Let’s Talk Writing IV

SESSION 4: VOICE AND STYLE

Create your own (sic) style... let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others. 

– Orson Welles

For Session1: A Skillful Understanding link here.
For Session 2: Playing the Lead : Your Role as a Writer link here.
For Sesson 3 : Finding Your Voice link here.

“Find your voice! Find your style!” In Let’s Talk Writing III, I discussed finding your voice, yet take any writing workshop and the instructor is bound to encourage you to find both your voice and your style; the instructor will throw around voice and style as if they are two separate things, yet one and the same. It can certainly get confusing! And is it important to even understand the difference or can we just lump voice and style into one single entity and idea?

Let’s define and try and understand the difference. As defined by several dictionaries:

VOICE is an instrument of expression; a sound produced or the ability to produce those sounds.

STYLE is a distinctive manner of expression; a particular way in which something is done, created or performed.

In writing, this basically means that VOICE is the instrument, what is uttered, the choice of words and language used, the method of speaking. Think of the difference in voice between an 8 year-old boy and an 80 year-old women, the language and vocabulary they each use to express themselves. It is how you sound on the page. Or how your characters sound.

STYLE, on the other hand, concerns more the mechanics of writing and the overall effect of the piece, how you as a writer, no matter the voice or the language used, organizes and tells the story. Do you use long, complex sentences and paragraphs, very ornate and romantic, packed with metaphors and colorful imagery? Or do you tell a story much more straightforward using short, simple, concise sentences, sparse prose, more journalistic than storyteller? How does the story (or the post) flow, how do ideas connect? Style has to do with flow, rhythm, whether you use repetition, whether you write with a sense of humor or not, the overall tone, etc. STYLE is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the characteristic manner of literary expression of a particular writer.

So, where does this leave you and what does it mean? And does one choose one’s voice and style, are these static or can they be altered or manipulated? Does a writer want to hang on to that voice and style one has developed, created, or be more flexible?

I know for a fact that I have my own voice and a particular style both. I use big words, lots of adjectives and adverbs. I use repetition and long sentences in order to create a certain rhythm to my writing, to my paragraphs, to accentuate certain things. I don’t just tell a story or describe a thing or a person, I attempt to create an overall “musical” effect and a particular mood to the work as a whole. My speaking voice – the language and the words I use and how I say them – is repeated and comes through in my writing voice, yet done very consciously and very conscientiously. My writing style, not necessarily how I tell a story aloud, is specifically thought out and chosen to create a certain effect.

Style is a simple way of saying complicated things 

– Jean Cocteau 

Creating one’s distinctive, personal voice and style is then a two step affair:

1) choose your language, your vocabulary carefully. Do you say - my son walked into the room and sat down or my son slunk into the room and slumped into the chair? - is your eggplant purple, shiny and curved or garnet-hued, glistening and voluptuous? - if writing a story or an interview, does the language and vocabulary you choose change with each character or person? When writing different blog posts or articles, does your language change depending upon the topic or the platform?

2) choose the way you tell the story, organize the story, the steps, the paragraphs. When you go back to edit, read the story out loud and listen to the flow, the musicality, the length of sentences. Read other people’s work aloud…. What is the effect the piece and the way the story is told has on you? Separate the words used from the overall effect.

Now, is voice and style set in stone? Think about the difference your approach would be in writing a blog post, a personal story or a feature article for Saveur magazine, The New York Times or Family Circle. Or think about telling a certain story or giving certain information on a given topic to a group of friends, a group of children or a group of work colleagues at a conference presentation. Would you change or alter your voice? Your style? Is the language you use too simple or too complicated for one or the other? Or is the way you have told the story too complicated, drawn out, too convoluted (confusing, elaborate, tangled) or too simple and straightforward, not exciting enough? Is it too funny, too romantic, too morose and gloomy? Too light and flippant or too heavy and serious? When one thinks in those terms – of writing for a different platform or speaking to a different group, for example, then you can more clearly separate the two ideas and see them more clearly, understand them as separate entities.

