Hundreds of articles have been written about the Writer's Voice. Teachers in Workshops tell us what Voice is, how to write it, how to know when you've gotten the words right, yet that elusive quality we seek escapes the beginner writer. The professionals prove in their writing that they know their own voices. They are able to spin examples of their voices. Why then can't I follow directions given for finding my voice? Where is it? What is it really? Do I even have a voice of my own?
Editors who search for new voices find it difficult to define exactly what "Voice" is. Voice is a subject we can't learn in a classroom. A teacher can't lead us to that special quality that belongs only to the individual writer. We find Voice through practice, through exercises designed to lead us to this so called Holy Grail of powerful writing.
When we write, we need to learn to listen to the voices within us. There are small voices that speak in whispers, large voices that boom and echo through our minds saying, "Look at me, hear me, write down my words." Each voice speaks with a unique rhythm, an identifiable pattern of phrases and expressions that sound like no other writer. Listen to the voices.
As I write these words, I hear whisperings in my writer's ear. One tells me a story about a mother faced with the crisis of losing a young daughter, another voice screams out at me. This latter voice speaks with inflections and comments alien to me. Who is this commanding my attention? A character maybe? A story person demanding to be let out of his or her cage so that he may tell a story until now I've censored, and denied life to? Is this, rather than the mother, my Point of View character and not the mother? I didn't want an angry protagonist. I wanted a
sweet-faced woman to relate a simple tale of interracial marriage and how that might affect a family steeped in racism. Should I listen to this voice? In reality, am I losing my mind and control of my story?
Suddenly, it dawns on me this is my writer's voice calling my name. This volatile voice is deep inside of me. This character who jumps up and down on my eardrums is a force to be dealt with and only I can hear him. Only I can unlock his cage and release him upon the world.
The Writer's Voice changes with each character, yet the underlying tone, the way the words flow out on the paper, the color and sound of words used, the variation of sentence length, all belong to the Writer. The voice is unique. The voice isn't necessarily fancy or "writerly," but we know that fancy is never as good as clarity and immediacy. The voice doesn't sound like Tom Clancy, Dean Koontz, or Nora Roberts. This voice, this alien, eerie voice crying out for expression, belongs only to the creator of the prose at hand.
At last, we realize our Writer's Voice is within our own heart and mind. It is who we are, what we have experienced, whom we have met on our journey through life. All the living we've done comes into play and we knit these collective experiences into something wonderful called the Writer's Voice. Once we learn to listen to the voices, we come into our own as writers. With certainty we know that we, too, have a voice and we are ready to speak.
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(Jones is a book critic for The Tulsa World, Tulsa, OK, and The Camden Times, Camden, New York.)
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