Voice is one of the most difficult writing terms to define and pinpoint. We might know it when we see it, but what’s voice made of, really?
You hear so often that agents and editors want “new voices” and “compelling voices” and voice voice voice. So what is voice? How do you cultivate it? And how many rhetorical questions do you think can I fit into one post?
Voice, at its most basic level, is the sensibility with which an author writes. It’s a perspective, an outlook on the world, a personality and style that is recognizable even out of context. You could drop randomly into a David Sedaris story or an Ernest Hemingway novel and probably guess the author within a few paragraphs because they have strong, unique voices.
An author’s voice is often imitated (think: Tolkien), but a truly original voice can never be duplicated.
So what makes a good voice? How do you cultivate one?
Among the essential elements:
Style
At its heart, voice is about style. And not just style in the sense of punctuation and how the prose looks on the page (though that can play a role), but style in the sense of a flow, a rhythm, a cadence to the writing, a vocabulary, lexicon, and slang the author is drawing upon.
A voice can be wordy (William Faulkner) or it can be spare (Cormac McCarthy). It can be stylish and magical (Jeanette Winterson) or it can be wry and gritty (Elmore Leonard). It can be tied to unique locations (Toni Morrison) or it can be almost wholly invented (Anthony Burgess). But whatever the flavor of the writing, a good voice has a recognizable style.
Personality
A good voice has a personality of its own, even when the novel is written in third person. There’s an outlook that is expressed in a voice. It’s a unique way of seeing the world and choosing which details to focus on and highlight and a first draft of how the reader will process the reality of the book. Think of how Catch-22 captured the absurdity of WW-II by boiling down irrational rules and presenting them at face value, or Stephen Colbert’s TV character, always seeing things and arguing from an invented perspective.
There’s a tone to a good voice, whether it’s magical (J.K. Rowling) or slightly sinister (Roald Dahl) or hyper-aware (John Green).
Consistency
A good voice is consistent throughout a novel. It may get darker or lighter or funnier or sadder, but it doesn’t suddenly shift wildly from whimsical to GRUESOME MURDER. (Unless, of course, the voice is capable of it). A good voice is never lost when the plot shifts.
Moderation
Even the strongest voices don’t over-do it. Voices are not made up of repeated verbal tics (“You know,” “like,” “so I mean,” “I was all,” etc.) but are much more nuanced than that. They are not transcribed real-life dialogue, they give the impression of a real-life voice while remaining a unique construct.
Transportation
A good voice envelops the reader within the world of a book. It puts us in a certain frame of mind and lets us see the world through someone else’s perspective, and provides not just the details of that world but also gives a sense of the character of the world. Basically: see J.K. Rowling.
Authority
From Bryan Russell (aka Ink) (full comment below): “For me, one of the absolutely key elements of voice is authority. With a great voice you know the writer is in control, so in control that the writer vanishes and you see only the story… A great voice carries you through the story, compels you through the story. I think all great voices have that… There’s a sureness to a great voice. The words are simply right and the rhythms of the prose are buoyant. You won’t sink, not with these voices.”
Originality
Above all, a good voice is unique and can’t be duplicated. It is also extremely contagious. And this is the hardest thing about starting off a novel: we have thousands of authors’ voices swimming around our heads, many of them quite powerful, and they are only too happy to take up residence in our current Work in Progress. But that’s okay! Don’t sweat it if it doesn’t come right away: We all have to find our voice, and one of the best ways to do that is to just write, even if what you’re starting with is derivative. You may need to keep writing until you find the voice. Just remember to revise revise revise the opening in said voice once you have it.
Authenticity
And this is the key to finding the voice: your voice is in you. It’s not you per se, but it’s made up of bits and pieces of you. It may be the expression of your sense of humor or your whimsy or your cynicism or frustration or hopes or honesty, distilled down or dialed up into a voice. We should never make the mistake as readers of equating an author with their voice, but they’re wrapped up together in a complicated and real way. We leave fingerprints all over our work. That part of you in your work is what makes it something that no one else can duplicate.
What do you think? What do you think makes for a good voice, and what are some of your favorites?
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Art: The Singer in Pink by Jean-Louis Forain
I think you know you've found your voice when you are no longer tempted to try someone else's – and that means a good voice is a confident one.
Some of my favourites… ooh so many! Ian Fleming, Alisdair Gray, Graham Greene, Laurie Lee, Jack Vance… All of them have a quality that makes you want to sit at their feet and just spend time with them.
An excellent break down of voice. My voice broke years ago.
A great example is Robert E. Howard. Read his Conan stories and then read de Camp, Jordan, and others later. You can see the similarities, but none managed to capture Howard's voice. Their stories were never as good as the originals.
Great summary of 'voice'. I've never been able to put it into words before.
