Blogger: Mary Keeley
An author’s unique voice is a big part of his or her brand identity. While reviewing a client’s new manuscript this week, I was struck by how well this author has mastered this area of craft. It might be helpful and fun to do a little voice quiz today so you can determine for yourself how well you know your author voice and how consistent you are with it in your writing.
I’m not going to give you suggestions from which to choose in these voice quiz questions because that would be too easy and probably not helpful ultimately.
Relax, have fun with this, and you might have an epiphany in the process. I can’t wait to learn what you either confirm or discover for yourself.
Here we go.
Quiz question #1: If you had to define your author voice in three words, what would they be?
Quiz question #2: What characteristics distinguish your voice from other authors in your genre? (Refer to my blog post, “An Author’s Unique Voice” for characteristics.)
Quiz question #3: How did you arrive at recognizing your author voice? Or, are you still in the process of discovering it?
Quiz question #4: Is your voice consistent in everything you write: blog, social media comments, articles, proposals?
Quiz question #5: How does your voice affect your characters or your handling of your nonfiction topic?
What three words describe your voice? Did you discover a nuance you hadn’t recognized before? How will your answers help to solidify your voice?
TWEETABLES:
Can you describe your author voice? Take this short quiz. Click to Tweet.
Your author voice distinguishes you from others in your genre. Take this voice quiz to confirm or discover yours. Click to Tweet.
Nicholas Faran
I’ve been a bit quiet here recently. Life and working on my synopsis has kept me busy, but I have still be visiting and reading.
This topic caught me and I do love a quiz! My voice is something I have struggled to understand. I thought answering these questions might help. It has a little.
1: Soft, serious and salubrious. (not entirely sure about the third, but I struggled to work out a third. Salubrious is probably true and it scans well 🙂 )
2: I am not sure that my voice is that different. Perhaps that is a killer for me, but I can’t write any other way). If I do differ it might be in personality, where I notice the changes over time of the landscape/scenery. In style I like double descriptions (e.g. Great fire breathing dragons, or oppressively hot sun).
3: I would say I am still discovering my voice, but I began to notice it when I started editing with standard online editorial advice in mind. Sometimes I felt that to do what is suggested my writing would become flat and certainly not mine. Now I leave some things and in others I try to find another, more acceptable, way of saying and conveying what I originally intended.
4: My initial answer to this is no, I write one way in all things, I am not that literary talented. Although I think in my online comments I am less formal, more conversational. A friend recently praised my Facebook comments as showing how much better my writing had become.
5: Again, I am not sure how my voice affects my characters. It might be that they have become more thoughtful, noticing the world around them and how it impacts their own lives.
Mary Keeley
‘Nicholas’, I hope this little quiz prompts lots of thought that helps you discover your own author voice. Write on.
Shirlee Abbott
1 – short, simple, conversational
2 – KISS (keep it short and simple)
3 – practice, pray, practice
4 – not yet, but better than it used to be
5 – God has brought several believers into my life who read with difficulty. I sense how left out of things they feel. I strive to put big God-thoughts in as few and simple words as possible, so that they can be part of my conversation with my readers.
Jackie Layton
This reminds me of the golfer, Zach Johnson. On twitter he says, “Practice Hard, Play Hard, Pray Hard = PH3”
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Shirlee, to my eyes (ears?) you’re spot-on in your analysis, but better at consistency than you may think.
Mary Keeley
Shirlee, it sounds like you have adapted your voice beautifully for your target audience. And consistent even in your blog comment here. Nicely done.
Jackie Layton
Hi Mary,
I wonder if others can define our voice better than we can? A friend shared with me that her daughters don’t read her books because they can hear her voice, and they hear it enough in real life.
I hope my voice is upbeat, encouraging, and full of hope. And our hope comes from God which is why I write inspirational romance.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Jackie, if your fiction-voice is like your voice here, your voice IS encouraging, upbeat, and hopeful. Also warm and cultured.
Mary Keeley
Jackie, yes, I do think others can be helpful in pointing out consistent characteristics such as personality, style, point of view, cadence, which the author can build upon and refine.
Jennifer Zarifeh Major
This isn’t math!!!!
WOOOOOO!!!!
Busy morning, but I shall return. I’m looking forward to the responses.
And yes, I did think this was about *voice*, as in, singing.
No one ever accused me of being fully coherent. Like, ever.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Jennifer, you do better partially coherent than I could do if I was cloned into a Siamese soul-twinning of Shakespeare and Einstein.
* I have no idea what that means, but it kinda sounded cool.
Shelli Littleton
Soft, sweet, Southern (a little sensitivity and silliness in there). But I think I struggle in my proposal–trying to squeeze in pertinent information, I’m afraid I squeeze out my voice.
