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Shout It Out!
Identifying, Protecting and Nurturing Author Voice

Focus: Writers at all stages of their careers discuss identifying that elusive beast known as authorial voice, how to enhance, develop and defend it against homogenization.

Writers who have saved their rejections letters can probably uncover references to writer voice in at least 25% of those depressing missives. Remember the letters that say— “I love your voice, but this story just didn’t work for me.” Or worse— “Great set up, but the voice lacked sparkle.” This brand of story diagnosis seems as popular with editors as it is frustrating for writers. Just what is that elusive beast called authorial voice? And moreover, once writers have excavated this much-touted commodity, how do they go about preserving and nurturing it? Thus began our three-fold quest.

IDENTIFYING THE VOICE
“An author's writing voice is just as unique as their singing voice,” according to New York Times bestselling author Teresa Medeiros (The Vampire Who Loved Me, Avon, 9/06). “It's a combination of all their life experiences, their unique way of looking at the world, and the literary influences of a lifetime. These things are all tossed into the mix, then filtered through their subconscious into something vibrant and unmistakably theirs.”

If the clock radio clicks on mid-song, still the singing voice is identifiable. As with art, a Van Gogh possesses a different style, mood, technique than a Renoir. The same applies to authorial voice. Without seeing a cover, a reader should be able to identify the sound, cadence, rhythm, the very tonality unique to your work.

Now let’s add another element to the identification process, beyond the sum of tone to the individual words themselves. According to multi-published historical author Winnie Griggs, a writer’s voice has to do with “the nuances we layer into our stories, the subtle choices we make to emphasize this point and downplay that one. A writer's voice is the sum of her experience, her values, her personality and her view of the world, both as it is and as she would like it to be.”

More than the difference between whether we reach for tomato or a to-mah-to, a writer’s voice determines whether that particular red fruit will be what the heroine launches at her two-timing beau when he’s caught in the act, or if it will become a symbol of a healing relationship between a prodigal heroine and her gardening mother. The experience of the writer informs everything from word choice to symbolism, to degree of humor.

Holly Jacobs (“Deck the Halls” in Dashing Through the Mall, Harlequin 11/06) adds, “It has to do with word choice, with sentence structure, with the way the author sees the world. But it's more than that. When we write we put a piece of ourselves into the story...and that piece is the biggest part of what makes an author's voice. It's unique and even if someone else told the exact same story, that special piece of the author would set the stories apart.”

It’s inescapable! Our lives affect each word we select. Or at least they should if we expect our work to leave a one-of-a-kind thumbprint on a reader’s memory. Lynda Sandoval (Chicks Ahoy, Simon & Schuster 5/06), who writes single title for Harper Collins, young adult lit for Simon & Schuster, and series romance for Silhouette Special Edition suggests, “I write simply and purely the way I see the world. Period. And I'm sort of a whack-job. I don't try to temper that style to meet the approval of a market, a line, an editor, my critique partners, polite society, or anything else. I'm rigidly true to myself.”

Even in reading quotes from these authors, we glean a sense of their unique voices, from Teresa Medeiros’ lyrical vibrancy to Lynda Sandoval’s wonderfully irreverent whack-job reference. But even assuming one can discover their voice, the question remains, how can this voice be protected and nurtured amidst the clamor of other voices in the mix?

PROTECTING THE VOICE
While a writer might hope for her voice to change and strengthen as she grows more experienced with her craft, no one wants to find their voice white washed by too much polishing and perfecting, or by submitting to so much outside influence that the original strains of authorial voice have all but disappeared.

Many hands touch a work besides the author’s regardless of experience levels. Bestselling author Lori Foster (Murphy’s Law, Kensington 9/06) warns, “often in our drive to be published, to get that validation we all so desperately need, we succumb to the rules and marketing gambits and oh-so-critical critique groups and contest judges. We twitch and tighten and polish until the uniqueness is obliterated from our work -and it lands in a slush pile with all the other shiny voices coming in. But some of us don't shine. Some of us squeak just a little, some are cranky, some are downright rusty. Some laugh too much or too long, some cry when we shouldn't. Forget the rules and listen to yourself when you talk. That's you - that's your voice.”