My favorites? Suzanne Collins is one, James Patterson is another.
I think the authors with the best voices are those that keep running through your head even after you've put the book down. When you start thinking the way an author writes…they had a good voice.
A good voice? : Margaret Atwood. Her writing voice seems timeless.
How do you cultivate one? : I think this is hard without it becoming forced. It seems to have to be natural and sit behind the storyline, rather than be obvious and block it. If as I write I become too conscious of it, then the writing reads as if I'm trying too hard.
Is it born or made? Mostly born, I think, but then refined with experience.
Absolutely my favorite master of voice is David Mitchell ("Cloud Atlas," "Black Swan Green"). "Cloud Atlas" in particular is six amazing, distinct voices in one book.
As for cultivating a voice…the way I try to do it is to imagine the character whose voice is telling the story, even if it's just a disembodied narrator. Craft it just as you would a character in a story. If you aren't worried about varying your voice (and you shouldn't) then let your own personality come through. Don't be afraid of getting close to the story; imagine you're telling it to your spouse/children/friends.
Bloggers Heather Armstrong (Dooce) and Mimi Smartypants (real name?) have wonderful, comedic, entertaining voices. Nathan, too, of coursies.
For dark and inviting, I am taken with Gillian Flynn, a relatively new voice in sinister mystery (did I just invent a category?).
David Foster Wallace=wowza!
Ahh the infamous 'voice'. Can a 'voice' be created through editing? Or is it really one of those natural talents, like singing. Or using a lightsaber… I can't do either of those things but I'd like to think I have a 'voice' in my writing. But how do I know if I do?
Favourite voice: Dan Koontz because his writing sounds the same and also sound completely different with every book. I don't know how he does both at the same time.
Great breakdown, Nathan. It's very helpful.
I love when I read something and it draws me in effortlessly. I know that's when the author has a great voice.
I hope I have a decent one. People often say that like my style of writing. Since I don't aim for any particular style, I hope what they really mean is that my writing has voice. I hope my voice isn't off-key.
The problem I have is, I'm so close to my writing, I can't tell if I have a unique voice or not. It's plain old me using the words I always use when speaking or thinking in the real world. I suppose I need someone on the outside to tell me if what they see in my work is a unique and compelling voice…or not.
I love your explanation, Nathan. You've articulated it well. Thank you!
Great post, Nathan. In the past, I've worred about one protagonist's voice "carrying over" to the next novel. I try to shake myself up by thinking of as many differences between Protag A and Protag B as I possibly can.
This post is so timely for me because I've been thinking about voice all weekend. I recently reviewed a book (review isn't out yet) in which the voice changes from chapter to chapter depending on which character is the focus, and the voice is much stronger in some chapters than others. It made me wish the whole book was about the character focused on in those chapters.
I also think voice is just as important in memoirs as it is in fiction, but trickier because not everyone can distinguish between you the author, you the narrator, and you the character. I plan to blog about that tonight!
I'm still not 100% sure of what composes a voice (even with your fine breakdown, Nathan). I understand how some authors' voices are unique and identifiable, but I wonder, when reading about voice, whether I've found mine yet. How would I know if I've found it or not?
Instead of worrying about it, I just write without disregard and hope it's there.
j.r.-
I think voice is there when it's adjustable. Can you dial up or down certain elements? Can you hear it in your head? In other words, is it enough of an entity that you can think of it apart from the elements it's describing?
Spot on, Nathan. Some of my favorite voices are Dean Koonz, John Irving and Edith Wharton. In the romance genre I think Eloisa James and Mary Balogh have that signiture voice you talk about.
I am developing my own voice in my writing. I think that once a writer recognizes that they have one, they should keep it in the forefront of their writing and not let it dominate their creative process.
I think you've presented a beautiful way to think of voice. My writing voice is actually pretty distinguishable but it didn't happen right away. It developed over time and continues to develop as I learn and change.
A memorable voice tends to establish the tone of the story right away and stays consistent and engaging to the end.
Two favorite authors with trademark voices are John Irving and Michael Chabon. Their word choices, sentence structure, character types, and worldview leave distinct fingerprints on the page.
Another component of voice, IMO, is what the writer notices and chooses to bring to the reader's attention. Salinger makes us notice nail clippings, among other things.
A rare opportunity to break my recent pattern of being the last to comment, days after everyone else! Sensibility and style, yes. How prose looks on the page, definitely (I like white space). Personality, outlook, consistency (but not like porridge!).
Moderation, yes. Though rereading TREASURE ISLAND at the moment reminds me of the old proverb 'Moderation in all things, including moderation'. In other words there's a time and place to be immoderate.
I wonder what other modern readers think of Stevenson's continual use of never-explained nautical terms and phrases that were mostly archaic even when he wrote the novel over a century ago. Then there's Long John Silver's dialogue! Tailor-made for Robert Newton to speak, or slur, in the 1950 Disney movie.
