Lending A Helping Hand: Writing Tips

What Is the Writer's Voice? How to Find Your Writing Voice

Many poets also have clearly pronounced literary voices—from Ezra Pound to Billy Collins to even the Bard himself, William Shakespeare. Part of the timeless appeal of many famous novelists is their clearly defined literary voice.

What Is the Definition of Voice in Writing?

In literature, "voice" refers to the rhetorical mixture of vocabulary, tone, point of view, and syntax that makes phrases, sentences, and paragraphs flow in a particular manner. Novels can represent multiple voices: that of the narrator and those of individual characters.

What Is the Difference Between the Author's Voice and Character's Voice?

A character's voice is the unique tone a skilled author imbues upon different characters. For example, a novel's main character might be affable and loquacious so much so that words spill from their mouth seemingly without end, perhaps to the annoyance of the other characters. This doesn't mean that every character in the book need be equally verbose, however. In the hands of an experienced author, each character has a unique combination of personality and vocal syntax via their written dialogue, so that no two characters read alike.

An author's voice comes through to the reader in two main ways: either through third person narration or through the point of view expressed in the novel.

Writers like Tony Morrison and Nathaniel Hawthorne tell their stories through an omniscient third person narration. However, both of these authors have a unique voice, set by the tone, word choice, structure of paragraphs and chapters, and pacing of their stories that sets each novelist apart.
An author's voice may also refer to the overall point of view conveyed within the pages of a novel. This point of view is based less upon specific descriptions or dialogue and more about the book's mood and worldview. For example, when considering the books of Joyce Carol Oates and those written by Margaret Atwood, a reader might note themes, character types, and writing styles that demonstrate each writer has a distinctive voice that transcends individual works.

2 Examples of Author's voice
From famous Novelists

1.) Leo Tolstoy's pet themes (distrust of anyone seeking to change the world, constant acknowledgment of life's myriad complications) and his well-established skepticism toward academic and religious hierarchy combined to create a personal voice. He then juxtaposed this with character voices that were vastly different from his own personality.

2.) Dan Brown's accessible language and pulpy plot twists reward his loyal readers who come for a signature style and always receive it. His bestselling novel Angels & Demons kicks off with this sentence: "Physicist Leonardo Vetra smelled burning flesh, and he knew it was his own." This instantly communicates the kind of narrative that Brown will be sharing with his readers, along with his specific writer's voice.

What Is the Significance of Voice in Building a Character?

Because novels are simply words on a page (with the notable exception of graphic novels, which are driven by illustrations), those words must do the heavy lifting to convey characterization to readers. When a character speaks, they provide information about themselves that goes beyond the business they're addressing in a line of dialogue, like:

•••The breadth of the character's personal lexicon. In other words, do they have an expansive vocabulary, an average one, or a limited one? (A character's lexicon can indicate things like their education, their worldview, or their opinions on interpersonal communication.)

•••Their regional accent and/or colloquialisms, indicating the character's geographic origin.

•••Their way of responding to conflict. Do they take charge? Cower? Panic? Blame others?

•••Their willingness to speak openly. Are they talkative, terse, or somewhere in between?