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Hi again
it's Gaynor here, with the
fourth of my monthly newsletters, and this time
I'm looking at the elusive voice
Always
remember, writing advice should be taken with a pinch of salt,
what works for one person will be impossible for another, but I
hope you find something here to inspire you! If there are
particular topics you would like me to write about in the future,
then give me a shout on gaynor@retreatwest.co.uk
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A short while ago I thought, ooh, I’ll write the
next Retreat West newsletter on ‘voice’, because agents and
publishers are always asking for voice. And then I realised, I
don’t actually know what it means. I have my own idea of what it
means, but is what the agents mean? Is it what other writers mean?
Well, apparently not.
I donned my hard-hat and asked on twitter, always a risky strategy
if you’re a sensitive soul like me, and sure enough I got a variety
of different answers. So I thought I would spend this newsletter
going through some of those answers. You don’t have to have a
twitter account to have a nosey at things on there, you can just
search by topic or phrases or usernames, so I’ve popped everyone’s
usernames here in case you want them. Fair warning, this is a
pretty long newsletter as I wanted to include as many opinions as
possible!
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(Psst -that image will make sense soon)
So first up:
Megan Taylor
@meganjstaylor
‘Writing from your heart, in the way that can only belong to you.’
This is what I immediately think of when I think of ‘voice’. The voice that comes
from inside me, the voice that no one else could emulate.
When I’m sifting stories for competitions, or magazine submissions,
or when I’m giving writing advice, the question I have in my mind is, ‘is this something that
no one else could have written?’
But, my voice can change depending on the story I’m writing or the
market I’m writing for! To give an example of this, a lot of my
early flash fiction is what I describe as ‘weird things happening
in simple ways’. Here’s a prime example of that method, from 2017
It's Complicated
But … after so many stories written that way, I began to bore
myself. So I took one of those stories and played around with it,
stripping back as much ‘me’ as I could. I wish I had the earlier
version to show you, but here’s what it ended up as:
girl & pangolin
I think each story has a distinct voice, but they are incredibly
different, and yet both were written by me.
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Which leads me onto one of the strongest opinions I
was given on twitter:
Lauren Foley
@foleywan_kenobi
‘Wishy washy find your ‘voice’ as an author preachings only serve
to force artists into marketable niches, where they can become
obsolete as bands whose decades of albums are the same song over
and over again’
I’m so glad Lauren said this, as it honestly wasn’t something I had
considered before. I think, in this case, it comes down to what you
are happy with as an author. If you would be happy to only write
one type of story (and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that)
then you could hone your voice so that it suits your intended
genre. I’m typing this next to my husband’s bookshelf and I can see
24 Lee Child books! If I could be guaranteed a career and creative
output like Lee Child, would I be happy to stick to one ‘voice’ in
my writing? Honestly, no. But you might. So maybe a distinct
voice in one genre will serve you well in a long-term writing
career.
Lauren also said this,
‘Agents looking for ‘strong voice’ literally means: high quality
convincing writing.
Industry-wise it mean: copy edits and light structural editing only
please.’
Perhaps we should just write the best that we can and not worry
ourselves with things like voice at all.
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This chimes with the response from experienced publisher Louise
Walters:
Louise Walters Books
@LouiseWalters12
‘I actually don’t really believe in “voice”. It’s a vague term, a
bit misleading. Control is what makes a good “voice”. A writer’s absolute
control over every aspect of their writing. It’s hard to achieve,
and so it’s good to read when it is achieved.’
So, control over every aspect of their writing. For me, I interpret
that as knowing who is telling the story, having a consistent
viewpoint and tense (two things I’m personally dreadful at in
longer pieces), respecting the genre I’m writing in, tightly edited
sentences that achieve what I want them to without sounding
overwrought or sparse, keeping up pace and tension while also
allowing the reader breathing space … you know, simple things like
that. To be fair, that really is what we ought to be trying to
achieve in our writing, and is the reason it took me maybe 3 months
to write my novella-in-flash then another 6 months to edit
it!!
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This response was a really popular one:
Jason Jackson
@jj_fiction
‘Sounds authentically like a character / narrator, not a writer
saying ‘look at me writing stuff’
I definitely agree with what Jason is saying, anything that feels like
an author ‘showing off’ or doesn’t fit with the character
immediately pulls me out of the story. I am
sometimes guilty of using literary devices, especially
alliteration, to make my stories sound a bit fancier, and then
someone will read it and that’s the bit they dislike the most!
Trying to really inhabit the world of our characters or narrators,
including their voice, is really important for convincing,
authentic stories.
But then again …
Trent England
@papermotel
‘I think of it as being akin to how every person has his or her own
gait, that there’s something innately *you* about how you walk. Learning to find your
voice is like learning to walk and finding your voice is like
learning to walk and finding your stride. Once you’re comfortably
going along, it means you’ve gotten it.’
I’ve had people say to me, ‘I knew that was a Gaynor story as soon
as I started reading it’ and I honestly don’t know how to feel
about that! I haven’t deliberately cultivated a particular voice,
but I seem to have fallen into certain habits, tropes, settings,
vocabulary choices. I often joke about ‘black beady eyes’ being my
trademark as the phrase appears in so many of my stories!
There was a tweet a few months back that said,
‘how to tell if you’re in a xxx story’ and it allowed writers to
pick just a few elements of their writing.
Mine was, ‘how to tell if you’re in a Gaynor Jones story:
- Troubled adolescent girls
- Something weird is going on
- Black beady eyes’
I honestly think that sums up 80% of my stories! Try
it with your own writing and see what you can boil your work down
to - perhaps that will give you an idea of your own voice.
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If all this has been too complex, then here’s some
good, straight advice from our highly experienced writer in
residence, Peter Jordan, and perhaps it’s the only advice on voice
we really need:
Peter Jordan
@PM_Jordan
‘Voice is YOU’
You can find the original twitter thread by clicking here.
Happy writing,
Until next time,
Gaynor
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