Voice in fiction is crucial—but also elusive. First, writers must consider their own authorial voices, then the story’s specific narrative voice, and last but certainly not least character voices. In fact, if you’re writing fiction, the most important voices on the page technically aren’t yours, but your characters’. All of ’em. And they all need […]
Search Results for: voice
October 31, 2022 by 47 Comments CharactersTop 14 Tips and Tools for Creating Unique Character Voices
July 17, 2017 by 42 Comments NarrativeWriting Voice: 6 Things You Need to Know to Improve It
Writing a book isn’t just a discovery of the story, it’s also a discovery of yourself. Who are you, really? The answers you find appearing on the screen with each word you type can be surprising. And nowhere is the truth about an author revealed more unequivocally than when you open your literary mouth, loosen […]
May 5, 2017 by 68 Comments NarrativeHow to Write in an Authentic Historical Voice
Let’s say you’re writing a book set in the 14th Century. Naturally, as a diligent and conscientious writer, you want to do your research and write with an authentic historical voice. In fact, you’re so good and so authentic that what you end up with is something like this: Whilom, as olde stories tellen us, ther […]
November 9, 2015 by 40 Comments Narrative6 Steps to Create a Fantastic Narrative Voice (What I Learned Writing Storming)
You hear it all the time: readers’ time is precious, and they’re not going to waste it on books that aren’t da bomb. I certainly feel that way about my own reading choices. What’s my main criterion for instantly recognizing when a book isn’t going to be worth my time as a reader? Voice. It all comes […]
February 27, 2015 by 52 Comments ProseTo Be or Not To Be: In Defense of the Passive Voice
Recently, one of my critique partners asserted that any use of the verb to be formed the passive voice and deserved to be stamped out with as much vigor as possible. This got me to thinking about that misunderstood verb form and the use of passive voice in modern fiction. All of my critique partners […]
July 23, 2014 by 41 Comments NarrativeIs Your Story’s Voice Turning Away Readers?
A story’s voice is always a hot topic among writers. What is it? How does it work? How can you get one? The difficulty in teaching about a story’s voice is that it’s one of those “you know it when you see it” things. Recently, I encountered a powerful example of voices that work—and voices […]
December 1, 2013 by 44 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes: Weak Character Voice
Voice. That tantalizingly nebulous word is flung around so often in writing critiques and agent demands that writers sometimes get to where we almost hate the sound of it. Every author is supposed to cultivate a unique voice. But, even more than that, we’re also supposed to create a unique character voice for every one […]
August 29, 2012 by 26 Comments CharactersHow to Find Your Character’s Voice
The single most important factor in getting readers’ attention is a strong, unique, and personality-heavy narrative voice. Voice is what defines both your story and your narrating character. You can think of voice as your story’s unique fingerprint. If your book were a band, this would be the sound that makes it recognizable. So if […]
April 20, 2012 by 31 Comments CharactersHow to Create Distinctive Character Voices
Did you ever have those Shakespeare quizzes in high school in which your evil teacher gave you a list of random quotations from the play you were studying and asked you to identify the speaker? I remember being terrified of those quizzes in theory but enjoying them in practice. Not because they were easy (the teacher never chose the […]
February 23, 2011 by 21 Comments NarrativeIs Authorial Voice Different From Character Voice?
This whole idea of “authorial voice” is something many authors struggle with, in part because they’re not always sure what “voice” means. Is voice something that remains the same in every one of an author’s projects? Or is it something that changes from story to story? This is a question that causes a lot of […]
