Mar 18 2009
Finding Your Voice
Writing courses talk about finding your voice in your writing, but how exactly does one go about that? Just opening your mouth and speaking could be considered as finding your voice, because it’s right there, just waiting to be called upon, but that’s not the same as finding your voice in your writing. No matter what type of writing you embark on, no matter what your genre, your personality is going to merge with your writing to give it a distinct style that is all your own. Your voice shows in your word choice, your grammar, and even in the way that your distinct characters develop.
At times you can pick up the phone and within the first sentence, possibly from just a word or two from the speaker, you are able to identify who is on the other end of the conversation. With the written word, we don’t actually hear a voice, but our minds can create one in our heads, from the words that you choose and the way that you phrase them. I don’t mean to say that every character that you create will sound exactly like you. We wouldn’t want them to. Certainly, there are some characters that require only a brief introduction to be identified because the authors have created a voice for them that is very distinct. For example, “Call me Ishmael.” from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, or “I am a man more sinn’d against than sinning.” from Shakespeare’s King Lear, and a distinct mental picture is guaranteed to form when the character created by Ian Fleming says, “My name is Bond – James Bond”. We want a variety of characters that are colorful and rich, but even though you may give your characters different and unique voices, a little bit of your own voice will be there guiding them.
What you need to do to discover your voice, (and discover is really a better word, as find implies that your voice has been lost), is to form an image of what your are describing in your own mind and then craft the words, as honestly and as clearly as possible, so that the reader might be able to form the same, or at least a similar mental picture from them. Voice is something that can not be created or forced, you have to relax and let the words flow onto the paper. Don’t try to use language that makes you sound like you know more than you do because it will sound false to the reader, instead of natural and easy. When you use your own voice, you hear comments like, “I don’t know how you are able to write so well.” even when what you wrote doesn’t sound like anything special to you. My best advice is to be yourself at all times, even when you are being someone else in the story.
Although you may have created a character with a distinctive dialect or a very direct manner of speaking that is unlike your own, readers who are familiar with your writing will be able to recognize your voice and know that you are the author. Stephen King tried to test this theory by publishing what are now referred to as the “Bachman Books”, under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. Many dedicated King readers started making comments like, “Hey, this guy writes a lot like Stephen King.” Eventually the truth came out that Stephen King was indeed the author of these books. He didn’t fool readers that were familiar with his work, because his voice was still recognizable in the works. It is impossible to completely erase yourself from your writing and still be convincing.
If you’d like to see what I mean, you can try this little writing exercise that I got from a creative writing class. Think of an event that has happened recently and then, in your own words, describe what happened. Then take that same event and describe it as someone else that was there. If you are describing a concert, you might want to write as a member of the band, or perhaps a friend that has a different point of view from your own. A trip to the grocery store, might be described by the check-out clerk, who totaled up your order, or your child or your dog might tell of a visit to the park. You might come out with two very different stories, but both are written by you and your voice will be there somewhere. Remember, everything you write reveals something about yourself to your readers. See what you think my closing poem says about me.
My ‘Vette
Cherry red to catch the eye
Makes heads turn as I fly by.
Slow is not a word that this car knows
It flashes by, wherever it goes.
It’s me and my ‘Vette and the open road
A chance for me to unburden my load.
The 350 doesn’t hum, it purrs
All my troubles soon become a blur.
The stress and problems of the day
My ‘Vette sends marching on its way.
My hair may ruffle in the breeze
When the ride is over, I feel at ease.
Without my ‘Vette, I am stressed and tense
As if walking a tightrope or riding a fence
Like a woman whose lost an important bet
I am lost, without my ‘Vette
Copyright ©2009 Kaye Lynne Booth
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