Because I’m one of those people that likes to DO things, and not just sit around and ponder nebulous concepts like “voice,” I’m going to throw a couple of exercises in here. But the truth is, your best bet is to write more, revise, and read—go be a writer, be yourself, and you’ll figure it out.
Set a timer and write down ten words that you think describe your voice. Do it as fast as you can, with as little thinking as possible. If you’re having a lot of trouble, write down ten words that you think describe the voice of your current work in progress.
Do this twice a year (or as often as you want). Keep all the lists. Watch how it changes. Watch what stays the same.
Exercise 2
Read the following excerpts. Write down ten words you think describes the voice of these writers. You can do this with literally any writer, any book, any work.
First excerpt:
“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you’ve ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”
Source
Second excerpt:
“What do I really know about love? I have had some experiences and feel fluent enough for my own satisfaction. Love, I find is like singing. Everybody can do enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not impress the neighbors as being very much. That is the way it is with me, but whether I know anything unusual, I couldn’t say. Don’t look for me to call a string of names and point out chapter and verse. Ladies do not kiss and tell any more than gentlemen do.
“I have read many books where the heroine was in love for a long time without knowing it. I have talked with people and they have told me the same thing. So maybe that is the way it ought to be. That is not the way it is with me at all. I have been out of love with people for a long time, perhaps without finding it out. But when I fall in, I can feel the bump. That is a fact and I would not try to fool you. Love may be a sleepy, creeping thing with some others, but it is a mighty wakening thing with me. I feel the jar, and I know it from my head down.”
Source
Third excerpt:
“Everybody in our family has different hair. My Papa's hair is like a broom, all up in the air. And me, my hair is lazy. It never obeys barrettes or bands. Carlos’ hair is thick and straight. He doesn't need to comb it. Nenny's hair is slippery—slides out of your hand. And Kiki, who is the youngest, has hair like fur.
“But my mother's hair, my mother's hair like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe, is the warm smell of bread before you bake it, is the smell, when she makes room for you on her side of the bed still warm with her skin and you sleep near her, the rain outside falling and Papa snoring. The snoring, the rain and Mama's hair that smells like bread.”
Source
Fourth excerpt:
“Modern elevators are strange and complex entities. The ancient electric winch and ‘maximum-capacity-eight-persons’ jobs bear as much relation to a Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Happy Vertical People Transporter as a packet of mixed nuts does to the entire west wing of the Sirian State Mental Hospital.
“This is because they operate on the curious principle of ‘defocused temporal perception.’ In other words, they have the capacity to see dimly into the immediate future, which enables the elevator to be on the right floor to pick you up even before you knew you wanted it, thus eliminating all the tedious chatting, relaxing and making friends that people were previously forced to do while waiting for elevators.
“Not unnaturally, many elevators imbued with intelligence and precognition became terribly frustrated with the mindless business of going up and down, up and down, experimented briefly with the notion of going sideways, as a sort of existential protest, demanded participation in the decision-making process and finally took to squatting in basements sulking.
“An impoverished hitchhiker visiting any planets in the Sirius star system these days can pick up easy money working as a counselor for neurotic elevators.”
Source
Exercise 3
Reread the list of ten words you wrote about yourself in exercise 1 or the list you wrote about one of the excerpts in exercise 2. Then, choose one of the following prompts and do the best you can to write a paragraph in that voice. Be intentional with your choices.
