What Exactly is VOICE? A Literary Term Defined

I love your voice. You need more voice. We're seeking a strong voice.

I don't know how many times I've seen strong voice listed among the desirable traits on an agent's wish list, or comments on those critiquing blogs about lacking a distinctive voice. Meanwhile, the comments from various writers climb: What exactly is voice?

To put it simply, voice is the personality in the writing. It's about understanding how to get your personality, or that of your characters, to shine through on the page. Everything else is meaningless.

Here's the thing about voice: it's something that develops over time as you become more confident with writing. Basically, there really is only one way to develop a strong voice: write, edit, write, edit, write, edit, lather, rinse and repeat.

Voice and Style

A conversation about voice with other writers is always interesting, because some writers get confused about the difference between character voice and writer voice. Trust me, there is a big difference. Meanwhile, the understanding that voice is personality still eludes many.

Let's take the writing that you see within this blog post and many of the others that you will find on this blog. As I'm not trying to convey a sense of character — I'm just being myself — the personality that comes through will belong to me, myself and I. I'm blunt, truthful and do the best I can to explain things in a way that everyone can understand. And trust me, even I miss the mark at times. (This blog post has gone through multiple revisions as I did what I could to make it understandable.)

I'm using my writer voice for this blog.

However, whenever I'm writing fiction, I'm also working from within the head of one of my characters. Their personality might have traits that are similar to my own, but trust me, there are things that my characters do that I would never do. However, there actions and thoughts still ring true on the page. The writing takes on a character's voice.

As a writer explores the concepts of show vs tell and the depth of perception, the narrative voice will change and become stronger. It develops and grows out of a writer's style.

Character vs Writer Voice

Let's spend a little time discussing the difference between character and writer voice.

The writer voice is the tone and personality of a writer.

Consider multiple books from the same author, where each book is about a different set of characters. While there might be slight shifts in the tone from one book to the next, the actually story and characters might have little impact on the voice used. In these instances, the writer is employing a consistent writer voice.

The works by Terry Pratchett, Arthur C Clarke and Michael Crichton, just to name a few, are all written with this consistency of writer voice in mind.

Character voice is the personality of the character itself.

Character voice can come through in the dialogue or it might come through as the narrative. Each character will be different; hence, each character needs to have a distinctive voice that comes through on the page. Unless you are writing a story with only one character, you will need to examine character voice as part of your editing/writing process.

For a moment, let's consider character voice in narratives. You know you've executed a strong character voice if you can read a short passage and know something about the personality of the character from whose perspective the story is being told. If you shift to a different point-of-view (POV) character, then the voice needs to change too, showing that new personality of the character.

For writers that work with this type of narrative, each book with a different set of characters will read differently.

Now for where things get messy.

First-Person or Third-Person Deep Perspectives

Writing a story in first person instantly assumes that the reader is going to experience everything from a particular character's perspective. The writing needs to delve into the POV character's emotions and thoughts, giving us a glimpse of their internal workings. This concept of going deep into a person is known as deep POV. Without it, first person is just a series of I's, me's and we's without any of the connection to the character.

Consider that multi-POV story that is written in first person from two perspectives. This is common within YA and certain genres within adult (particularly romance). Each POV needs to have a distinctive character voice, allowing the reader to easily identify whose head we're in. If you use the wrong voice for the wrong narrative, your readers will notice.

Many new writers work in first person, incorrectly believing that first person is more intimate, not understanding that the mechanism that makes first-person narratives intimate in the first place is actually the deep POV. If the narrative uses a shallow POV, where everything is on the surface and the personality of the POV character is not as strong as one would like, then shifts in POV can be jarring, as multiple characters come across as the same.

This is one of the reasons why I recommend third person to many writers, but it has an added benefit that many might not be aware of.

If you write a story in third person using deep POV (my favorite kind of narrative), then the narrative voice becomes a mixture of both a writer's voice and the POV character's voice. Certain aspects will remain consistent throughout an entire manuscript, and across multiple books, helping readers to remain grounded and identify your writing as belonging to a particular author. However, that deep POV (the character voice elements) will allow readers to grow a deeper connection to the characters.

Understanding Reader Expectations

In developing your writer's voice, and your character voices, it's important to understand the expectations of your reader for your given genre.

YA and certain genres within adult have an expectation of first-person narratives, dictating how POV within stories are handled. However, adult science fiction and fantasy tend to employ a third-person narrative (and in many cases, a shallow perspective). By understanding what is expected of your chosen genre, you'll be able to hone your writing skills and create a strong voice that is unique to you, allowing your personality to shine in your writing.