Writing: Authorial Voice

Authorial Voice is a tricky element in writing.

Plot, character, dialogue, all of these can be taught. I've had more than a few classes involving them.
But Voice is what keeps the readers coming back.

I got to thinking about this since I just finished up Stephen King's The Dark Half. I consider this an underrated King novel. The plotting is tight and slick, the characters are vivid. There are a few loose ends he never ties up, a few similarities to other books, but the narration, the speed and rhythm at which our humble down-Maine storyteller takes us on the ride, that's what carries it.

Laurell K Hamilton is the same. Her voice kept me reading for books after I should have given up on Anita. Anita is at her best when she's working. When her relationships get in the way, she's a neurotic mess. But she's such an engaging narrator I plunged through half a dozen books that spent 3 chapters on set up, 300 pages on sex and 5 pages on wrap-up.

Charlaine Harris had no authorial voice at all. Her style was dry and dull. No colorful metaphors or even rhythm to carry the book. I read one of her Dead books, because I was enjoying the show True Blood, but it didn't grab me.

Voice is the difference between Louis L'Amour and Zane Gray. Voice is why I read six Ken Follett novels before I realized I was reading the same characters every time, just in differing situations.

Developing your own voice can be tricky. And developing a character voice that differs from your own is trickier still. I was doing galley edits tonight on a story I remember writing, but the character sounds much different than I do. Most of the time, when I'm writing, what you read is how I talk.

Yes, that means I talk without filler, which I find disconcerts a lot of people. They aren't used to someone who doesn't use "uh" or "like." But this time, the writing is a bit more stylized, as it always has been in his journal entries, suitable to a college man of the 1920s. I've tried taking style lessons from Edgar Rice Burroughs and HP Lovecraft for speech/writing patterns of the era.

It was in the autumn of ‘24 that I accompanied Edward Kilsby, Lord Withycombe, on a journey to India. Ostensibly, we were to infiltrate and discredit a newly formed cult around Hanuman the Monkey God which was causing unrest among the local people and committing human sacrifice, in direct defiance of most believers' understanding of the faith and deity. In truth, fleeing the attentions and wedding preparations of Edward’s most insistent fiancée in England was our primary occupation.

This style is consistent with Charlie's journal entries in the two novels he and Edward have. Writing a whole short story in it, instead of a pithy quote, was a challenge. Using the readability scales, it falls between High School Junior and College Freshman. (for reference, this blog entry is written about an 8th grade reading level)

My actual voice is what you're getting right now. It shows up in my stories and I hope to keep you as engaged as the good writers keep me, whether you're following me into outer space, or the dark future or a steampunk past.