Why does Voice matter?

1. There’s a significant reader commitment when they “buy” your book – 12-24 hours of reading aloud, 6-12 hours spent silently in company of this voice
2. There’s a significant author commitment too – lots more hours than that writing in this voice, so you’d better enjoy it
3. Reader/author contract – you will make it worth the reader’s time (they’re paying you in time and money)
4. Reader expectations –
   1. If it’s a legal contract, should be written in legaleze, but equally…
   2. The tale of a sweet old lady in small-town America probably shouldn’t devolve into pages of swearing
   3. A hard-bitten ex-marine story shouldn’t devolve into delicately phrased romantic pillow-talk
   4. And what about memoir? And what about when it’s not memoir and the comments say,“So sorry this happened to you…”
      1. How do we avoid being identified with first person narrator, vs.
      2. how do we prove we have the right to tell the tale? (Try, “I have some experiences in common with this character, but she isn’t me…”?)

What are our Voice options?

Point of view	Tense	Assumptions or examples	Advantages	Disadvantages	getarounds
First person single hero	Present	YA dystopia?	Immediate. Full access to the character’s thoughts and experiences. Action experienced alongside character Identify emotionally with hero SYMPATHY for hero	Claustrophobic. Might question why the character’s telling us this. Can’t see at a distance. Can’t know other people’s emotions. Might be whiny, introspective, boring? NOT NATURAL!	Make sure it’s a real narrative voice. Maybe add a 2nd pov character?
	past	Memoir? Raymond Chandler. Jane Eyre. Huckleberry Finn.	Double consciousness – future looking over past character’s shoulder. Assume the protagonist survived	Is it real?	Disclaimer (not about me)? Make protagonist obviously different from self (name them?)
First Person multiple heroes			Get to see multiple points of view, maybe of same events Get to be in multiple places at once	Need separate narrative voice for each (NOT SAME as dialog voice)	Use 3rd person multiple povs instead – only requires one narrative voice
First person observer		Great Gatsby	Comment on events. Don’t have to identify with or like the hero Hear about events from other people so don’t have to be present	Don’t know what makes the hero tick, but can speculate	You can describe the protagonist.
Third person single hero			Can spend more time describing internal (even subconscious) thoughts without getting whiney, but maybe can’t “say” them. EMPATHY for hero	Not as intimate or immediate. Less likely pathos. Can’t see at a distance	Put 1st person thoughts in italics? Use more than one point of view (pov)
Third person multiple heroes		J.R.R. Martin   Brian Doyle	Don’t need separate narrative voices for separate viewpoints. Can give all sides of epic events	POV character can’t keep secrets from the reader. Be careful how you switch – one pov per chapter, one per scene, one per paragraph…	Don’t break the reader’s neck, don’t make readers dizzy or confuse them. Use hiatus (blsnk lines) to separate views
Third person observer		Mystery   Agatha Christie	Fly on the wall. Movie-like. Sees all, knows all the characters’ actions. Gets to keep secrets and make comments	Have to keep it interesting. Can’t get inside anybody’s heads.	Need a good plot! Maybe more for plot driven than character driven stories.
Third person omniscient		Dorothy Sayers	Sees all, knows all, does get inside their heads, so no secrets “Little did he know…”	So… if there are no secrets…	Need a really good plot
Second person			Often combined with omniscient. “If you had seen… wouldn’t you have…?”	Difficult to sustain over a short story or novel.

Examples

Tense change

Princess Stella was walking in the forest. Her thoughts drifted back to the corridors and chambers of the castle. Her feet trod lightly on the loamy ground. Her breath drifted in front of her face in gentle puffs of air. Then a wolf leapt out at her.

She falls back in horror. As the wolf’s red eyes stare into hers, as drool drips from the ends of its fangs, her body trembles and she knows she’s going to die.

Why did the writer change to present tense – identifying with the character while writing an exciting scene. Fix it just by changing the tense. Maybe use italics…

                She fell back in horror. I’m going to die. The wolf’s red eyes…

Person change

Princess Stella was walking in the forest. Her thoughts drifted back to the corridors and chambers of the castle. Her feet trod lightly on the loamy ground. Her breath drifted in front of her face in gentle puffs of air. Then a wolf leapt out at her.

I fall back, terrified. The wolf’s red eyes stare into mine, and drool drips on my face from the ends of its fangs. I’m going to die.

Again, identifying with the character. If we change it all to “I,” we might lose sympathy for the character whose head’s stuck in a castle while she walks in a forest, so have to decide what we’re aiming for.

Tense change 1^st person

I was walking through the forest, not a trouble in my mind. Okay it wasn’t the castle of my youth, but it was beautiful. Then a wolf leapt out at me.

I fall back, till I land with a thump on the ground. The wolf’s red eyes stare into mine, and drool drips on my face from the ends of its fangs. I’m going to die.

Present tense is more immediate, and, just like switching to italics for internal thoughts, we’re allowed to switch tense sometimes. Just need to make sure it fits the voice.

                I was walking through the forest, not a care on my mind, when suddenly this bloomin’ great wolf leaps out at    me!

Point of view change

Princess Stella walked hand in hand with Prince Jim, dreaming of the future they might share. Then a wolf leapt out at them.

As Jim released her hand, Stella fell, and the wolf seemed set to pounce. She turned around, sure Jim would rescue her, already imagining how she would fall into his arms afterward. But when she caught sight of him, he was already halfway across the clearing, fleeing in terror and wondering where on earth the wolf had come from.

Maybe “fleeing as if in terror, or as if he were trying to guess where the wolf had come from.”