Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Circling back to April’s posting on voice, Misty Massey had an excellent followup in Letting Your Voice Be Heard about her struggles to find her voice. Initially, she was scared of its formality, and her agent confirmed her worst fears. She fought with her writer’s voice, afraid to let it shine, to let others see it.
Then she found it.
That is the thing, unlike everything else a writer has to develop, skills which need to be gained – voice is always there. It needs to be uncovered, lifted above all the formal learning and how one “should” sound. It just is.
Once found, it can be sharpened and polished.
As always read the comments, each shows a different author’s approach to voice. And there is an additional commentary about how voices can be influenced by gatekeepers such as your editor.
Again the post is: http://www.magicalwords.net/misty-massey/letting-your-voice-be-heard/
Other Magical Words posts on Voice can be found here:
(6/16/2008) Finding Your Writing Voice by David B. Coe –
(1/18/2010) Writing Your Book, part II: Finding Your Voice by David B. Coe –