Voice is not Style of Writing
Over the years, I have discovered that voice is not the same as writing style. Yesterday, I blogged about the importance of discovering your writing style. This should provide you quite a few hints about how you can write at your most optimal.
Voice is very different from style although writers should develop both in order to be authentic writers who are writing outside the box. This more than anything else will really be helpful for you to develop your writing career since publishers are always looking for new ways of looking at a concept or a situation. So, what is voice?
Voice shows the writer’s personality. If a writers develops his/her voice effectively, his/her writing will have a distinct sound from everyone else’s. It will contain unique feelings and emotions so that it does not sound like an encyclopedia article. If the writer successfully develops his/her voice, the reader should be able to sense the writer’s sincerity and honesty.
For a writer to develop his/her voice, (s)he should write from the heart as much as possible. The language should bring the topic to life for the reader. The voice should be appropriate for the topic, purpose, and audience of the manuscript.
It may take a long time for a writer to develop his/her voice. I know it did take me a long time. And I discovered that I write in many different voices. Each of these unique and different voices gives my manuscripts their cutting edge and makes them different from other articles on the same topic in print.
For instance, most of my manuscripts are written from a kids or Tween voice. But in addition to these overall voice forms, I have other distinct voices. For instance, I am currently writing a series of picture books from my cat’s point of view. At first, I had a difficult time to imagine how he would think and act. But I now know that much better as a result of writing these books.
When I write for tweens, I write from a psychological and philosophical perspective or point of view. The trick for me is to make sure that my pieces aren’t preachy or assertoric. But that is a fine line that I have to walk in order to write for this market. I also may write from a Christian point of view for this market.
Lastly, when I write academically, I write from a philosopher’s perspective or point of view. It is my area of expertise, so writing from that perspective and from the theoretical standpoint that I write within also gives my articles their cutting edge and publication.
So, what different voices can you write within? One way to discover your voices is to determine what your likes, dislikes, opinions and so on are. Another way to discover your voice is to write from a pet’s perspective or a frog’s if you are writing for kids. This will give your writing the cutting edge that you need to get published.
© Irene S. Roth December 2009
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