Transportation, sometimes very literally, to a very far place and time. Originality and authenticity. I've never noticed a strong influence from any particular writer, though I like the short named and numbered chapters of Arthur C. Clarke and Michael Crichton's clipped and often unattributed dialogue, which does avoid looking like transcribed real life talk or a screenplay.
And yet, after all the above, some say the best voice is invisible and undetectable, at least consciously!
great post.
i always have troubled getting Vonnegut's voice out of my writing when I've been reading him recently.
i'm just starting to see the hints of my own voice coming through, after quite a bit of writing. it's exciting.
What a timely post! I was thinking about voice all morning.
As for my own voice, I just don't know. I know it's there in my personal writing and my blogging – in other words, when I'm just being "me" – but as for my manuscripts, it feels different (radically so!) from project to project. Is this a bad thing?
This is one of the most thorough posts I've seen on voice. Thank you!
Interesting comments. DirtyWhiteCandy re Ian Fleming. Fleming was so self-critical he had his secretary hide each new page he wrote to stop himself destroying it immediately! Joseph re Robert E. Howard. Howard’s voice seems strongly and deliberately archaic to many today, yet it retains great power. God (or whoever!) broke the mould after making him.
I second Jane Harmony re James Patterson. Again the white space and succinctness. Not to mention contagion, since Patterson has long been more a franchise than a single auteur!
Voice eludes me when I try too consciously to produce or refine it. When I relax and enjoy the writing, it seems that the voice comes and maintains its distinct features.
I agree with John above when he says that a memorable voice establishes the tone of the story. Tone is actually a more useful word for me than voice, which makes me feel self-conscious about my writing. Tone hangs out in the background, coloring all.
Voice is the reason I ignore advice that says "don't cast your novel" (the theory being that only newbies do this "stupid" thing.) And I think that studying screenwriting helped.
I pick an actor/character and try and hear the words in the cadence of their voice. Certain words will fit, others won't. You have to pick and choose until there's no edges hanging out.
Just don't tell anybody you did it.
;-P
OMG, voice is one area where I totally have it together! (My writing voice, not singing.) (That’s horrendous.) I’ve even been told my writing sounds like a straight, female David Sedaris.
I know I sound terribly full of myself, but believe me, SOMETHING has to make up for this crappy hair.
Charlaine Harris's voice cracks me up. I devoured nine of her Sookie Stackhouse novels in two weeks, despite having a two week-old baby. They provided a serious antidote to baby blues.
Something I've struggled with is whether it's easier to create voice writing in first or third person. I often think about trying some first person rewrites on my third person YA MS because so much YA is first person. (Of course, I fear this will mean another complete manuscript overhaul!)
Nathan, great breakdown. You know, I'd love to see how your blogging voice differs from your writing voice. Can I call for an excerpt of JACOB WONDERBAR? Who's with me?! 😀
Thanks. I like the way you put this together. I know a good voice when I hear it, but yeah, what is it?
I like a certain style of writing in my genre and I think my voice finds its own way into it. At least, I hope so.
This is a post, I'll study.
Authority.
For me, one of the absolutely key elements of voice is authority. With a great voice you know the writer is in control, so in control that the writer vanishes and you see only the story. A great voice carries you through the story, compells you through the story.
"Call me Ishmael."
There's such authorial command in that opening. Indeed, it is a command. He doesn't say "My name is Ishmael" or "I'm called Ishmael." He says "Call me Ishmael." The voice itself tells you to sit down and listen to the story it's going to tell.
I think all great voices have that authority. Cormac McCarthy, Ian McEwan, Tim O'Brien, Ann Patchett, Javier Marias, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Chimamanda Adichie, David Foster Wallace… voices so uniquely themselves, and yet they all hold an incredible confidence and command. There's a sureness to a great voice. The words are simply right and the rhythms of the prose are buoyant. You won't sink, not with these voices.
This is great Nathan. I always try and spend some time with my characters before chasing word counts. It helps me hear their voice better when I understand them.
My favourite voices are often those tied to particular characters.
I absolutely love the wry wit and patient affection of Meyer in the Travis McGee novels of John D. MacDonald, as a foil to the masculine, conniving and often lonely voice of McGee himself.
With Hemingway, I find that I always want to read with a slight Spanish accent, even when it's not needed.
As for what makes a good voice, I think it has to do with the author having a strong sense of who the characters are as people. The interaction between characters, be it for good or ill, sets the voice in many works. It can be good willed Hope and Crosby banter, or it can be icy knives of distilled hate… but the way the characters see and interact with each other, and the larger world, often speaks with a voice that shades the entire work.