Sometimes you may have to, by necessity, keep your voice yet change your style (or vice versa) if, for example, you are writing for a different platform or a different audience. I rarely change my voice when I write yet I do change my style of writing when it is for publication in or on another platform than my blog, for example: changing the way I enter into a story, writing shorter sentences with less descriptive adjectives, etc. When I edit a piece for another writer, I am forced to change both my voice and my style, so it is imperative that I understand my own in order to understand how to change it.

Style is an expression of individualism mixed with charisma. 

– John Fairchild 

When we speak of FINDING your voice and your style, the word finding suggests an active search, an active effort. As I told you in Let’s Talk Writing III, you can (and often should) manipulate your speaking voice and style when putting it down on paper, yet the two must work together as each reflect who you are and your personality. Finding both a voice and a style that is recognizable as you, that is distinctively you, takes time and thought. And practice.

Start the process by reading and comparing other people’s writing. When you hop from blog to blog, read the different posts carefully, look for the language each writer uses and then how they tell the story or give information. Compare it to other writers and bloggers. Do the same for different magazines. And start to see the difference in voice and style, yet how the two work together to create an overall effect.

And then think about your own voice and style.

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn. 

– Gore Vidal 

Here is a selection of blogs and blog posts to read and study for the writing (voice and style) – these blogs have a variety of purposes and goals, each have a written text for a specific purpose, whether to tell a story, to inform or both. Read carefully, notice the language used, the vocabulary chosen, the sentence and paragraph structure. Look for tone, rhythm and mood. Notice the voice and the style, think about each separately and then how they work together:

Michael Olivier
Eggs on the Roof
The David Blahg (Leite’s Culinaria)
Cook Sister
Not Quite Nigella
Hungry Rabbit
The Perfect Pantry

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Let’s Talk Writing III

THE STILL, SMALL VOICE: FINDING YOUR VOICE 

Words are the voice of the heart. 

- Confucious 

For Session1: A Skillful Understanding link here.
For Session 2: Playing the Lead : Your Role as a Writer link here.

"Find your voice!" they (the mysterious they) say all the time. Your authentic voice. Your unique voice. The voice that is distinctly you.

Yes, we as writers or as budding writers hear this constantly, the same refrain, the same charge, over and over again. And we nod our heads knowingly, “Oh, of course! My voice!” Yet, what does this even mean? What is our own authentic, unique, distinctive voice? And how do we find it? How do we recognize it? Well, let’s think about this for a minute.

Voice. Obviously, when speaking of our writer’s voice, we are talking about a mix of several things: the words and language used to express our thoughts; the tone and style, the personality that comes across on the page. "My readers, when they meet me in person, tell me that I write just like I speak (or sound just like I write)!" so many bloggers tell me. Does this mean that we should simply write the same way, with the same words with which we speak? Is it good enough to just put down on paper what we say aloud? Is it that easy? Well, yes and no. Yes, this is the first step towards finding that writer’s voice, yet it isn’t always that simple, and it doesn’t always stop there.

Think about the way you speak to family and friends. I’ll bet that it is dotted and punctuated with a smattering of cultural references, slang, colorful language or curse words, inside jokes and personal references understood only by a few. Not to mention the occasional half sentence or grammatical error. Personally, I have read several blogs in which the writer/blogger attempts to get all of this down in the blog post (“Mooooore pancakes! ("but you have to say it like, “Heeeeeeere’s Johnny!”) Not the Shining one ; the Johnny Carson One.") or ("It’s for those times when it feels like the holidays are jumping directly up your butt, and you’re wondering what sadist put Cinco de Mayo, the Derby and Mother’s Day in the same week because your dog is still hacking up Easter grass."). So if we just put down into print what we say when we speak aloud, there is the risk that much of what we say will be lost on too many of our readers who don’t understand the cultural or personal references or who are turned off by the slang, the “colorful” language or the bad grammar.

