Last week we talked about your core voice—that part of your voice that is uniquely you and flavors everything you do. Whether you are a Red Rose potato, a Russet, a Yukon Gold, or a yam.
Today I want to talk about the more conscious aspects of voice: story voice and how one's voice can shift from book to book, and then creating characters’ voices, which you can have many of in any given story. Essentially, what you're going to make out of that potato.
Some authors' voices remain fairly constant throughout everything they write. Often that consistent voice is a large part of their appeal. Alice Hoffman, Jenny Crusie, and Meg Cabot are some that immediately come to mind.
Then other authors create unique, individual voices for each of their stories so that you might not realize they’d been written by the same person. Jane Yolen, Tamora Pierce, Suzanne Collins, K. A. Applegate, Garth Nix.
If you're the former, then the story voice and author voice remain fairly constant and you don't have to wrestle with the idea of different voices for different stories. However, as I mentioned last week, voice confounded me for a long time because of this need to tell wildly different stories. Until I stumbled upon the idea that story voice is which aspect of your author voice you’re focusing on.
The thing is, we all have many aspects to our personality: funny sides, serious sides, dark sides, places where our deepest fears lay. To me, it makes perfect sense that our body of work will cover more than one side of ourselves, thus different flavors of stories.
However, while we might vary in whether we want to focus on humor or seriousness or hope or despair, WHAT makes us laugh or cry or hope or despair is part of the essence of who we are and that will very likely remain constant throughout the body of our work.
Whether it is center stage or backdrop is the variable.
If you are writing a scary story, you will be drawing on what frightens you, the terrifying moments you’ve experienced, your nightmares.
If you are writing a humorous or light-hearted story, you will probably draw on what parts of life you find absurd or ironic. A romance would focus on how you define love.
My teen assassins in medieval France book that comes out next spring uses a wildly different voice than either the Theodosia books or the Beastologist books. Not just older, but a wildly, completely different voice. And yet I still feel that it is very much my voice. But it is my seventeen-year-old voice versus my eleven-year-old voice. My coming-of-age voice rather than my still-firmly-rooted-in-childhood voice.
Another other big component of the story voice is the set of emotional truths and thematic issues you are exploring. They will greatly dictate the tone and feel of your book.
It is also my voice as seen through a medieval lens and worldview rather than an Edwardian one—two time periods with distinctly different flavors and sensibilities. The medieval world was obsessed with finding a path to grace and assuring a place in heaven, while Edwardians were just stepping out of a dark, somber, restrictive Victorian society and embracing a lighter side. Not to mention the beginning advent of modern technologies. If I’m doing my job in developing my characters, the flavor of those different times comes through.
Which segues rather nicely into finding your character’s voice
This is probably the most conscious aspect of voice, adjusting your voice to convey a specific, fictional character. It�
11 Comments on You Say Potato, Your Character Says Potahto..., last added: 7/12/2011
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Very thorough--and helpful--discussion on voice, and the distinction between a writer's core voice and the character's voice. Thanks :-) And as for your thoughts on character information sheets, I especially like: "I often joke about not knowing what color my character's eyes are because I'm too busy looking through them, not at them." Classic!
I.Love.You.
(thank you)
I am going to try the journal today. I am confused by why my character reacted in a certain way and I feel like she is keeping some pretty important secrets from me...ME! The author! she better spill pretty soon or the book is gonna be lame.
Thanks for this post.
Shelley
Awesome, awesome post. You put a *feeling*, a vague sense of how things worked, into clear, easily understandable words.
So glad it was helpful, Kenda!
Adele, you are so welcome!
Shelley, I swear by the journaling method. The cool thing is, oftentimes I end up being able to use a lot of what I put in the journal in the actual book, but my subconscious needs the non-pressure of thinking it's just a journal entry. :-)
1000th monkey, so glad I was able to articulate things in an understandable way. Trust me, that is not always the case! :-)
Thank you so much! This is brilliant, and so what I needed. Am attempting to craft a first novel for early YA (Junior high age) and have been feeling less than knowledgeable on character development. Your post helps tremendously!! Looking forward to your fall novel!
Thanks, Robin. This is what I needed to remind me about figuring out my antagonist, actually--I do know that part of her is me, but somehow I'm not letting that part loose yet. Maybe because it IDs me as part bad guy?! :) I've been thinking I need to write a few not-to-use scenes in her point of view, and this is pushing me toward that even more.
Love the character journal concept. The WHY focus is the key, isn't it?
Excellent post, very helpful and thought-provoking.
Excellent post, Robin. I find the same sort of thing happens for me (as your journal) when I write letters to my characters and have them write back to me. Their voices start to emerge in the process and often surprising me.
I hadn't thought of this, although I've written different stories with different sides of my voice. Now I have something to try to shake things up ... consciously. Thanks. :)
Thanks, CT! I love it when the timing works out like that.
Becky, I think that is one of the hard parts about writing--that sense that we are going to show what aspects of ourselves are antagonist-worthy. And I think scenes that are written just to explore our characters are such a great tool!
Ramona, WHY is one of my favorite questions, right after WHAT IF?
Oo Susan! Letters to and from the characters are a terrific idea! I'll keep that in my back pocket for when journaling doesn't produce the desired results.
M Pax, good luck with shaking things up! Important to do in our creative pursuits!