Writing style or voice changing?

I tend to chose how I want a story to sound. After writing, I edit it. My present WIP is more terse and "macho." third person limited, nearly "restricted." I am giving people only brief glances into character's feelings. I want it all to be very much like you are watching it, not hearing the thoughts of people. This is not usual for me. I usually write a bit more stream of conscience. I believe there is writer's voice, there is also character's voice, and the overall voice of the complete novel.

I choose the tone (I call it) for each work, but I bet you could still tell it's my voice. My WIP needs to be less casual sounding than I usually like, and it's hard! It's a fun challenge, though.

How to 'find' your voice? I don't know; just write a lot? It really just boils down to how you like things best, I think. I think I got what I like best from a combination of my favorite authors, but it's a subconscious thing. I don't think I really sound like any of them.

My first drafts tend to be pretty terse, tbh. I can see that; it's like there's some clinical stage director moving pieces. The voice tend to get much more pronounced in the third draft, when I concentrate on language and stuff, instead of just fixing plot holes and inconsistencies and bad scenes (which I do in the second draft).

I think we all want our first draft to come out as the finished book, and there's a danger that you start to fiddle with that kind of stuff when you're writing the first draft. I think it's a mistake, and one should just plow on regardless of the voice, the language, the plot until you reach that magical 'the end' the first time.

I also think you could probably tell it was me who wrote different things, but I agree that my voice changes with each work. Mostly because I'm not writing in my voice, but the character or narrator's voice. This is particularly true because I'm more likely to write in first person. It does sometimes take a little time initially to get settled into the voice, but that's typically easy enough to fix in editing.

Maxinquaye said:

My first drafts tend to be pretty terse, tbh. I can see that; it's like there's some clinical stage director moving pieces. The voice tend to get much more pronounced in the third draft, when I concentrate on language and stuff, instead of just fixing plot holes and inconsistencies and bad scenes (which I do in the second draft).

I think we all want our first draft to come out as the finished book, and there's a danger that you start to fiddle with that kind of stuff when you're writing the first draft. I think it's a mistake, and one should just plow on regardless of the voice, the language, the plot until you reach that magical 'the end' the first time.

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yeah, that's something I learned the hard way. It took me so long to complete the first draft because I kept going back and tinkering with what I'd written and worrying so much about how it looked. Next time I'll just plow through and worry about details during the rewrites.

One under-appreciated (and I suspect under-utilized) aspect of editing/re-writing is the straight-through read. This invovles putting down the red pen and reading the story straight through like a reader would. I do it with a red pen, but only to make quick comments in the margin (like "choppy" or "check tenses" or "POV"). But on a complete read, any choppiness in voice can really stick out, as will a variety of other problems (like varying sentence length and structure, character inconsistencies, even sticky plot points). Give it a try and see if any fluctuations in voice come out.

My impression is that voice does take some time to develop, but it doesn't necessarily become a static property. It should continue to develop and even morph as a writer continues to experiment and probe new avenues of his/her approach to the writing craft. It's just jolting when that probing and experimenting span a single story.

chocowrites said:

This is a problem I've been noticing a lot lately in my own writing and it's really, really worrying me. My writing style and voice fluctuate wildly from scene to scene, from month to month.

I think this may just be because I'm an inexperienced writer. I've heard something along the lines of that new writers have a hard time finding their voice or style and they just have to practice and write more. Or that it just comes with time. But how do you know what your true voice/style is? How do you know when you've found it?

At the same time, even published authors' style and voice can change so much from each book to book. So I'm a bit unsure how that fits in.

Your thoughts?

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I have this problem. Voice changing between books is fine- the voice the book is told in should suit the book- but voice changing in the middle of the draft is normally because you're either in a certain mood, different from the one the rest of your book is written in; you've had a new idea about the book; or you've read a book with a distinctive style and you're falling into that pattern.

First of all, just finish the book. Get all your scenes down and put them together. Then have a look. It's probably really obvious between the scenes you wrote earlier on and the more developed scenes you wrote in the later stages. Read the book and highlight where it doesn't make sense- then write down the ideas in your book you like. Then write using that focus.

My voice always seems to change from project to project. Some are more flowery - I often have to trim the purple on these - and some have been described as "stark." I think that's fine, since different pieces call for different things.

But yeah, changing from scene to scene in a novel isn't good. I sound like a rehab center, but awareness is the first step. Now that you know you're doing it, take the time to pinpoint what exactly you're doing - what these differences in tone are - and why. Do your moods while writing sway your voice? Does tiredness? Stress? You can't avoid these things, but you can learn to recognize what triggers changes, and from there practice keeping your voice constant.

I think you'll write your way into your voice. I know I did -- it took three trunked novels before I really settled in. While you're still "finding" it, take time to experiment. Read lots of books, analyze other authors' voices, practice writing in certain ways. It can be like trying on new clothes... you can buy the ones you like and throw away the ones you don't.

But enjoy the practicing! (I just blogged about this today, actually...)

NeuroFizz said:

My impression is that voice does take some time to develop, but it doesn't necessarily become a static property. It should continue to develop and even morph as a writer continues to experiment and probe new avenues of his/her approach to the writing craft. It's just jolting when that probing and experimenting span a single story.

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Basically this.

My first real attempt at a novel will never see the light of day--in fact, it will wither away one chapter away from completion. Maybe I'll steal some ideas from it in the future. But it was practice. By the time I was on the cusp of finishing it, I realize that the writer who began that novel was not the same writer who would be finishing it. I had developed and changed so much in the course of working on it, that it just did not hold together.

Was that novel wasted? Hell no! I learned from it. I got closer to my voice. It was a necessary learning experience.

Since then my voice has solidified (though it's still very pliable). Stories I'm writing today with the same narrator as a year ago sound alike that anyone (I hope) can tell it's the same narrator. The older stuff needs more polishing, most certainly, but there's still a constancy.

At the same time, though, it makes perfect sense for your voice to change from one work to another. Even within the same work if it makes sense. My first completed novel of which I'm proud has a voice that changes every chapter--but that's because of the rotating POV. Whenever it returns to a character, the voice returns to the voice of that character.

At the same time, the narrator of the novel I just started has a different voice than the narrator of my short stories.

Is the voice still mine? I think so. I can tell. I think others could, too.

So yes, as you're still finding your voice, expect it to fluctuate a lot. Even when you find it, it will evolve from work to work. It will just be more recognizable as you, even when it does change.

If your voice is fluctuating all over the place during the first draft, then have a good read through the MS once you've hit "The End." You'll probably decide one type of voice suits the story better than any other, and then it's just a matter of going through and changing things to match.

Of course, that's probably easier said than done.