Finding Your Voice

DMarie84 · Feb 26, 2009

I'm sure this has been discussed, but since I'm still fairly new here, I thought I'd bring it up

Have you found your voice? I know I'm still searching for mine, though I think I am closer to finding it every time I write.

How did you know when you found your writing voice? Was it a "A HA!" moment or did it develop gradually?

I'm interested to read how other writers' have found "it."

Thrillride · Feb 26, 2009

DMarie84 said:
I'm sure this has been discussed, but since I'm still fairly new here, I thought I'd bring it up

Have you found your voice? I know I'm still searching for mine, though I think I am closer to finding it every time I write.

How did you know when you found your writing voice? Was it a "A HA!" moment or did it develop gradually?

I'm interested to read how other writers' have found "it."

Yes, there was an "Ah-Ha!" moment for me. It was the moment when I was writing a chapter of a thriller and the person reading it would giggle every so often.

This made me nervous. I was trying to freak them out - this was gripping material. I asked what she was laughing at and she said, "No matter what you're writing, you make me laugh...".

When she noticed I looked rather bummed, she said, "No, seriously, dude, you're funny." And I realized, that's just my voice. I literally have to try to keep humor out what I write, as not all pieces call for that sort of thing. I write for places that just want third person stuff - pretty straightforward. I also write for places that let me loosen up and be me.

I can still write a decent gripping page, but I have to actively pay attention to not be tongue-in-cheek. Humor is my natural voice; therefore, the easiest for me to write.

Just keep writing, you're natural style will fall into place...you'll notice what it is as you go along. That said, I also like writing in other ways just to be flexible, you know? Like working your triceps as well as your biceps (ah..hem..gentlemen readers..).

vrabinec · Feb 26, 2009

I've never actually looked for my voice. I consider it an inherent part of how I write.

My writing matches the word choice and pace I would use in conversation if I could come up with the exact words and expressions I wanted to use on the spot.

C.M.C. · Feb 26, 2009

I've never understood the idea of finding one's voice. If you have to work on the tone of your syntax as you write in order to mold it into what you want, then it's not your voice. Good or bad, your natural predispositions are what make up your voice. You can spend a lot of time and energy writing in a different manner if you don't like the natural way, but you're borrowing a different voice.

windyrdg · Feb 26, 2009

Voice has a lot to do with word choices, amount of description - or lack thereof - and sentence length. No one would ever confuse Hemingway with Faulkner.

I'm told that a lot of writers start out imitating their favorite author. I never did; suppose I did enough nonfiction and technical writing to be comfortable at the keyboard when I started to write fiction. I don't think you can consciously "find" your voice. If you reread what you wrote and it sounds right to your interior ear, then you're probably there.

BTW: Why reject the tongue-in-cheek aspect of your writing personality. Take some risks and be who you really are. There are lots of opportunities to incorporate a somewhat comical way of looking at life into any story. Janet Evanovich certainly seems to have done well enough with it.

Eldritch · Feb 26, 2009

If you haven't already done so, read FINDING YOUR VOICE by Les Edgerton.

deserata · Feb 26, 2009

I never worried about "finding" my voice....I just wrote.

I don't think it's possible to write without a "voice." If you just sat down and wrote a story, with no frills or affectation, wouldn't that voice be yours?

In other words...don't worry about it.

Unless you're talking about becoming aware of your own voice and what it's like.

dancingandflying · Feb 26, 2009

It's been developing and maturing as I do. I don't think there will ever be an A-HA! moment, because it's always changing because you're always changing.

I agree with esuna - you can't write without your voice. But, every time you sit down to write, your voice changes subtly.

Just my two cents.

d&f.

Clair Dickson · Feb 26, 2009

esuna said:
If you just sat down and wrote a story, with no frills or affectation, wouldn't that voice be yours?

Not necessarily. When I started writing, my writing was rather bland. Pretty much anyone could have written it-- there was no real flavor. It read kind of like a Sweet Valley High book... which wasn't that different from my public persona at the time.

