Something that I often hear in the writing world is that the one thing that can’t be taught is “voice” in writing. That although you can get better at almost every aspect of writing, voice is something that you just have to have.
And for a long time, that terrified me.
I was pretty positive I didn’t have a distinct author voice. And if I couldn’t learn it, couldn’t make my work stand out because of my unique voice, was I just destined only to write mediocre books?
Thankfully, I’ve realized that my simple understanding of “you can’t teach voice” is a misinterpretation of the advice. It’s true, you can’t really teach/learn “how to write with voice,” mainly because the whole point of your writing voice is that it’s yours.
Your voice as an author is defined by a number of things: the type of words you like to use, if you focus more on dialogue or descriptions or inner thoughts or a million other things, the references you make, the metaphors you choose, how you divide up your paragraphs and sentences. All these things and more are determined by a huge number of factors, both in and out of your control: where you grew up, what kind of people were around you, what sort of education you got, the books you grew up reading and read now, other media you take in like movies, music, and video games.
Basically, voice is hard to define, and there are an infinite number of things that contribute to making your specific voice, which makes it harder to explain than other writing concepts like show don’t tell, character motivation, or how to write better dialogue.
BUT never fear—what I’ve realized is that although teaching a writer to have voice is almost impossible, there are lots of things you as a writer can do to discover and develop your voice. It’s not as cut and dry as other writing skills, but there is still a way for you to hone your unique voice as a writer. These are three things that have been most effective for me.
Just keep writing
I know, this is maybe the most annoying writing advice. But with voice, it is absolutely true. Joanna Penn spoke about this on her podcast The Creative Penn, describing the process of editing and re-releasing the first books she ever published. She noted that now, dozens of books later, she has found her voice and was able to incorporate that into her earlier books.
I’ve noticed that as I’m working on my fourth and fifth books, it’s really only with these books that I’ve started to notice my voice coming through in a way that it hasn’t with my other books. This is a result of me getting better at other parts of writing craft: dialogue, character building, writing descriptions. With better tools, I’m able to do better work, aka bring out my voice more. Additionally, the more you write, the more you get familiar with how your own brain interprets the world around you and the better you get at putting that unique perspective into words.
Read authors whose voice you admire
This is evergreen advice: If you want to get better at something, read a lot of books that do that thing well. The same holds true for voice, except that it’s much more up to personal taste than probably any other aspect of writing.
One of my favorite authors is Casey McQuiston, and specifically I love the witty, conversational voice of their novels, peppered with pop culture references that fearlessly ground the books in a specific time period. But one of my other writer friends can’t stand their books because of that voice. Neither of us is right or wrong; it’s just a difference of opinions.
So as you read, try to notice if an author’s voice stands out to you: how they describe things, the flow of their sentences, what sort of metaphors they’re using, just generally how their writing feels to you. You’ll begin to have a list of authors who have a voice you like, and might even want to emulate. Which brings me too…
Challenge yourself to write like the authors you admire
Reading books with a distinctive voice will undoubtedly sink into your brain and influence your writing. But to absorb even more of that voice, there are some exercises to strengthen that process.
For one, when you notice a passage with voice that you love, copy it out. Word for word. Ideally, do this by handwriting it, because the process of writing out the words that way will really help them stick in your brain, but you can even type out a passage too, just to practice what it’s like to write with that voice. I know it sounds woo-woo and weird, but it really does make a difference. Similarly, try to challenge yourself to write something in the same voice as an author you like—it could just be a paragraph (how would this author describe the weather outside?) or even a short story.
Now, you may be balking at the idea of trying to copy an author’s voice. Isn’t that stealing? How am I supposed to find *my* voice by looking to others?
Here’s the thing: No matter how hard you try, everything original you write will be filtered through your brain and experiences and preferences—aka your own voice—and it won’t come out the same as someone else, even if you’re trying to make it sound like it!
More than that, these are just exercises. They’re focused on choosing a single writer, and helping train your voice. But once you are working on your own original writing, you won’t be writing with the sole aim of mimicking another author, and you’ll likely have multiple authors and books with voice you like influencing your writing. For example, some of the authors who have a voice I love include V.E. Schwab, Lauren Groff, Casey McQuiston, and Talia Hibbert. These are VERY different authors, ranging from fantasy to literary to romcom, and they have quite different voices. But by reading and studying all of them, what I learn from them plus everything I already bring, will combine to form my own, unique voice. The same is true for you.
Find a defining image
The more you write and read and study, the more your voice will start to appear on page. For some people, it comes out more strongly in the first draft, and they have to be careful about editing it away. For others, that voice is refined during the revision process.
Regardless of which one you are, at some point in the writing process—probably during an early draft, even if you think the rest of it is garbage—you’ll have a line or sentence or piece of dialogue that will make you go, “This is it. This is what I want this book to sound like.”
Stealing some terminology from the documentary 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki, which follows the process of the renowned director and animator of Studio Ghibli, I like to call these pieces the “defining image.” In the documentary, Miyazaki struggles with creating a new film as he works to figure out the defining image: the single snapshot of the film that will guide the rest of movie and keep it cohesive.
For him, he has to figure this out before he starts. In the writing process, I like to treat it a little differently. When I write a sentence that I love, that feels like what I want the entire book to feel like, I’ll copy it into a separate note (I use Scrivener). Someday when I have a desk to work at, I’d like to print it out and keep it at my desk. It’s the defining image of my book.
Each time before I begin a writing session, I re-read that sentence. Just as reading other authors’ books can help you absorb their voice, reading your own work that captures your voice can help infuse the rest of your book with your distinct voice. It’s not going to mean that your first draft is perfect and needs no editing—not by a long shot! Just that you might get a little closer to finding and writing in your voice as you remind your brain what you want the story to sound like. Don’t let this trip you up—the most important thing is to get the words on the page, even if they don’t sound perfect. But this could help you bring out your voice earlier in the process.
Defining and developing your voice as an author isn’t a simple process, but it is doable, and it’s one of the best things you can do to bring your work to the next level.
What authors do you admire for their writing voice? Do you feel like you’ve developed a distinct voice? Let me know in the comments!
