I say this to my kids often. "Use your voice." They usually look at me funny. My daughter then will ask, "What does that mean?" Hmmm. She tends to act more like a 15 year old than a 5 year old. She's right, what does it mean? In writing, this is one of my struggles, even though in some instances I've been told my characters have a great voice. I tend to disagree--that's my Pessy side (pessimist side.)
Author voice and character voice. Sounds intimidating.
Author voice--well it's your voice. It's your style, your humor, your sarcasm...It's the way you write. You could write 10 entirely different books, but your voice would be there somewhere threading each one in your published blanket linked to you. Is this easy to achieve? I don't know, but it takes practice. It's something you develop as you strengthen your mad writing skills.
Character voice. This one's easy, right? It's your characters way of speaking. Are they from England? then they have an accent and a certain slang that you may have to consider to make them real. It could be as simple as a character who speaks proper (she is a snob) vs. (she's a snob.)
Of course, my descriptions are short and well I don't have a whole lot of examples. Mainly because I found an awesome post that really helped me in this department. Roni at Fiction Groupie wrote a post on this topic way back in May. Check it out.
In the end, this skill takes practice and lots of it. So keep writing.
How's your voice?
Any tips on strengthening this skill?
How was your weekend?
My weekend was pretty good. I'm beta reading so I'm almost finished that. I also managed to put together two versions of my WiP#1, yeah crazy. I just need to finish the revisions on the ending--wicked fighting scenes. Can't wait.
I also got to meet up with my CP, Kelly, and Frankie. Frankie, thanks so much for the advice. I can't wait to get crackin' on your suggestions.
Hi to my new blogger buddies/crusaders. I will be visiting soon.
Have a great day!
