5 tips to improve your writing voice

Posted by bridgid on | July 29, 2010 | 5 Comments |

We invited our readers to share a description of their writing voice to enter our July book giveaway. Click here to learn how you can win a copy of Bree Despain’s The Dark Divine, chocolates and an interview on Inky Fresh Press!

In my last post, I discussed what “writing voice” means. Today, I’d like to give you the tools you need to reveal your writing voice. These five simple writing techniques can help you explore your writing voice for a specific project and can help you improve the quality of your writing overall.

• Start with what you read

Begin by reading as many books as you can. Pick the books you feel have a strong, clear writing voice and write down your description of those voices. What do you like about them? How does the writer clearly convey their writing voice?

• Write from different perspectives

Pick a story that has an event involving multiple characters. Write the scene from the perspective of each character. Take, for example, the house-landing scene in The Wizard of Oz:

What was the Witch of the East thinking when she saw the house above her? How did the leader of the Lollipop Gang feel about her death? Did Dorothy feel excitement, or was she numb with fright?

• Read your work out loud

Take a sample of your writing, anything from a recent blog post to a chapter of your manuscript, and read it out loud. Does it sound authentic to you? Read that same selection to a family member or friend. Do they think it sounds like you? If not, do they think it sounds natural? Take note of the changes you make to make your work sound more like you.

• Try on different audiences for size

Use a sample of your work and try writing it for different audiences. Say, for example, if you have just written a blog post for a senior travel website, try writing the same blog post for college students. Or, if you usually write for young adults, re-write a chapter and gear it towards an adult audience. Write down your thoughts after the exercise. What elements remained the same? Which elements were different?

• Write letters

Write a letter to a friend. Tell them about your life–a recent event, an average day, or a shared memory. Put the letter aside for a week. When you return to the letter, re-read it, paying attention to the nuances that convey the aspects of your writing that you feel communicate your personality to your friend.

Each of these exercises are meant to help you reveal your writing voice. Once you can recognize your writing voice, you will be able to detect when your voice is clear and when your voice is obscured.

I’ll leave you with this quote from writer Cathy C. Hall’s article in the most recent issue of WOW! Women on Writing:

“The stronger that voice, the better the novel. It’s that intangible in a manuscript that agents and editors are always looking for. And if they don’t find it, then your wonderful manuscript will receive that dreaded rejection letter.”

Make sure to enter our July book giveaway by July 31st! Click here for details.

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