The Power of Voice
Barbara from the Reading Experience blogged about the power of voice and how it can make all the difference for a reader. She goes through and mentions some of her favorite “voice” authors (and you know, might have mentioned somebody we both know. *cough cough* just sayin’). Barbara is a crazy avid reader, so if you’re looking to find some new awesome authors, go check out that blog post.
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Curious to know one of my personal voice/style writers of all time? The answer is simple, and one I give often in interviews: Chuck Wendig. Chuck Wendig has a flashy, smack you in the face with a wet fish and leave you wanting more, type of style. I love it. It’s sharp and visceral and, occasionally, beautiful…you know, in a beauty queen covered in mud sort of way. As an author he, more so than anybody else, gave me the confidence to own my own quirky voice/style.
Never read anything by Chuck? Check out Blackbirds (Miriam Black series) for an object lesson in style and bad-ass female leads.
Now, reading that blog got me thinking about voice and style and everything that goes into the two. Voice is a huge topic and we could easily go into a week’s worth of blog posts just on that singular topic. It’s that highly sought after holy grail of writing, and, like anything worth tromping through magical swamps to find, it is incredibly elusive.
Most writing books talk about the power of finding your own voice, but rarely do they provide replicateable steps you can follow to track down your voice. This isn’t a fault of those books, mind you. Voice is highly personal and defining good style is a Sisyphean task by every definition of the phrase.
But, but, but…there are some things you can do to start inching closer to your one true voice. And I promise to give you those steps in a blog post later this week. So keep your ears to sky and eyes to ground, I’ll be back! In the meantime, go check out Barbara’s blogpost over at the Reading Experience and find yourself a new author to love.