Posted by “I was wondering if you do any exercises to find and develop your author voice? I’m just beginning to find mine, but then get confused at how much of it should remain consistent or change with different manuscripts. After all, we want to keep evolving and we don’t want each manuscript to sound the same, yet we want our voice to be recognizable.”
Lydia Lukidis, KidLit411 Facebook Post,
Lydia posted an amazing craft question that generated a lot of good discussion about voice. The question specifically talks about authorial voice as opposed to narrative voice and how to make it consistent across stories. So before I dive into my response, I wanted to start with a definition, voice:
“expresses the narrator or author’s emotions, attitude, tone and point of view through artful, well thought out use of word choice and diction.”
Voice, LiteraryTerms.net
In the Details
When tackling voice in my story, I usually build off a basic, boring block of text. If it reads like anybody could have written it, I know I have work to do:
- select words to enhance/enforce theme or viewpoint
- vary sentence lengths/use repetition to add rhythm
- use imagery to make it more lyrical or enhance mood
- change pacing or select different narrative details
Voice Excercises
Here are three things I do when I can’t seem to find my authorial voice (which happens a lot!):
➡️ Switch point of view. Writing in first-person helps me mine details that I can pepper into third-person.
➡️ Write a memory or try dictating it. There’s something freeing about telling yourself a no-pressure story!
➡️ Explain something you are passionate about.
➡️ Re-read older writing. The stories, poems, and journal entries that were written just for me. It helps me connect with my authentic tone, pacing, word choice especially when I wasn’t trying so hard to write something to be published.
Wrap Up
The great thing about your authorial voice is that it can change and still be you!
Check out Part 2 for more resources and discussion.