We’ve all been told at some point in our writing careers that agents, publishers, and fans are all looking for a fresh new voice. Your voice is what separates a great novel from a so-so novel. Voice is what will take your good writing and elevate it to a whole new level. But what does that really mean? I remember when I first started writing I thought voice was some mystical secret that only a select few were ever told the answer. The rest of us were left in limbo, struggling to find our voice and only if we found it would we be invited into the world of successfully published authorship.
Thankfully, none of that is true. Discovering your voice is simply another part of the learning process of writing. I recently read that voice in fiction defies definition, but we all know it when we see it. Hmm, that’s not very helpful, and it certainly doesn’t help us figure out how to discover our own voice in fiction. While I understand the point being be made with that statement, we’re going to need a little more guidance than that if we ever hope to discover our own voice. While defining voice in fiction is not an easy task, it can be done.
The basic definition of the verb voice provides us with some insight into what it might mean for fiction.
Let’s break it down. Voice in fiction has two different definitions and serves more than one purpose in our writing. In one aspect you have the voice of your characters and narrator (their speech and thought patterns). Pulling from the definition provided above, this is how they express themselves in words. A second aspect is the author’s style; the structure of the prose, the attitudes, emotions, and overall tone. These two aspects combined create your voice in fiction.
THE VOICE OF THE CHARACTERS
Characters are the backbone of fiction. You need strong protagonists and antagonists, supporting characters and a strong narrator to define your voice. Memorable characters are required to create a memorable voice.
Spending a little extra time to tease out the background of your characters is well worth the effort. Think about your characters the same way you think about your closest friends and family. Where did they come from? What kind of parents did they have? What are their personalities? Are they kind, empathetic, or loving? Are they stubborn, hateful, or vengeful? What’s their primary emotional driver and how does that propel them forward in the story? These are a few important questions to ask yourself about your characters before you start writing. Your answer to these questions will determine their responses to the events that happen around them. It determines the voice of your characters and, in turn, influences your voice.
THE VOICE OF THE AUTHOR
I am a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino movies. I can spot his movies from a mile away. There is something uniquely similar about all his films. That unique similarity is his voice, and it comes across through style, tone, and emotions. It’s our goal as authors to create that sense of unique similarity in all our writing.
Style, tone, and emotion are an expression of the author’s attitude. Every word chosen reflects that attitude, and whether intentional or not, reflects the author’s voice. Our goal is for style and tone to be intentional. Style is your sentence and paragraph structure, and tone is your attitude and mood. Two very different examples to consider are Cormac McCarthy, author of The Road, and David Foster Wallace, author of Infinite Jest. They both have unique writing styles and tones. McCarthy writes in simple, often fragmented, everyday language. Wallace, on the other hand, writes long, disjointed sentences, loaded with footnotes that for some feels messy and unedited. McCarthy’s prose is poetic and sad, while Wallace’s prose is sharp and humorous. Two successful authors with intentionally distinct and drastically different voices.
Just like McCarthy and Wallace, your style and tone are determined by your choice in diction, sentence structure, paragraph length, descriptions and details, dialogue, literary devices, and rhythm. These are all things that the author chooses. These choices influence your voice.
EMOTION IN WRITING
While emotion is part of the author’s voice, it also comes through the character’s voice. This is where the author and characters begin to merge and work together to solidify your voice in fiction. All fiction should be emotional. That doesn’t mean it has to make you cry (although it could), but it does need to make you feel something.
Think about one of your favorite books. Why is it a favorite? I have many, but a great example is the sixth book of Harry Potter, The Half-Blood Prince. Albus Dumbledore was a character to love. Rowling spent six books making us love everything him. When that dreaded moment came, no matter how much it was foreshadowed, my emotional response was severe. I threw that book so hard across the room it shook the wall, and I cried like a baby. My husband still makes fun of me over my reaction to that book.
That’s the kind of emotional response you’re looking for. It could be intense laughter, sadness, anger, fear, the list goes on. Your style and tone combined with the emotional reactions of your characters defines your voice in fiction. Discover your style preference, create characters, define your tone and emotional drivers—your purpose in writing—and you will discover your voice in fiction. The voice of you that is uniquely similar across all your work that will have fans talking about you for years to come.
Tell us a few of your favorite books/authors and why. Give us an example of a writing style you can get lost in. Let’s tease out together why you love that style and use it in the next phase of this series. We’ll dig a little deeper into the author and character voices and emotional drivers with specific tools to help you on your writing journey in the next part of this series: Discovering your Voice in Fiction.
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Angelique Bochnak is a dreamer and believes all things are possible with a lot of hard work, persistence, and determination. With her head in the clouds or her eyes turned to the stars, she spends countless hours imagining new adventures and far off worlds for which to travel. When she isn’t dreaming, she writes science fiction and fantasy with her focus on epic fantasies, apocalyptic and dystopian fiction. Fortitude Rising, a sci-fi dystopian fantasy, is her first published novel under her pen name A.M. Bochnak. Angelique is also the co-founder of the sci-fi, fantasy, horror focused indie publishing company, Mad Goat Press. Angelique is a member of several writing and publishing organizations including FWA, IBPA, and FAPA. She is passionate about helping other writers become authors and regularly posts inspirational, motivational, and educational material on her various social media platforms. In addition to her contributions in this writing community, you can learn more about her work and workshops on her new platform here! She is an American author and publisher, born and raised in southern Ohio and now lives in Gainesville, Florida.
