More about Voice? Really?

Three weeks ago, I wrote about voice, saying in part that voice is the way you make your characters sound real, how you enable them to come alive instead of lying flat on the page. It is the way you differentiate your characters through what and how they think and talk. Not just their word choices but their cadence, whether they speak in full sentences most of the time, whether they trail off often or interrupt others a lot. Whether they use slang or curse words. Whether they use a lot of long or short sentences or if they have a nice mix. Whether, to boil it down, they have attitude. Whether, to bring us back to the beginning of this paragraph, they feel real.

In response, commenter Bruce W. Most made the following excellent point:

“When we speak of voice, there are really two types of voice: individual characters and the voice of the author/story. Raymond Chandler's voice in his stories is very different than say the voice of Michael Connelly or James Lee Burke. Creating a unique author voice is as critical as character voice--and often harder in my view.”

A fellow writer sent me an email addressing the same issue, asking:

“I thought voice related to the writer. That is, you have a different voice than John Floyd or Josh Pachter or Michael Bracken. Voice is why a reader can pick up something at random and know it was written by Westlake or Wodehouse or Louis L'Amour. […] Are there two kinds of voice? One belongs to the character and the other to the writer? And if there are two, how does or can a writer develop his voice?”

To answer the questions in the email, are there two kinds of voice, one belonging to the characters and one to the author? Yes. How can a writer develop his author voice? I wish I had a good and simple answer. It isn't easy--as the commenter mentioned above said.

My immediate thoughts regarding developing your author voice is to tell you to write the way you talk and think. If you aren't sure if you're doing that, read your work aloud. Does it sound like you? Voice aside, I recommend always reading your work aloud so you can see if your characters sound different from each other, as well as if anything sounds awkward or if you have overused any words, etc. You often can hear a problem even if you cannot see it, and this is especially true with your own voice. Reading aloud enables you to hear if what you wrote sounds like you.

I discussed this question with my friend Donna Andrews, who writes novels and short stories. She suggested authors trying to develop their own voice should immerse themselves in the writers they think they write like or want to write like--and she isn't talking about wanting to write like every good author out there. She is talking about writing like the authors who feel like who you are when you're talking with someone you feel comfortable with.

Hemingway, for instance, sounds and feels very different than Faulkner does. You might think both are great writers, but it is highly unlikely the way you talk is similar to both of them. The way you talk also might not be similar to either of them. The point is, when you are reading the authors you love, keep your ear open for which ones sound like you and then immerse yourselves in them. Don't do this with the goal of copying their voices but with the hope that they may flavor the way you come alive on the page when you set your fingers on the keyboard.

For more on this worthy topic, I refer you to a recent blog on the Wicked Authors blog by author Barbara Ross. After you read her insightful thoughts about voice, be sure to read the comments too.

You also might check out the thread on Reddit on this topic.

And to all you authors out there, I welcome your thoughts on how to develop an author's voice.

Before I go, I'm happy to mention that my multi-award-winning short story “Dear Emily Etiquette” has been republished in the anthology Twisted Voices, an anthology of stories previously published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. You can buy a digital copy on Amazon and you can buy a paper copy through bookshop.org. You also can find a print version on Amazon.