Think of
it like this. When the hard rock band in Gilmore
Girls is asked to play an Air Supply song, they’re horrified. Air Supply??? But then they decide if Jimmy
Hendrix rocked out “The Star Spangled Banner” they can rock Air Supply.
Just as a
song can be sung to different beats, a story can be told in dozens of ways. The
way you tell your story based on your tastes and personality is voice.
The key
is making a story your own. Who are you? What do you pay attention to? Are you
leisurely as you study your surroundings or do you charge through life with
purpose? Are you optimistic or cynical, lyrical or all business? What have you
experienced firsthand? How do you carry on a conversation? This your nature and
it should show up in your writing.
Maeve
Binchy had a voice – chatty, like someone telling the juiciest gossip or
giving you encouraging advice across the café table. I have a strong suspicion
this is how she was in real life. Wendell Berry has another kind of voice
altogether. He is a poet as well as a novelist, so his writing is spare as he finds
the marrow of character, setting and theme in the details. If you were
to pick up any of your favorite authors’ books without seeing the cover, you
could probably identify the writer by the character of their sentences.
Reviewers
and agents often given certain novels high stars because of voice, so new
writers try to write with voice, whether that means being flowery or punchy. Whatever
they’ve decided voice means. But if you want to write with a compelling voice,
don’t try to “have” a voice. Find your own.
The trick
is knowing who you are and what is important to you. I think I became comfortable with my own voice after
writing a blog about growing up with a sensory “disorder.” It was after that I
began writing with more sensory language. Additionally, I’d tried my hand in several
genres, but learned that I didn’t feel at home in any of them. As I began
writing the kind of fiction that came naturally to me and exploring themes that
were most important to me, I found my voice.
Writing
with voice does mean putting yourself on to the page for all to see. It’s a little
daunting being so authentic, especially if you’re a private person. But who you are is where the
value of your story lies. Let your thoughts, your words, your vision, your self flow into the storytelling, and finding your voice will be unavoidable.
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