It is very easy to have your own voice. Basically your voice is anything in your writing style that makes you different from the competition. Some of these qualities are positive, but some are negative. Unfortunately, the negative ones are the easiest, because they tend to look like mistakes. Be careful not to fall into their snare. Continue reading “How to Develop Your “Author’s Voice” – and How Not to”
Tag: narrative voice
Writing with Congruent Voice
I’ve written before about using different voices depending on genre. I don’t do it purposely; it just seems to happen. Maybe writing a romance puts me in one mood, softening the voice, while writing an action story puts me in another and changes the voice to harder, more direct. As an unapologetic pantser, I let it develop however it wants. But lately, I’ve also realized that my voice changes with the gender and/or personality of my protagonist. Continue reading “Writing with Congruent Voice”
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: Writing Tense Confusion
Every now and then, when I’m reading, I’ll run across something that makes me go, “Huh?” I’m not talking about the sort of full-on assault perpetrated by authors who don’t think spelling, punctuation, and grammar matter at all. I’m talking about the sort of thing that makes my head wobble a little bit as I frown and say, “Hmm. That doesn’t sound right to me.”
Take, for example, the use of yesterday, today, and tomorrow in fiction. Sometimes they just don’t sit right with me. And it’s always when the narrator of the piece – first person or third, doesn’t matter – is telling about something that occurred in the past. Continue reading “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: Writing Tense Confusion”
Crafting Your Writer’s Voice: Tense and Person
How do you know when you’ve found your true voice? I write multi-genre, and I discovered a long time ago that the genre, or the story itself, demands the voice. I write softer, more descriptively, when I write romance. I write more directly and tersely with an action/adventure. I also write more directly when my protagonist is male, and more effusively when my protagonist is female. Back in 2013, I wrote more extensively about changing voices here.
But beyond the story suggesting a voice, how do you craft that voice? You do have choices, you know. Continue reading “Crafting Your Writer’s Voice: Tense and Person”