Going
back to Karen
Jones’ questions for writers (see here)— I find this one intriguing.
If
writerly voice = the personality of the narration, then something of the voice
is the same even in different formats. It’s the same person who’s writing the
picture book texts or the novels.
But
somethings are different, because of the constrains that formats impose. This
is why we often hear that an author had finally “found her voice” when author
switched formats. I remember another writer in my picture book critique group
who, after reading my first middle grade book, sent me a glowing email saying
that I had “the perfect middle grade voice.” It was a new one she hadn’t “heard”
from me.
But
what I find differentiates voice even from the same writer (in this case, me)
is writing in a different language. Languages have personalities, and even
speaking them (real voice) I sound somewhat different. It’s been a long time
since I wrote fiction in Hebrew, so I may confuse personal life chapters with
writing voice. But even my letters in Hebrew and English have distinct
personalities. Not to compare, Vladimir Nabokov
testified to same.
Personally,
I like to stretch and have my feet in more than one format. From the world of commerce,
this isn’t the ideal strategy. Marketers like to have artists as “brands,” and
thus box us in. But for my own need to keep toned, this stretching is good for
creative dancing.
8 comments:
Voice is like music--you recognize certain motifs, phrasings that are particular. On the Blueboards, when we had the anon feature, I could almost always recognize the poster's voice :)
That said, I like to experiment with different voices--that of a young child, a wise old owl, a teenager, even objects, lol. Good post.
Apparently my voice was very strong even when I wrote newspaper articles. People who knew me said they would start to read something in the paper and without looking at the byline would know that I wrote it. I don't really know how to have a voice in fiction.
Love,
Janie
I write in a variety of genres: poetry (mostly humorous) for adults, non-fiction for magazines and newspapers, and middle-grade novels. And my blog. I think blogging is where I found my voice.
I think there's a difference between author's voice and narrator's voice. Barbara Kingsolver comes to mind. When I read Poisonwood Bible or Demon Copperhead, the various narrators' voices told me exactly who was telling the story. And yet, for reasons that are hard to explain, I would recognize either of them as a work by Kingsolver, because in my opinion, her author voice doesn't change.
Interesting. I don't think my picture book manuscripts have the same voice as novels, but harder to judge for yourself.
Interesting thoughts. I often wonder if someone reading my picture books would recognize me as the author of my middle-grade books.
I don't think I'm very knowledgeable about voice, maybe because I haven't written many things longer than picture books or other very short stories. (I'm assuming puzzles books and a dissertation don't count. LOL) I wonder how writing in rhyme affects voice, compared to prose.
My blogging voice is quite different from my professional author voice and they're both different from my business email voice. My first book Farm Girl was different in that it was written in my mother's voice. My recipe book Farm Girl Country Cooking is written more in my blogger voice. All the rest of my books are in what I would call my writing voice.
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