As former chair of Romance Writer of America’s Judge Training Subcommittee, Jill Monroe is in a unique position to see the effects of too much polish. “One byproduct of contests is what I call ‘contest formal’ in the writing. It's a sameness from one entry to another, basically it's a lack of voice. Contestants slash through some of the phrasing or situations that are unique to them in order to avoid markdowns from a contest judge.”

Yet a writer’s use of regionalisms, a character’s use of creative grammar, or a varying sense of dialogue rhythm and cadence among a cast of characters can all be facets of what goes into a unique voice that sparkles, a narrative that makes an editor sit up and take notice. To rule out these facets for the sake of cleaner copy can rob a story of everything that makes it special. Jill Monroe (Share the Darkness, Harlequin Blaze, 4/06) adds, “A heroine can be a gun-toting astrophysicist with a dozen degrees behind her name, but generally her thoughts and reactions will reflect where she grew up, be it on a farm in Oklahoma, the San Fernando Valley, the Bronx or Prince Edward Island. And if they don't, then that's a big clue into her characterization and motivation.”

Having discovered such a gift as an individual voice, it only makes sense that each writer would want to feed this unique characteristic that distinguishes her from every other writer on the market.

NURTURING THE VOICE
How do today’s writers tackle this daunting task? Lori and Tony Karayianni, who write under the pseudonym Tori Carrington (Dirty Laundry, Forge, 5/06) face the challenge of not only nurturing their collective voice, but also the task of merging two voices into one as they sit down to write. “Over the years, we've both come to believe that Voice=Honesty. It's as simple and as complicated as that. Don't think about what the reader might want. Or your editor or a particular line or genre. Give yourself permission to cut loose, and your own unique voice will always emerge and with it honesty and that all-important empathy factor.”

Armed with honesty then, can a writer sit down and expect voice magic? Teresa Medeiros suggests another stumbling block in her path when she works. “I'm a natural mimic so I do have to protect my voice when I'm deep into a book by not reading authors who have an overpowering voice of their own. That's when I go hunting for the storytellers, not the stylists.”

A historical author might enjoy revisiting Mallory’s Arthurian tales or a non-fiction account of one of their favored time periods, for example. Then again, sometimes a hungry Muse may prefer a stack of magazines to help enhance her voice. While a spicy contemporary author might reach for a copy of Cosmopolitan, a writer who favors family drama might find a few hours with Reader’s Digest nurtures the creative force within.

Writer Jill Monroe finds, “I'm most expressive when I talk, especially when I'm retelling a story. Whenever I feel my voice fading, I simply retell my worst date experience. There it is, instantly, and jam-packed with strong emotion, full of sensory detail (for the man I affectionately call mustard breath).”

While Jill’s method for reviving her voice is oral, Teresa Medeiros’s trick is more visual. Both techniques are valid, and there are certainly many more. The trick is to discover what works on an individual level and then to follow through on that knowledge and practice regular care and feeding of the voice muse.

A RESOUNDING ECHO
No matter where a writer is along their career spectrum, the issue of voice is relevant and important. Just like singers are concerned with their vocal chords for the duration of their career, writers must be in tune to their voice and its needs for as long as they put pen to paper.

Author Lynda Sandoval ruminated on this fact as she considered the idea of voice.
“The one and only asset I have in my arsenal is the fact that no one else will ever see the world exactly as I do. If I stay true to that vision and write in concert with it, my author's voice will never be in danger of homogenization. That's not unique to me-- it applies to all of us. Aren't we lucky?”

RITA Award winning author Catherine Mann lends her voice to a variety of military romance stories including romantic suspense in FULLY ENGAGED, Silhouette Intimate Moments 11/06; sexy series romance in UNDER THE MILLIONAIRE'S INFLUENCE, Silhouette Desire 3/07 and action-adventure in ON TARGET, HQN 7/07. Joanne Rock is the bestselling author of over twenty books from lush medievals to sexy contemporaries. Look for her new “Night Eyes” miniseries in Harlequin Blaze starting with DON’T LOOK BACK in February 2007 and JUST ONE LOOK in March 2007. Learn more about the authors at http://catherinemann.com and http://joannerock.com.