Shelli Littleton
Oh, I arrived at this by what others tell me. “Southern” encapsulates “slow” in it, by the way (Jennifer!!) 🙂
Jennifer Zarifeh Major
Just speak a teeeeeeeeny bit faster in a pitch session.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Shelli, I would say more Texan than Southern, at least to my ears (and I have lived in both Texas and the South).
* Your writing on your blog and in comments places me in a shadow-dappled field of tall grass gently speaking God’s truth as it’s rustled by the breeze, and in the cool quiet of a certain church in Fredicksburg.
Shelli Ann Littleton
Andrew, thank you so much. What a sweet thing to say! I’m saving this in my encouragement folder. 🙂 And you are so right … Texas is more like it. 🙂
Mary Keeley
Shelli, your writing is consistently gentle and gracious, mixed with hope. The proposal is a business document so you need to use business language, not your writing voice. The exception is your synopsis, which definitely should be in your author voice.
Shelli Littleton
Thank you so much, Mary. And I meant to say synopsis. I always try to squeeze in all the important information in the synopsis, such few words … afraid my voice might not come through. I’ve got to work on that.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Wow, Mary, this is kind of tough. I agree with Jackie’s comment below that others define our voice better than we do (just as head tones make our spoken voices quite different to ourselves than to those to whom we speak). With that in mind, I’ll try to use what others have said –
1) Three words…spare, simple, sparkly. (‘Non-friction fiction’ has also been used to describe a certain teflon-like quality…don’t know if that’s good or bad.)
2) The economical simplicity of voice is, I think, the distinguishing factor, and may be hurting me in some respects. I don’t spend a lot of time on description or character introspection, and both can be pretty important in the genre that the Almighty chose for me (I sure didn’t choose it!).
3) For me it was a Eureka! moment. I was vacuuming and…no wait, reboot…I found my voice in a two-page short story I wrote in college for a creative writing class, and it hasn’t changed much.
4) It’s consistent in most places, except in some blog comments in which I display a predilection to demonstrate a chameleon-like metamorphosis to pompously pretentious intellectualism because I want to look smarter than I am. I believe the term is “trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”, but veritas vos liberabit, and hey, we all have our faults and I’m cool with that. Better than being slow, soft and ugly, anyway.
5) My voice does limit me to describing a certain social stratum; that of middle-to-upper-middle-class America (albeit including Hispanic, Caribbean, and Asian influences). I could not write something like “The Help”, and “Downton Abbey” was wise in not offering me a job as a screenwriter.
– One of the interesting ‘voice’ challenges I faced recently was in “Emerald Isle”, in making distinct two female protagonists who were supposed to be similar. It took a lot of rewrites; I have been told that the effort was a success, but it was far harder than I thought it would be, and made me really look into what makes voice what it is.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
For what it may be worth, the ‘flowering’ of my voice described in Quiz Question 3 above, was not accidental. It was like the moment you finally figure out how to ride a two-wheeler, and had the exultation you get just before you hit that lamp-post you overlooked while whooping in triumph.
* I had two examples I wanted to emulate and synthesize; the distinct voice Richard Bach found in “Illusions”, and the voice Nevil Shute had during the height of his prowess, 1943-60.
* I’m not sure if this was a mistake or not, because while Bach’s voice was still contemporary, Shute was already dated.
* I think I’ve largely succeeded in forging this tool; I don’t regret it because it has enabled me to write coherently, but it may be limiting in the long run.
* Love to hear if anyone else has done this, and I’d also love to hear your thoughts, Mary.
Mary Keeley
Andrew, I’ve always thought that the characteristics of your natural author voice come through most purely in your stories about the military. Emulating another author’s voice never works best because God made each of us unique. The result is less than authentic.
David Todd
I think I’d rather go get a root canal than answer these questions. I just write, right or wrong. I don’t analyze my writing, and don’t think I can. Other than I analyzed my general topic, the one that spans from work to work, which I found to be The Virtuous Man. Knowing that is good enough for me.
Jenny Leo
1. That’s a toughie. (Those aren’t my three words, btw. :)) I don’t know…maybe warm, witty, and winsome? That’s what I’d like it to be, anyway.
2. I went to a chapter meeting of a romance-writing group and authors were talking about liking to write snarky, smart-mouth, bada$$ heroines. I do not. But apparently this is a trend. So I guess what sets my voice apart is that I’m the Anti-Bada$$? Clearly that branding message needs a little refinement, lol.
3. It just comes out that way. Readers who know me IRL have said that they can “hear” me in my main character.
4. I think my voice is consistent, except for client work (copywriting) where I’m paid to sound like the client and not myself.
5. Since the heroine of my first novel “sounds like me,” I worry that, as I go on to write different novels with different main characters, I won’t be able to change the voice enough to differentiate them from each other. I guess time will tell.
Fun questions, Mary!
