If you close your eyes and listen to people speak aloud, you can hear that each person has their own unique voice. It?s formed from pitch, inflection, accent, volume, etc. That?s why so many sci-fi stories (and, increasingly, real-life scenarios) have voice-recognition technology. It?s like a fingerprint; you can do an impression of someone?s voice, but you can never actually match it.
So what does it mean to mention ?voice? in terms of writing? The most common answer is that it?s the distinct way that you write your stories. However, I think there?s a use of voice that often gets overlooked, and that?s character voice. But we?ll get to that.
The voice that you use in your writing is not unlike how your speaking voice is made up of different pieces. When writing, your voice is comprised of the words you use, the cadence of your writing, your use of emotion, etc. A lot of times it?s influenced by how you speak in real life, and also from the kinds of authors that you prefer to read. For instance, I like to use words that, while not actually obscure, are rarely used in modern day conversation. And the way I write dialogue is directly influeced by the writing of David Eddings. Like my speaking voice, my writing voice is my own and someone who is used to reading my stories should be able to tell that it was me who who wrote them.
Where I think some authors fail, however, is mixing their writing voice with the voice of the characters in their stories. This is specifically for stories written either in first person or in third person limited. If you are writing from the point of view of a particular character and you?re only writing in your voice, then you?ve inadvertantly made that character you.
A bit confusing? Let me give an example. Currently, I?m reading Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. I?ve been a life-long fan of Koontz?s novels. They?re great palette cleansers in between heavier pieces of fiction, and they never fail to entertain. However, I?m having a problem with Odd Thomas, and the problem is this ? he hasn?t given his character, who is written in first person, a suitable voice. I?m supposed to believe that Odd is twenty years old, yet he doesn?t think or speak like one. He thinks and speaks like someone twice his age or more is writing him to, which is exactly the case. The book is written in Koontz?s voice, no doubt about that. But the dialogue is forced, like a fifty-year-old trying to sound hip amidst a group of teenagers. When I try to imagine Odd as being as young as I?m told he is, I just can?t do it. Koontz failed to give Odd a distinct voice while maintaining his own within the writing.
It?s a tough line to walk, I know. When I wrote Dark City, Dark Magic, I was writing a character that was completely unlike me, and it made it difficult to write for him. But with enough work (and a lot of rewrites), I?d like to think that I was successful in giving Rick Walker his own voice, while keeping the story written in my own. It takes a lot of practice and it requires you to fully know your characters. You can?t give an empty character a voice, otherwise it?s just words.
With all these voices going on in our heads, it?s no wonder people think that writers are crazy.
Source: http://tarkulich.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/voices-in-my-head/
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