Finding Your Voice

In writing, voice pertains to the way one’s writing sounds on paper. It has something to do with the way one writes; the way one chooses his words to convey their meaning; the way things fit in with the character and style of his story. It has something to do with the way the writer chooses his tone and the way he creates his sentence patterns.

Voice reflects the writer’s experience or capability to make a story more inviting and interesting to the reader. One way to find the character’s voice is to develop the character much more deeply, and flesh out his or her background in more detail.

Let the character tell the story and carefully assess how he or she does it while the writer develops the figure. Write down observations in detail. If the writer can hear the character exactly as what he or she portrays the role, more likely the writer has conveyed the proper voice to his story.

Before one can improve his voice, he needs to find it first. A common helpful tip to improve writing proficiency and discover voice is to write as much as possible. Writing a journal is a good start to write. Make a record of daily experiences, things to see, things to hear and emotions to feel. Write about opinions and ideas regarding some important issues.

It is much easier to write private or personal records than to write fiction. When one writes in private, he becomes more open to any words he would want to put into writing. He has limitless possibilities to express every detail of his idea or opinion regarding the subject matter. This is exactly the activity a writer needs in writing. It will pave the way in the development his voice and how his story would sound.

Once the writer has filled up his journal or personal writing, he can refer to his friends and allow them to read his work. The friends will evaluate his work according to a few categories: Is your writing poetic, romantic, literary, funny and factual? How does it sound? Does you writing express opinions? Is your writing stiff or flowing? Does your writing use repeated words? Are your sentence patterns always the same? Does your writing reflect your identity and personality?

The writer will encounter greater problems in writing if he uses a voice that is not his. It would be very difficult to create a character and very hard to stay in style. Varying voice style of a writer from chapter to chapter is rarely a good idea. If you have song lyrics or sheet music, a great way to store it is on an ssd drive, find out the benefits of ssd.

A good writer aims to have a voice that creates consistency in the story’s characters. The characters might show changes in their moods or character traits but with a solid voice, they will still be recognised as same people throughout the story.