Mary Keeley
Jenny, I agree that those three words describe your author voice. And you bring up an important point. Authors make a mistake when they try to skew their unique voice to follow the current trend. It rarely works and they confuse, maybe lose, their readers in the process. The best feedback you can get with regard to voice is when readers who know you say they can “hear me in my main character.”
In future novels the main characters will be in a different setting or time, with different goals and motivation, and different obstacles. But the underlying characteristics of your voice will be consistent.
Jeanne Takenaka
This is a great quiz, Mary. I need to take more time to really think about the questions, but for the three words describing my voice, I would say three words that would describe my voice are gentle, encouraging, and truthful.
Mary Keeley
Good start, Jeanne. Confirm these three words by asking yourself if you visualize your voice and main character(s) as always reflecting these characteristics.
Sheila King
OK – I am forcing myself to take the quiz because I am doing a big summer re-write based on voice.
The problem is that I have been a teacher all my life and that teacher voice does not appeal to middle grade readers! BUT, I am also a speaker and my speaking voice is funny and snarky and very descriptive – perfect for MG.
So I am trying to take every paragraph and “tell” it to someone like I was speaking instead of the more serious voice that my writing has…
1. authoritative, matter-of-fact, straight-forward
2.I am hoping that my “revised voice” sounds like my short stories which are funny, sardonic, free-for-alls. I probably sound too much like Rebecca Stead and need to sound more like Daniel O’Malley (even though he is not MG)
3.working on it.
4.Not at all consistent. I have been a grant writer, copy writer, technical writer, etc. and all of those are about grammatical perfection and persuasion – I am good at those. This transition to fiction is finally starting to gel, but slowly.
5. The voice I am working on seems to flow naturally in some passages and then it disappears in others. My rewrite goal is to have consistency and speak to a MG reader. My characters need to sound like MG readers.
3.
Mary Keeley
Sheila, it sounds like you have identified the differences between your teacher (professional) voice and your author and characters’ voice. No doubt you’ll find yourself slipping out of your own funny, snarky voice for a while. It might help to read scenes aloud as you finish them. Your ears will pick up on something that doesn’t sound right.
Your professional voice will come in handy when you write your proposal.
Norma Brumbaugh
Is this me? I think my writing voice is kind, wise, and deep. I could alternate with soft, perceptive, and spiritual. That’s my take, but I’ve not asked anyone for their opinion. Feel free to enlighten me. :0)
Mary Keeley
Norma, although I haven’t read any of your works, judging only from your comments on this blog I do see “kind, wise, and deep” consistently in your contributions here.
Gabrielle Meyer
I would say my voice is elegant, historical, and warm. It was a challenge to recently write a story set in Texas with a Texas hero. I still wanted to write in my voice, but I needed help from some critique partners to make my hero sound authentic. My heroine was from Minnesota, and she was longing for home, so it was easy to make her sound authentic! Fun post, Mary. 🙂
Mary Keeley
Definitely elegant, historical, and warm describe your author voice, Gabrielle. I imagine your stretch in creating a Texas hero confirmed that those words are truly authentic for you.
Sarah Forgrave
These are great insights and questions to consider, Mary. Thank you for sharing.
As far as my voice, the three words that come to mind are moving, inspiring, and genuine. Sometimes lyrical or fun too, depending on the context. 🙂
Jennifer Zarifeh Major
Caveat:I taught the VBS kids how to make cinnamon buns this afternoon. I do NOT do VBS. Ever. But I was sort of begged, as this week was cooking camp. Thus, I feel like a girl who needs to be left alone in a very quiet room, with soft music playing, a blankie and maybe an IV of Earl Grey.
Ahem.
I think my author voice is vivid. intense, and emotional.
And, oddly enough, I really like writing from a male POV.
….
And now I’m done braining….
Kit Tosello
*Honest, hopeful, lyrical.
*I’d never given thought to the voice of my social media comments. Great tip!
Thank you, Mary. Such a great exercise! I love the topic of voice and hope to master it in my writing because I appreciate it so much as a reader. I did this exercise with my non-fiction short-form writing in mind. Based on critique I’ve solicited from regular readers and contest feedback, I’m comfortable and in touch with my NF voice.
I wonder, though. In my GFE (Great Fiction Experiment), aka my first novel,
is it likely that having developed a strong NF voice could give me a leg up in establishing my fiction voice? I often feel like I’m at square one again.
Claire Fullerton
My author voice isn’t any different from the way I think. It comes from the inner monologue I’ve had running for as long as I can recall; that voice that walks through the world interpreting and describing, as if I am writing impressions to share. I will say this voice seeks to be fine-tuned, in that I am in love with language and enthralled with vocabulary, the better to be exact. Without hesitation, I can say my writing career came from the simple act of keeping a journal. The process now seems to be about fine-tuning the craft.