There is often a transformation or some kind of shift that happens between brain – speaking and thinking voice – and paper. For some, this shift is natural and one doesn’t even think of it: we automatically correct grammar, adjust or eliminate personal or cultural references, shift into “grownup” or “company” mode. For others, this transformation is conscious and mindful: words are carefully chosen, often from a well-thumbed thesaurus, ideas and story lines are thought through and reorganized to sound like something the author has read. This can work extremely well for the writer. But, again, there is a risk: this can often lead to writing that is “overdone”: the use of words or phrases that the writer or blogger normally does not use in everyday speech, a way of writing that the blogger assumes sounds “writerly”. This type of writing can sound stilted, unnatural, stiff. ("We first splash a cup of cool water into the shimmering silver pan, clouding the clarity with a dusting of frosted flour.") or ("My fingers very soon became sticky and dripping with fragrant peach juices.") Again, at the risk of turning off readers who feel the discomfort or the effort, the exertion.

Where is the middle ground? How does one find the perfect balance?

We must actively search for our voice, and clear a path for it to emerge. One’s voice is uncovered, not manufactured.

Basically, yes, you want to sound like YOU when you write, but a better you. A refined you, a purposeful you. You want your writing to be recognizable as you, distinctively you; just as someone will hear your voice or your laughter, listen to you express yourself and know it is you, your written voice should be just as familiar. But thought out, written expressly for an audience. But how?

1) Speak out loud, speak to yourself: as you prepare a blog post, tell the story out loud, to another person, to your reflection in the mirror, to the dog – listen to the way you tell that story or describe an experience or discuss your favorite spice. Say it naturally, as to a friend, not necessarily as you would tell it to Oprah. Be comfortable with it, be comfortable with the language you use. Then write it down. Then edit it, adjust it and read it aloud again. And again. This doesn’t even need to be published…this could simply be for practice. In fact, do this for practice.

Or

2) Write a blog post, read it aloud and ask yourself if this is really how you speak? If not, well, start over.

3) Read and experiment. You think your writing is too casual, too simple, doesn’t sound like a writer (whatever that sounds like)? Before you try and change your writing to sound more this way or less that way, change the way you speak, increase your speaking vocabulary… read. Read and absorb. And speak. A lot. Change the way you speak to others before changing the way you write for others. Practice.

4) Get to know your readers…. Decide who you want to write for. Will readers understand your language, your references, your jokes? Or does your writing fly above the heads of the average reader? Have someone else read a few of your past posts and listen to what they have to say about it. Make conscious choices when you transcribe that speaking voice onto paper, when you write, without changing the fundamentals of what you want to say or even how you express yourself.

5) Don’t forget that people will form an impression of you and who you are from your writing, how you write, the language you use, the things you say. They will decide whether you are funny, smart, serious, knowledgeable… but also whether or not you are silly, insincere, or acting, and whether you are professional or not. How do you want your readers to see you?

Writing, as I have said before, is a constant learning experience, a constant quest. Know why you are blogging or writing, who you are writing or blogging for. Think of your writing as if it was a musical instrument… you want to practice and get better. You want to enjoy playing and have others enjoy listening. You may want to play that instrument just for fun or you may want to sound like a professional musician. But either way, you want the instrument to feel comfortable in your hands and sound natural, easy but worth listening to.

- Practice. Read. Write.

- Find someone who will read what you write and give you honest feedback, both the positive and the negative. Take a writing workshop if you can and listen to the feedback carefully.

- Play little writing games: write something in your own voice (as you write now). Then rewrite the same in someone else’s voice, as someone else, a character in a book or someone who may be the complete opposite of you. Try different voices on for size, see what each character makes you write about, the vocabulary and the expressions that character makes you use and understand why. And then figure out what feels natural to the writer who you are.

Your mind knows only some things. Your inner voice, your instinct, knows everything. 

If you listen to what you know instinctively, it will always lead you down the right path. 

– Henry Winkler

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