by Josephine Carr, @ThreeKingsBooks
Tips for Finding your Writing Voice
When my writing career began thirty years ago, I got lucky. The young adult genre was just beginning, and the market was hungry for novels with teenage protagonists. This was a boon for any unpublished writer, of course, but the real luck was something else entirely.
By writing a young adult novel, I immediately found my voice.
In reading and mentoring other new writers, I recognize that their voice is often murky, or missing entirely. I’m not the first to say this, and I know you’ve read it all over the place, but here it comes again: voice is vital.
This is no joke. You can make any number of mistakes in plotting, character development, point of view, and theme, but if you haven’t found your voice, you will not be published. (Even if you self-publish, your success will always be limited.)
Voice is intangible, difficult to define, and impossible to teach, but if you have it, everything else you might do wrong will be fixable. So what’s a writer to do?
I have some practical suggestions.
(1) Write in the first person.
This can be instantly helpful to a writer searching for their voice. When I received an offer to publish my young adult novel, No Regrets, so many years ago, it was for one reason only. I sounded distinct and unassuming. This happened despite the fact that my prose style has never been lyrical or beautiful in any way. I am a prosaic writer, with a crisp style, but by writing a story that happened to be mildly autobiographical, and in the first person, I immediately tapped into my natural writing voice.
(2) Read your own writing aloud.
This is such an easy, yet profound, method for hearing what you sound like. As you read your prose aloud, you’ll be able to tell if it sounds like you. When the voice is off, it jars, often because there’s a pretentious quality, or there are simply too many words jostling for attention.
(3) Write from your stomach, not your mind.
By writing from your gut, as opposed to your conscious mind, you will find a voice that is compelling and real. When I begin writing a novel, I can literally feel my stomach speaking. I’m not being figurative or wishy-washy by this description. I mean it. My stomach seems to expand and send out messages. Indeed, it’s possible for me to feel ever so slightly nauseous, or a little squirrelly down there when I’ve begun and then realize it’s rolling along in a way I’d never have predicted. The words tumble out in a flow like water from a faucet. If/when that happens, I know I’ve got it. Let go of your doggone head and write from the stomach.
(4) Write for yourself.
I am a huge fan of story structure and planning out a novel because it will unquestionably enhance the reader’s experience — I studied screenwriting, and I know it’s been an important factor in my success as a writer. But the architecture of a novel comes after you’ve found your voice. In the beginning of a novel’s composition, just write a sentence or two without thinking about anyone reading what you’ve written. Be loosey-goosey and relaxed.
Your voice doesn’t merely sound like you. Your voice smells, looks, and feels like you. Without it, your writing is like a cake that fails to rise in the oven. Flat, thin, compressed. And what makes a cake rise? Baking soda and beaten eggs, both of which form bubbles in the batter.
Your words are bubbles, and they lift us to create a buoyant world, uniquely you. When you write, be yourself, even if that self is somehow scary, a failure, or imperfect. Aren’t we all?
Josephine Carr is a thirty year veteran of traditional publishing (HarperCollins, NAL/Penguin, Dial Books for Young Readers) who’s thrilled to be relaunching herself under the banner Three Kings Books. She’d welcome your visit to her blog where she posts about how to write well, publish, and survive the trials of a writer’s life. The first mystery in her new series, The Rabbi’s Mother, will be published in September, 2012. Follow her on twitter @threekingsbooks.
Elizabeth – Thanks for hosting Josephine.
Josephine – The work of a writer who has found her or his voice has so much more authenticity and clarity than the work of a writer who hasn’t. Thanks for your advice for how to find that voice and make sure one’s using it.
Elizabeth,
And I thank you for hosting me!
@Alex: I agree that you simply can’t decide to write a novel in the first person because it might help you find your voice — that said, it is possible to achieve an authentic voice with third person, or….
@Jan….at least find your rhythm, as Jan suggests. I think, actually, that rhythm is a lot of it, which bears some thinking about! (Another post???)
@Margot: Yes, you absolutely KNOW when a writer has nailed the voice.
@Andrea: Visit my blog and “About” page if you’d like to contact me separately. I’d be happy to take a look at a first page of two —
Great advice! Love the phrase about our words being bubbles – that’s perfect! :)
This is a very helpful post – I think, honestly, that my voice changes with my novels. My voice in the mysteries I write is snappy, quick, not so descriptive of place as of character. My literary novels are more lyrical, elegaic – the pace slower. I have just finished the first draft of a novel that has four first person voices and it might swing between all of those. I think that what you call voice I call rhythm. I know when I start a book I need to find its particular rhythm or it just doesn’t go.
Thanks Josephine! I’m going to think about this – and thank you Elizabeth for hosting Josephine. I’m on my way over to your blog!
@Jemi — Thanks, and how gratifying to receive your comment!
Josephine, thanks so much for guest hosting today! I love your tips for finding voice. My voice is very consistent for my mysteries, but I’ve wondered about finding my voice with other genres. Your tips are very helpful, thanks!
@L.Diane Wolfe: I can certainly say that even in my blog writing, which is first person, after all, I’ve had a much harder time with voice. Weird, isn’t it? You’d think that fiction would be more of a challenge, but not for me. But, yes, I get your problem.
While I still don’t want to write in first person, I agree the other suggestions work. Maybe not always for me, but I’m trying.
This is such a helpful post, as I struggle to find my own writing voice.
Thank you for such good advice. It helps. :-)
Reading your work out loud makes such a difference.
Non-fiction can be challenging. I think with my upcoming book I’ve finally managed to include the quirkiness of my professional speaking gigs into my writing.
Great post. I find that the author’s voice is what instantly allows me to ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ reading that author’s work. It’s like meeting a new person and knowing right away if we’ll become close or remain mere acquaintances.
@Madison: I totally agree. There are “voices” I loathe right away, although I try not to shout that fact too loudly!
@emaginette: THANK YOU!
I find that when the writing flows, that’s my voice. When I search for words and the ‘right’ way to say things, it comes out stilted and ‘writerly’.
Voice is elusive, but it does carry over. Nora Roberts and JD Robb come to mind. Different sub-genres, but the voice is there in both her romances and her “In Death” series.
I think your voice develops over time, but it’s not something you can be taught. Just keep writing.
Terry
Terry’s Place
@Terry: You got it precisely. Your comment gets filed on the idea of “writing naturally,” and it’s one of the single best ways to be sure that you’re writing with a distinct voice.
Josephine – Well done. Enjoyed the post and you have good tips for any writer. – Karen
@ Suz: Thanks!
Great post. I love reading my work aloud. It really gets me in the flow of things. With my physical voice I weed out all the clunky words that obstruct the fluidity of my narrator’s voice. In writing passages of poetic description fluidity is key, so this process becomes essential. Similarly, in writing conversation between two or more characters, reading aloud helps me discern the emotional tones in each character’s speech.
@Alexandra: No surprise to me, you got it!
I loved this post. I don’t know any other way to write than how I speak or how I hear others speak or tell stories. The movies and books I love most are those that I catch myself nodding along with regardless of the genre. If I can’t relate or feel authentic about what I’m experiencing, then I’m out.
I totally agree that writing in first person is a great way to find your voice. When I finished my first draft of my first novel, I wrote a first person short story, and when I went back to the draft, I not only had my voice, but I knew how to write in the voice of every character. Thanks for drawing that realization out of me!
I may never write a first person novel, but all my short stories have been since that epiphany!
Hi Elizabeth and Josephine – such sensible advice … reading our work just makes so much sense – cheers Hilary