If you’ve been keeping up on this series, you now know what voice is, the different types of voice, and the elements that constitute voice. It’s finally time to turn from the theoretical to the practical. Meaning how you can apply this knowledge to identifying and (ultimately) elevating your own author voice.
In this installment, we’re going to focus on identifying your voice.
It’s not easy to identify your own voice. It’s like having bad breath: it may be easily recognizable to other people, but you’ve grown kind of immune to it. You live with your voice every day, you use it virtually every time you speak or write or communicate in any way.
(I include the general term of “communicate” because, in all honesty, even nonverbal communication is part of your voice. Pauses, gestures, tone, facial expressions… it’s all part of your voice. Part that can be translated onto the page to make your author voice feel more vibrant and real.)
So how, then, do you know what your voice is?
Unfortunately, there is no magic answer. Uncovering your voice is a process that takes time, persistence, and confidence. But there are steps along the way that can make sure you’re going in the right direction.
First, I’m going to talk about some general practices that might help you get a better handle on your voice. Then I’ll share some writing exercises that will help you get out of your comfort zone so that identifying your voice becomes easier.
Let’s dig in.
Practices
First, two practices. Things you should do as often and as much as possible if you want to uncover your voice.
Practice 1: Read Widely
At almost every book signing or author event, someone in the audience asks, “What advice would you give to aspiring writers?”
When I’m in the audience, my ears always perk up at that question because I’m curious to hear what other authors have to say.
Every single time, their first response is: READ.
The more you read, the better. The more widely you read, the better.
Start in your home genre, with your favorite authors. Then branch out. Read new things, different things, things you aren’t even certain you would like.
When I finally decided to read The Martian, it was only after months and months of seeing people post about how wonderful it was. I was hesitant. I had some notion that it was an alien story. I couldn’t have been more wrong and it might now be my favorite book of all time—certainly my favorite science fiction.
Read award winners and commercial successes. Read a variety of authors, a variety of genres, a variety of formats.
Why? Because reading extensively and widely will teach you how to analyze other authors. It will teach you how to pick out the distinct elements of their voices.
And once you can start to recognize voice in others, you’ll be one step closer to your own.
Practice 2: Write Widely
The second answer to the “What advice would you give to aspiring writers?” question is invariable: WRITE.
Write a lot. Write often. Write as much and as often as you can.
Just like with the reading practice, write a variety of works. Try different genres, different formats, different lengths.
The key isn’t just learning how to put a story together, how to develop character and construct a scene and believe a believable plot structure—although those things are all important too.
The goal is fluidity. Fluency. The less work it takes you to put words on a page, to more your natural voice will shine through.
And that’s the whole point.
Exercises
And now, a few exercises.
Exercise 1: Mimicry
Find a random image of a person or character to use as inspiration (maybe pick a minor character from your favorite show or movie), choose a favorite author whose work you know well, and write something in their style.
As beginning writers, we look at the authors we admire and, at first, we try to emulate them. They are the pinnacle of writing perfection, to us. What better aim than to write like them?
We all do it. My writer goals were Julia Quinn and Meg Cabot. If you look at the thousands and thousands of unpublished words in my archives, you’d see shadows of their voices.
Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.
(probably not actually) Oscar Wilde
While mimicking another writer isn’t the goal, it just might be the key to recognizing your own voice.
As you were writing, did you notice the differences between how they would write something from how you would write it? Any times where you had to delete or change what you were going to say to make it sound more like them?
Those moments, those differences are elements of your voice.
Exercise 2: Say Something
Choose a random quote to use as inspiration (maybe from LitQuotes or BrainyQuote), and write a scene in which a character says or responds to it.
As we discussed in part three (Elements of Voice), your personal beliefs are as much a part of your voice as the words you choose. Which quote you choose and how you choose to incorporate it is a big clue about your voice.
Did write about the quote from a genuine point of view, or did you use it ironically or sarcastically? Were you drawn to the funny quote or the dramatic one? Or maybe you didn’t there wasn’t a funny one. Or a serious one.
Really look at the choices you made in this exercise for clues to how beliefs, point of view, and tone are part of your voice.
Exercise 3: New Sandbox
Find a random picture of a setting to use as inspiration (maybe from Unsplash or Wikimedia Commons), try writing something in a genre that you don’t normally write.
Agent Kristen Nelson once said about voice in a blog post:
I recently had a discussion with a writer who had convinced herself that she was a middle-grade author. But when she wrote a young-adult novel, suddenly, that’s when she discovered her voice, the story worked, and she received multiple offers of representation. If a genre or a project isn’t working, don’t be afraid to experiment with something totally new and outside of what you thought you’d write as an author. You might just discover magic!
This same thing happened with me. My first (an ever-unpublished) finished book was a Regency historical romance. Seriously. I was obsessed with Regency romance (especially Julia Quinn) and because that was what I read, that’s what I tried to write.
The book did fine and actually finally in several contests, including the prestigious RWA Golden Heart award.
Then I went to a writing conference where everyone was talking about Chick Lit. I thought, Hey, I’m a chick. I write lit. If that’s what everyone is buying, then that’s what I’ll write. And so I wrote a chick lit book (Eye Candy) and another (Straight Stalk).
And it was SO MUCH EASIER than writing historical romance. Partly because I was writing about my own world, but also because the voice was so much more casual. So much closer to my own natural voice.
Those books also did really well in contests and started getting me requests from agents.
Then… I found Young Adult.
(Cue lightning.)
When I wrote the first draft of what would become Oh. My. Gods. the words just poured out of me. It was as if there was no filter between how my brain thinks and what I put on the page.
I had finally found my natural voice.
Is it any wonder that it became my first published book? That it only took one round of four query letters to sign with an agent? That is the magic that happens when you find your natural voice.
And sometimes switching genres is the key.
That wraps up the fourth installment in my series on writer’s voice. If you have any thoughts or questions, pop them into comments below.
There is just one part left, in which we’ll discuss how to elevate or amplify your voice so that it shines through in everything you write.
In case you missed the rest of the series, here are the first three posts:
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