Writing Lessons & Advice: Voice
A common positive critique I’ve gotten on my Reedsy stories is having a strong voice, so I thought I’d explore that idea as a lesson.
I’m going to start with two definitions and elaborate on them: A Master Class lesson defines voice as “the rhetorical mixture of vocabulary, tone, point of view, and syntax that makes phrases, sentences, and paragraphs flow in a particular manner.” The Indeed career guide puts it in simpler terms as “the unique style, personality, or perspective of a piece of writing.”
Another way to think of it might be like fashion sense. When given a choice, a person often dresses in ways that are a unique outward expression of themselves. Voice in writing works the same way. It's how you manage the language and literary elements in your work or how you “accessorize” with them.
Like fashion has its own principles and elements, here are some concepts specific to voice:
Point of view (POV): point of view in writing relates to narration, how a story is told or experienced. Very simple and common points of view are first-person and third-person.
With first-person POV, one or more characters narrate the story from their eyes, experiences, and thoughts. First person POV is generally written using I or we.
Third-person POV typically tells all in some way. The narrator is an observer or god-like figure, telling the thoughts, experiences, developments, etc. of the characters or events rather than being one. Its written with he, she, they, and/or it pronouns.
Third-person POV has a couple more styles within itself: third-person limited and third-person omniscient.
Third-person limited is an outside narrator who only tells one person’s story. Third-person limited only sees, does, feels, and knows what it's one character sees, does, feels, and knows.
Third-person omniscient is the most “all-knowing” perspective. It's an outside narrator that can tell what all characters see, do, feel, and know.
Stream of consciousness: stream of consciousness is an “internal” voice, reading a character’s mind and thought process like a live stream. It is perhaps a more intimate, if not challenging, first-person POV to read.
Unreliable narrator: An unreliable narrator is another unique voice that comes off as untrustworthy, making a reader/listener determine conclusions for themselves. Such narrators may have specific characteristics, like age, inexperience, mental issues, or habits, that erode either their credibility or that of the story they present. (I included a MasterClass discussion on them in the source material.) The unreliable narrator is common with first-person limited POV.
Author voice: An author voice draws from the aforementioned Master Class definition. It's how you create the flow. Author voice is your personality imbued into the page, revealing itself in qualities like tone, vocabulary, the sentence structure you use, or the length or style of your passages and sentences.
Character voice: Character voice is a bit like an author voice, except more specific to whomever is involved in the story. It's reflective of the character’s personality and as such can be different for each if/when multiples are involved.
Again, developing your “fashion sense” for writing takes practice and learning, much like it does for your own wardrobe. With your wardrobe, you likely try things on to see what suits you, get rid of whatever doesn’t, follow fashion-related social media, and find inspiration or second opinions. With writing, you put pen to paper and either see what comes naturally or practice with a certain approach. You read, study, research, and maybe even present your work for constructive criticism. Although, in the long run, voice actually may not be the biggest thing you think about but it's something that is or becomes innate. Yet, when it comes to an end goal, I feel this quote is a fantastic summation: “When fiction is described as having "a great voice", it means the prose is distinct in a way that feels individual, unique, with a narrator who gets right into the reader's head.”
I hope this lesson & advice on voice is a fresh take for you and that you’re inspired to hone yours!
If there's a topic you want me to cover in the future, you're welcome to reach out to me on the web chat feature or socials!
sources/further reading:
overviews
Unreliable narrators https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-an-unreliable-narrator-4-ways-to-create-an-unreliable-narrator-in-writing
Stream of consciousness https://www.masterclass.com/articles/writing-101-what-is-stream-of-consciousness-writing-learn-about-stream-of-consciousness-in-literature-with-examples
For character and author voices
“Literary Agents on Voice”
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