Thanks for the terrific treatise on voice, Nathan–I think sometimes we try too hard to find our voice–but really, it's just who you are, so write, be you and don't try to write like someone else. Tell your story…my favorites authors with really distinctive voices are Richard Russo, Garrison Keillor, Jennifer Crusie…
This post and comments have given me many authors to add to my reading list. I think the best of classic literature has this quality too: Jane Eyre, Jude the Obscure, and (as much as I freaking hate this book) Moby Dick. My favorite modern example would have to be Audrey Niffenegger's Time Traveler's Wife (not the movie).
And I second the call for an excerpt of Jacob Wonderbar!
Great post Nathan! I have tried to find satisfactory explanations on voice, but most of them are murky at best. You did such a good job of breaking it down.
For me, voice is the “voice” I hear in my head while I am writing, which refers back to what you refer to as style. It conveys the tone of voice, cadence, and rhythm of my writing. I think your personality comes out the strongest in your word choice. Like how I naturally chose to use “satisfactory” to describe explanations up there, instead of “good” or “detailed”. There are a lot of words in written language, and each word you chose shows your personality. Word choice is also a good way to distinguish one character from another.
I think your voice comes out when you’re not trying to write in any way other than to get the story out.
The greatest single piece of advice I've ever had was this(from a reader not a writer, reading a first draft of my first book). 'It doesn't sound like you.'
Once I relaxed and stopped trying to be a 'writer', it all came together.
Just let yourself shine through.
Thank you Nathan , this is the post I've always wanted but didn't have the " voice " to express the need . I can now talk ! WWwwweeeeeeeeeee!!!
Some voices that have impressed me recently: Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country (not a recent book, of course, just one I read recently) and Sonia Hartnett, Thursday's Child. I picked up the latter at a bookstore because I was looking for books with great opening lines (which would make an interesting blogpost in itself–it was very enlightening to just read scores of first lines…)– Hartnett's was the only first line that was so striking that I HAD to read the whole book, and indeed that voice carried through from first line to last.
Can't remember which but a famous writer said that she does not read novels when she's working on a WIP so that she doesn't emulate the voice subconsciously.
Nathan, that is true I find that was the easiest part for me, right away I knew what my main protagonist would sound like especially since I finalized her characteristics, she is witty, weird the way she thinks and the reader reads all her inner sarcastic remarks that she would dare never say out loud. In addition I am somewhat like that so when I read it I sometimes …okay all the time burst out laughing. You are the uber agent I dont know if that is how uber is spelled but thats the way I am writing it.=D
First time posting! Thank you, Nathan, for your perspective, information, and humor!
I've been thinking about voice a lot so I thought I'd comment and ask more questions. I understand the idea of a writer's voice and I think I know the general tone or sensibility of my own. What I wish I could get more clarity on is how this voice changes depending on whether you are writing in 1st or 3rd person and depending on what character's perspective you are writing from, if any. In my current novel, most of the writing is in 3rd person, from the perspective of one character, but there are also sections in 1st person from another character and letters from yet other characters. Should my writer's voice be absent in these 1st person sections since I am solely in the character's voice? That's my intention, but I'm not sure it's successful. I guess what I'm asking is how to separate writer's voice from character's voice?
Thanks, Ink! Love that comment about "Authority" so much I cut it straight into the post.
I normally hate comments that just say, "Wow! Great post!"
But… Wow! Great post!
I hope to find time to read the comments tonight.
You hit the nail on the head with that final point. I still surprise myself with how many different styles I can write, and still remain true to the character's unique voice, while at the same time seeing myself in all of them. It's an amazing, beautiful, and vastly unexplainable thing. I know I've found a new character's individual voice when I can hear them saying the words in my head, and it sounds like an actual person, and different from the MC of my last novel, even if it happens to be the same genre. Like I said, hard to explain, but it's there.
Great post! I copied this to keep in my "workshop notes" folder.
I do love your references to Tolkien – now. LOL!
Most of my favorites are from the past, like Edith Wharton, as someone mentioned.
But a current author, Lisa Genova, pulled off what I think is the most difficult "voice" of all – that of someone going thru Alzheimer's in "Still Alice." A remarkable feat.
The best analysis of voice I've seen. My favorite is Ray Bradbury.
Nathan,
No prob – I aim to please. 🙂 Actually, I'm reading an example of that authority right now, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. It's a strange story, told from different points of view in different styles… and yet there's command in that shifting voice, something unified and powerful.
I always thought Neil Gaiman had a subtle voice. Then I was doing something in a room where a movie was playing and I recognised his voice in the dialogue of the characters and realised he did have a powerful voice. He's one of my favourites. Michael Swanwick is another, punchy, gritty, precise, and he captures the flavour of Russian science fiction somehow. I love that. No wonder he is such a hit in Russia.