I have a tendency to be bitter and sharp-- it's often amusing to me, and to those who like that sort of humor. But it took me a while to learn to write that way. It was a challenge to learn to come up with "quick retorts" to things I set up myself, rather than those opportunities that just shoot out when someone else makes a remark. And I learned to be more comfortable and open to my own dark humor. It still surprises me at times when I find someone who enjoys my jokes (and doesn't think I'm just being a bitch.)

Now, this may not hold true for everyone. Some people have distinct voices. Some people are more generic. This is true for writing as it is for everyday conversations. And, for me, I had to accept myself as I was-- dark humor and all-- in order to actually write that way. I had to stop thinking that I needed to be a happier person or more positive or anything like that.

My take, based quite heavily on my own experience.

Travis J. Smith · Feb 26, 2009

I often wonder if I'm alone in having the following response to my writing from nearly everyone:

"You have a very strong, distinctive voice."

Arkie · Feb 26, 2009

Probably one of the best methods to discover your voice is to take a page of your writing and imagine you are writing a letter to a best friend. Write the gist of the page out in longhand as you might a letter. You might be surprised how different it comes out from what you typed on the page.

I first thought about voice when a piece I wrote some time ago was read by a friend who said later that when she read it she could hear my voice, and then reading publisher and agent interviews, it is often stated that they are looking for a "fresh voice." I'm not sure what that means exactly, syntax I guess, the way words are strung together, but it almost seems something more, like you wouldn't normally mistake a Texas writer for someone from New England--McMurtry versus Updike for example.

LaurieD · Feb 26, 2009

For me "voice" is synonymous with how I string words together. I'd thought about writing for a long time before I picked it back up, then when I finally did, I felt limited to children's work because I don't have a lot of time to write and I can hold most of a children's story in my head before I put it to paper. Letting my sarcasm out of it's cage and loose on paper was something I hadn't done in a really long time and what started off as just putting a dream I'd had one night down on paper, has turned out to be a novel I can't stop thinking about - my irony and sarcasm are there, my question of "what if something isn't what it seems to be?" is there. My "voice" is there.

Clair Dickson · Feb 26, 2009

Travis J. Smith said:
I often wonder if I'm alone in having the following response to my writing from nearly everyone:

"You have a very strong, distinctive voice."

Nope.

Samantha's_Song · Feb 26, 2009

When I started writing, I wrote in what I call my telephone voice (to strangers on the other end of the line

). I knew it was good when a published friend of mine bollocked me about parts of my story but said he really liked my style.
However, I have a poet friend and she wanted me to write how I usually talk to people. I replied that I'd be laughed out of every literary agency going if I did

DMarie84 said:
How did you know when you found your writing voice? Was it a "A HA!" moment or did it develop gradually?

I'm interested to read how other writers' have found "it."

Aggy B. · Feb 26, 2009

Well, I think it's possible to have different legitimate voices in writing. I don't talk to my husband the same way I talk to my father. I don't talk to my father the same way I talk to my father-in-law. The differences are not necessarily affectations.

When I write I sometimes use a very experimental voice. It's a story told for people who think like me, an audience that expects to be challenged by what they read and enjoys seeing words used in a different than usual way.

Sometimes I use a more agreeable voice. It's the story told in themes and language that pretty much anyone can understand and identify with.

Neither is really better than the other. They are just different. And they are both authentic. And I had to work to grow comfortable with them. The thoughts in my head do not automatically match the words on the paper; that takes a certain amount of effort.

In answer to the original question: yes, I have found my "voice". It was a gradual thing that came about through years (and I mean years) of writing and reading and writing some more. And I still have to work to make it the clearest it can possibly be.

ishtar'sgate · Feb 26, 2009

DMarie84 said:
I'm sure this has been discussed, but since I'm still fairly new here, I thought I'd bring it up

Have you found your voice? I know I'm still searching for mine, though I think I am closer to finding it every time I write.

How did you know when you found your writing voice? Was it a "A HA!" moment or did it develop gradually?

