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It took me a long time to work out what my author voice was and why it was important to have one at all. I needed to work out just what it was I wrote, why I wrote it, and develop a writing style. You should be able to read an author’s work and “hear” their voice coming through their characters. It is not just about author style though that feeds into this.
So what is the definition of author voice? It is what makes a writer stand out to a reader. You should be able to tell that yes, this is an Allison Symes story because… And it is vital writers do stand out, especially when they’re pitching work to an agent and/or publisher. They want to be able to spot your author voice too.
They are looking for an unique author voice because it is that which readers go for. It is why you can have a million and one different love stories (am sure there are more than that out there by the way!) as long as the author voices are distinct from one another.
All writers bring something of their interests and themselves to what they write. We are inspired by what we love reading. Something of that inspiration does filter through into our own writing.
It is what we bring to the mix which makes (hopefully) a publisher sit up and take notice!
Developing Your Author Voice
I’ve found the following has helped me a lot here.
Writing regularly helps you work out the themes and topics of interest to you. These will be the things you will write from the heart and something of that comes through to the reader. (I know because with my reader hat on, I enjoy spotting this in books I read).
The good news here is writing regularly can cover all forms of writing. I regularly write and submit flash fiction (often of the 100 words variety). I regularly write and submit blog posts (500 words usually, sometimes more). This is also known as “keeping your hand in” but every writer needs to do this.
For novelists, it is a question of developing the stamina to keep going with chapter after chapter and of writing and rewriting. Regular writing is the way to get the novel written. It is also the way to get flash fiction written though you should be getting more of the latter out in the time someone drafts a novel and rightly so too!
You also discover the kind of character who interests you. I loathe the overly meek kind so won’t write that kind of character. I couldn’t get my author voice to come through convincingly on them because of my own loathing. It would get in the way.
It is vital for an author to be true to themselves here. As well as being a good idea anyway (!), you must have the stamina to write your story, edit it, edit it again, submit it, expect the rejections, and repeat until you get an acceptance if you do. So to do all of that for something you yourself are not convinced by is simply not going to work (and why waste your creativity energy on something you don’t really love?).
You develop the ways in which you approach writing a story.
You learn to play to your strengths. I like crisp, taut storytelling so flash fiction is a natural match for me. Writing regularly helps you develop your own style and your author voice comes through that.
Phrases can also reflect your style and author voice. The danger here is you could repeat them too much (and that could tip into caricature but the wise writer knows to look out for that and how to deploy useful and favourite phrases in a way that avoids this).
You get to know how you write best and focus on that. You end up becoming more productive but it is because you have found your author voice and you can “cut to the chase” here.
I’ve found author voice shows even when writing to the same theme and word count for an anthology. How do I know? Simply because I was one of the winners three years in a row for the Waterloo Arts Festival Writing Competition. We all wrote to the same theme. Fifteen different writers took fifteen different approaches to the topic. Fifteen different author voices on show!
Compare authors, past and present, whose works you love. Look out for their styles. Look out for the kind of things only they would come up with.
Author voice can change over time and with the kind of work being produced. Novels in the 19th century were more formal in style than we have now. A humorous writer will have a different voice to someone writing tragedies.
Can an Author have Multiple Writer Voices?
Yes, if they’re writing different kinds of books. For example, J.K. Rowling’s style for her Harry Potter novels will be different from her series of detective novels written under the name of Robert Galbraith (The Cormoran Strike series). (Have read the former but not the latter).
Each “brand” of books will have its own author voice, regardless of whether it is the same author writing them (and this is often the reason why writers go for pen names. It is to specifically distinguish other series of books from what they are best known for and helps with marketing).
So you can imagine the hard work that has to go in to develop an author voice for the most well known series and then come up with what would be apt for a brand new series in a different area of writing!
Reading Feeds into Writing and Vice Versa
It is the love of books and stories that draws people into writing their own. When you develop a love for specific topics, your reading and research will take you in that direction. So reading and writing do feed into each other.
Having said that, I once had to look up common poisonous plants you’d find in a garden for a flash fiction story I wrote once (honest, guv!). Had I anticipated doing that? No! But it was my love of the flash format and knowing I needed to bump a character off this way that led me down that route. Writers’ internet histories can be interesting! My author voice is generally not one of bumping characters off (again, honest guv!) but one of my topics of interest is connected to poetic justice.
The more you read, the wider your pool to fish from in terms of being inspired for your own story ideas. The more you write, the stronger your author voice becomes and the more you have to read to research your latest story etc to ensure you get your voice and characters right for this new tale.
Conclusion
Think of several of your favourite authors. Think about what it is about them that you love. Think about their characters and how they are portrayed. Spot the author voices. What makes their characters stand out? Agatha Christie’s author voice is different for her Poirot books when compared to her Miss Marple ones. Yet you still know both are written by her.
Indeed there was the slogan “A Christie for Christmas” encouraging people to buy her latest at that time of year. It was the author voice the publishers were selling here. You know what you are getting here and they were tapping into that. It was then a question of which of her detectives would be the main attraction.
Author voice matters. It is why once someone has found a favourite author, they stick with them. I did this myself when I discovered the joys of Terry Pratchett for the first time. I then had to read every other Discworld book.
So it is worth taking the time to figure out what your author voice is and how you can play to its strengths.
Related Posts:-
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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