margot Kinberg
What a great post, Sue! I think developing voice is an important part of a writer’s maturation. It takes time, and it takes some failed attempts (at least it has in my case!). I think you know you’re starting to find your voice when writing feels really authentic, so that expressing yourself seems to come naturally, if that makes any sense.
Sue Coletta
Makes perfect sense, Margot. I agree!