What is Voice?

24. May 2011 by Gore Wehner.

Voice

Voice is what keeps readers connected to your character. It establishes who they are without having to resort to “telling.” For example, you can write: I’m terrified of spiders. Or you can write: Can’t stand those wiggly-waggly eight-legged misfits creeping out of corners and dangling by a sticky thread in one’s unsuspecting face.

Which person’s story would you rather read?

One person in our LCRW group who has mastered voice is Lisa Scott. It may be because of her experience as a voice-over narrator. I’ve often noticed that actors and voice talent specialists have an edge over those who haven’t read dialogue out loud for a hobby or a living. They wouldn’t be successful at their job if they couldn’t grasp the emotion behind the words. And that’s what we do when we write using voice: we try to grasp the emotion.

Here are three ways to say the same thing using three different voices:

Ain’t nobody seen Miss Polly, not since school let out that swelterin’ June day. Guess Wendell was the last one to set eyes on her. Says she was sweatin’ like a pig in front of a carvin’ knife.

It happened on the hottest day in June. Me and Darlene stormed out of the school, giggling over something that no longer seems important. We had no idea goofy old Wendell would be the last one to set eyes on Polly McGraw. If we had even one bit of sense, we would’ve kept our eye on her, too. Because after she marched out of the classroom, she was never seen again.

Darlene and I joined the throng of students piling out the school’s yawning door into Mother Nature’s oven. My face was slick with sweat by the time we reached the waiting bus. Wendell was there, too, face red as a chili pepper. “Did you see Polly?” he asked. We shook our heads. “Just wondering.” He shrugged. “She didn’t look so good.” At the time we hadn’t thought it odd. But when she went missing, we began to wonder.

Each character has their own unique voice. We can picture what kind of person each one is, even though we have only read one paragraph of the story.

I challenge anyone who reads this to develop their character’s unique voice. First, second, or close third…it doesn’t matter. If you don’t have a strong voice, you’ll lose the reader.

Try putting yourself in the shoes of a beloved character. Harry Potter. Jane Eyre. Claire Huxtable (my personal favorite!). Television or novel character, it doesn’t matter. Now write a paragraph using their voice. How would they talk? Think? Act? The more you practice using different characters, the more natural it will become to write in their voice.

And it never hurts to take an acting class.

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