In a post on DIY MFA, F.E. Choe discusses voice: yours, your novel’s, and your characters’. While the concept of voice is complex and difficult to pin down, Choe starts with the idea that voice is “the combined effect of a writer’s style, word choice, repetition, the rhythm and musicality of their language, sentence and paragraph structure, and other textual details.”
The author’s voice is the unique way the writer expresses himself. If a voice is sufficiently distinct, a reader can identify the author based on a few sentences or paragraphs. The modern reader likely would have no trouble picking out Hemingway from Vonnegut from Alice Walker. But Choe says there’s more to the story.
- Character Voice. Your characters also have a unique way to expressing themselves, in dialogue and thought. “Strong, compelling voices are what turn fictional characters into believable ones I care about,” Choe says. “Voice peels characters off the page and plops them, walking, talking, dreaming, and mistake-making into the ‘real’ world of your book as it exists in your reader’s mind.” If you struggle with character voice, dive back into their upbringing and history to figure out more, Choe suggests.
- Narrative Voice and Story. “The narrative voice of a work depends on the POV from which it is told,” Choe says. “Your narrator, as visible, active, or invisible as you might make them, is still another character to consider in your story.” Even if your novel is told in third person, you should have an idea of who is telling it.
- Your Authorial Voice. “Some believe that voice can be taught, but I tend to think that you do, in fact, already have your own voice as a writer,” Choe says. “Can you refine and polish it, punch it up in places with even more signature ‘you-ness’? Yes. Write and rewrite. Tinker and play. Read, indiscriminately at times, and eavesdrop with an ear for prosody. Re-read your own words, aloud if it helps, as your rewrite.”
