Developing Style and Voice in Fiction Writing
What is style? What is that voice thing that editors keep going on about? How do you develop style and voice in 3 easy steps?
Lorrainne posted this question on my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page:
Randy, please describe how you see style and voice and how that is cultivated. Sight examples for clarification.
Randy sez: Drat! I was hoping for a question with an easy answer. You’ve asked one of the questions I find most difficult in teaching fiction writing.
I’d define style to be the set of patterns you use in your writing: word choice patterns, grammatical patterns, sentence structure patterns, paragraph structure patterns, narrative structure patterns.
I’d define voice to be the “attitude” you bring to your writing. This can be separated into the voice of each of your characters plus the voice you bring in as author.
Some examples of style patterns:
Word choice patterns. Do you use long words or short words? Do you use foul language or fair language? Latin-based words or Anglo-Saxon words? Active verbs or passive verbs? Spicy nouns or tofu nouns? Lots of adjectives or adverbs or hardly any?
Grammatical patterns. Do you violate those annoying rules of grammar that Mrs. Thiesing taught you in ninth grade English, or do you follow them? Do your verbs and nouns agree? Do you split infinitives?
Sentence structure patterns. Do you use long sentences or short? Clip the subject of the sentence? Do you pile on the clauses?
Paragraph structure patterns. Do you use long paragraphs or short? In dialogue, do you make a new paragraph every time you have a new speaker or do you sometimes lump two or more people together?
Narrative structure patterns. What is the mix of action, dialogue, interior monologue, interior emotion, description, and narrative summary in your writing?
Some examples of “attitude” in your writing:
Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Religious or not? Confrontational or conformist? Conservative or liberal? A rule-keeper or an anarchist? Altruistic or selfish? Judgmental or slow to leap to judgment? Angry? Depressed? Chaotic? Whimsical? Neurotic?
I could go on and on, but I think you get it.
Now the problem is how to develop your style and voice.
To develop your style, you need to learn what your options are. You do that by reading. Ten million words should be enough, if you read a mix of categories. That corresponds to about 100 novels. When you’ve read that many, you ought to have a good sense for what can be done with the language.
To develop your voice, I recommend writing a million words. That works out to about 10 novels, although you don’t have to write that many different books. It might be ten complete versions of one book. Your voice is you on paper. You don’t need to practice being you, but you may need to unlearn some of the things you were taught in school. That’s why you need to write a lot — because it’s only in doing it every day for years and years that you strip away all the handcuffs that Mrs. Thiesing put on you in school.
Do you have to read 100 million words to develop your own style? No. You might learn it quicker. You might never learn it. I’m guessing that 100 million words is an average. Your mileage is guaranteed to vary.
Do you have to write 10 million words to develop your own voice? Same answer.
What do my Loyal Blog Readers think? How many books did you have to read to develop your style? How many did you have to write to develop your own voice? Leave a comment and let me know, because I’m just guessing based on my own sordid experience as a reader and a writer. I’d love to get some data from writers who aren’t me.
If you’ve got a question you’d like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page and submit your question. I’ll answer them in the order they come in.
Blog of the Day: Agent Steve Laube blogged today with the headline: Every Writer Must Read This. I read it, and found that it’s a summary of a recent Harris Poll on the reading habits of Americans. There are some useful trends to note here. The most popular category is mystery/suspense, as measured by the percentage of readers who read this category. I suspect that the most popular category is still romance, as measured by the number of books actually bought, because romance readers tend to buy tons of romances. Steve is a guy I always pay attention to, so check out what he has to say.
October 8th, 2010 at 8:25 pm
The reading ten million words made me laugh - I think I had that part done by 4th grade!
October 9th, 2010 at 4:23 am
Great advice and idea of what the elusive “voice” means. It’s basically what I thought, only I hadn’t put it into words yet “attitude”.
October 9th, 2010 at 6:38 am
Oh man, you really struck a chord with me when you were talking about “taking off the hand cuffs: thats a major issue that I have, I am glad to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel!
October 9th, 2010 at 10:40 am
Is it possible to “hear” your own written voice, or does someone else need to identify it for you, like an accent? How can you tell if your voice is consistant, strained, whatever? I guess I’m afraid that overanalzing could kill my voice.
Randy sez: Voice comes from the creative side of your brain. Don’t overanalyze it or you’ll kill it–or at least knock it unconscious for a while. Voice is like personality — trying to “make it happen” is the surest way to make it not happen.