I'm interested to read how other writers' have found "it."

No, there was no A HA! moment. I hadn't thought about it at all until an agent and a few editors told me I had a poetic voice. Huh, who knew, was pretty much my response.

Fade · Feb 26, 2009

Arkie said:
Probably one of the best methods to discover your voice is to take a page of your writing and imagine you are writing a letter to a best friend. Write the gist of the page out in longhand as you might a letter. You might be surprised how different it comes out from what you typed on the page.

Hm, strange. Whenever I try to write out my story longhand, my writing reminds me of what I did when I was nine. Whenever I type it, the words flow easier and I can think better.

As for the "Have you found your voice?" thing, I don't think I ever had a "Ohhhhh, this is it," moment; my voice developed over time. I also don't just have one voice. I have my third person voice, my first person from a teenager's POV voice, and my first person from POV of a thousand-year-old, sadistic faerie voice.

Thrillride · Feb 26, 2009

Eldritch said:
If you haven't already done so, read FINDING YOUR VOICE by Les Edgerton.

Excellent book.

backslashbaby · Feb 27, 2009

My voice is definitely not the same as how I speak to people, or on boards, etc. And there is a 'zone' I get in when writing, a totally different mood. It is much more internal.

That's different than it being an affectation, I think, though. I also dance, and it feels more like dancing versus walking down the street. They aren't the same, but they don't need to be.

How'd I find it? I stopped writing in the objective style that I learned at school and just used my intuition. Reading a lot of fiction probably created in my psyche long before that - subconsciously taking in what I really liked, and how I'd do it differently with every book I read.

Samantha's_Song · Feb 27, 2009

I can relate to that; I think in a totally different voice than hpw I actually talk to people.

backslashbaby said:
My voice is definitely not the same as how I speak to people, or on boards, etc. And there is a 'zone' I get in when writing, a totally different mood. It is much more internal.

tehuti88 · Feb 27, 2009

DMarie84 said:
Have you found your voice? I know I'm still searching for mine, though I think I am closer to finding it every time I write.

I believe I have, yes.

DMarie84 said:
How did you know when you found your writing voice? Was it a "A HA!" moment or did it develop gradually?

It was a gradual thing for me. I try to make my stories right the first time around, so I don't tend to revise, though if I look back on an older story from several years ago I often see that it's lousy compared to my current writing. However, this hasn't been nearly so noticeable since around 2003 or so. I look back on things I wrote then and they seem about the same as I would write now. It seems I've finally found my voice, my particular style. I just gradually evolved into it without even noticing.

Granted, maybe I'm just evolving more slowly now. Perhaps if I wait TEN years instead of four and look back on this work, it'll be lousy then! One can never say. But for now I believe I have my voice.

Granted again, I never felt like I DIDN'T have a voice. Yet my work has obviously changed. So perhaps one's voice, like one's skills, is always evolving...?

DMarie84 · Feb 27, 2009

It's interesting to read all the responses.

I know my writer's voice is different than how I talk to people. At least from what I've seen.From what I've seen, I think my voice may be a little more on the subtle side, though I need a little more time to see how this develops.

Bubastes · Feb 27, 2009

I've been told that I have a nice writing voice, but honestly I've never been aware of it. I've never looked for my voice. I figure it's something like looking for my speaking voice. It's just there whether I look for it or not.

Charlie Horse · Feb 27, 2009

I have a pretty limited vocabulary, so finding my voice has never been an issue. It is what it is.

blacbird · Feb 27, 2009

Seems to me that "voice" is one of those things that exist just at the edge of a writer's peripheral vision. When you try to look directly at it, it vanishes. It's an organic outgrowth of story and narrative technique, not something to be overly conscious of.

Ernest Hemingway is generally considered to have deteriorated rather badly as a writer in his later works, with one of the chief criticisms being he seemed to try too hard to write like Ernest Hemingway, rather than just to write good stories. To me, that's something like getting obsessed with "voice".

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