The Writing Den

Sarah, who leads the literary agency which represents me, has blogged a great little series about writing the break-out novel. The last in the series is about Voice – the mystery ingredient which all editors and agents look out for. I thought I’d add my tuppence worth on this important topic (or possibly my two cents, seeing as Sarah is based in the States :))

Voice is not the story, but how the story is told. Two people tell the same anecdote; one has you hanging on their every word, the other has you hanging yourself out of sheer boredom. As Sarah says, voice tells us what kind of story this is, how we are to read it. It’s a magic telescope, the lens of which can colour, enlarge, diminish, twist and/ or enhance different aspects of the story. As a writer, this magic telescope is in your hands.

Voice is a complicated thing, about which much has been written, but I’d say the key point to remember is that someone is always telling the story and this person, as much as any of the characters involved in the story, needs to be developed as a character. This someone may be you, the author, or more precisely a facet of you developed into a character in its own right; your wittiest self or your most emotionally insightful, or your most clinically distant. Alternatively it may be a character in the story who tells the story - the protagonist, maybe, but not necessarily. In this case the author’s own voice is likely to be almost inaudible, as the character’s voice takes over.

For example, in my Bathsheba books, it is Bathsheba who is telling (indeed, writing, since it’s her diary) the story.Bathsheba is an ordinary eleven year old girl with a huge and surreal imagination and a tendency to over-dramatise everything. She’s not particularly clever and though she can be insightful, it usually takes a significant event to make her stop and think. Long, eloquent descriptions of sunsets, pensive meditations on the passing of all things, and so forth, are therefore out – the author might write them, but Bathsheba wouldn’t. An effective voice needs to be consistent, and appropriate to its character, be that character the author or a character in the story.

So first of all, ask yourself: who’s telling the story? When you’ve answered that question, ask yourself what kind of person they are. Are they a child or an adult? What angle do they take on the world: are they Holden Caulfield, Percy Jackson or Lemony Snicket? Are they cynical, funny, thoughtful, intelligent, or what? They needn’t necessarily have an angle on the story or the characters, but they will have an angle on the world, and that will affect how they see the story and characters. The most crucial question to ask yourself, however, is would I want to listen to this voice for a couple of hundred pages? No matter how cleverly constructed, consistent and realistic the voice is, if it’s boring to listen to, that’s the kiss of death for your novel.

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Some great and individual voices in children's literature:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

The Owl Service by Alan Garner

Shadow Forest by Matt Haig

More suggestions in the comments on Sarah's blog: http://greenhouseliterary.com/index.php/site/comments/how_to_write_the_breakout_novel_part_6_the_final_mystery_ingredient/