October 9th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Ugh! Style and voice. Great question, inspiring answer. Personally, my style and voice change depending upon what I’m writing. I think. Since I write such varied nonfiction as inspirational columns, interviews, reviews, articles, etc., I must choose the appropriate style/voice for the assignment. Now here I am as the student of a fiction writer! - thanks to that writer’s conference I attended in California. But creative writing is creative writing, whether fiction or non (and I’m writing a novel). They are parallel tracks of the same railroad line, and many aspects of one can be found in the other, like story arc. And voice. And style. A reader once told me, “I love your style.” I wanted to stand up on my desk and scream, “Tell me, please tell me, what is my style?!” I’m still waiting for the answer.
October 9th, 2010 at 11:30 am
I know fear of exposing what is truly lurking in my own twisted mind is one of the ‘handcuffs’ to my voice. I’ve been told my blogging/correspondence voice is something people enjoy (the poor saps) but no matter how hard I try to be ‘free’ in my fiction writing, I am chained by rules, what certain people will think, things I’ve been taught you can’t do or shouldn’t do in CBA, etc.
I am still reveling in a recent discovery: an author who writes in my genre in a ’style’–if you will–closer to mine than any others I’ve read by far. I not only like her books (it would take pages to detail why in particular) but I learned a couple of key things through her example that suddenly liberate me from my fears. She also pulls off some things (regarding emotional experience & reader reward) that I’ve tried to do but wasn’t sure if I was doing. On reading her books, I can see that I sadly failed at these things in my first book. Luckily I’m still in the early stages of my 2nd and can incorporate what I learned from her now.
It’s taken me a couple years of writing fiction and other stuff (a literary term) to sift through my stuff (a spiritual term) and begin to recognize what elements of my own preferences in style and word choice and attitude and approach to communicating that I should focus on for fiction and which to leave for personal life chatter. I’m still working on it. I guess I have about 250k words or so under my belt so far, have lots of lab time to go.
Hey - do the ones we throw away count? Then I probably have about 500k.
Randy sez: Yes, everything you type counts, whether you throw it away or burn it or blog it. Words written are words written.
October 9th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
I agree, style and voice are a bit mysterious but it is always great when you read someone whose style you like. I don’t even think about my own style when I am writing. While I know it is lurking in the shadows I let it take care of itself. Randy’s mad professor style for this blog keeps me reading and laughing.
October 10th, 2010 at 8:25 pm
I think it’s definitely important to read a wide range of authors and genres when developing your writing style so that you aren’t too obviously influenced by a particular writer, especially if they write in the same genre as you.
October 13th, 2010 at 7:56 am
A few people have told me that they really like my voice, which I found very encouraging. To be honest, I can’t say with certainty what I think of it (because I’m my own worst critic). But if it is good, then I’d credit it to mixing up my influences. Just like any writer, I have my favorite authors who have a specific voice and style that I enjoy. But every now and then, I like to read something different or out of the norm for my taste just to get a flavor for something else. It adds variety. And it’s fun to discover new things along the way. Like Jordyn implied, you don’t want to get stuck in a rut.
October 14th, 2010 at 10:08 am
I have been reading about this lately. It is hard to define voice. When writing in first person, voice comes through clearly. But when writing from a different point of view, voice is how the author sees the scene and the events.
Tiger stalking its prey. Some writers would spend a several paragraphs on the setting around the tiger or what the tiger saw. Some would describe the why the tiger is stalking.
Voice is delivery. And then its either slow or fast. Stalking to me is slow but suddenly fast.
Voice is what the author lets me see with their word pairings.
October 14th, 2010 at 11:56 am
I like C. S. Lewis’s advice. Forget about your voice / original style. Just write the story as best you can, and your voice will come naturally. You’re bound to be original, just because you’re you.
October 19th, 2010 at 6:06 am
[…] Developing Style and Voice in Fiction Writing (advancedfictionwriting.com) […]
January 15th, 2011 at 3:43 am
I had once read in a classical fiction writing book (I don’t remember the name)that an author’s “voice” or style is what distinguishes him from the others. But the moment you consciously become aware of them or try to analyze them, you run the risk of stagnating as a writer. If you become aware of the intricacies of your style (and specially if your style has been appreciated)you will try hard to stick to it and will not improvise as per the demands of the story.
I personally consider both style and voice as a “spontaneous way of writing a story” - a way that appeals to me and me only, and I see a pattern in my writing but i don’t go overboard trying to analyze it.
July 6th, 2011 at 1:12 pm
[…] A writer’s voice is like a personality on paper. Personal beliefs, outlooks and attitudes all influence the way a writer “sounds” when telling a story or presenting information. Every writer out there, published or unpublished, has a one-of-a-kind voice that gives life and character to his or her work. Readers seek out writers whose voices engage them and make them want to read more. So not only is voice part of a writer’s identity, it’s also part of what makes the writing enjoyable to audiences young and old. […]