Narrative voice and all that jazz

Happy Hump Day Minions!! (Yes calling you few people who read this minion is growing on me.)

Last week we talked about how and why using the CRAVE strategy can help you in your endeavors of worldly social media and marketing dominance. If you missed that blog, here's a handy link:

https://www.writingforums.org/entry/c-r-a-v-e-and-why-its-a-great-strategy-for-social-media.64334/#comment-11486

Today's blog post is brought to you by forum member @Magus who kindly asked last week if I had ever done posts on Narrative specifics. I hadn't... so here we go!

Narrative What the heck is it, and why does it matter to us as authors? Well, for those of you like me who aren't really in the know about spiffy writing terms, a narrative is your story. Easy right? Well, if it were, I wouldn't be doing a blog post about it, and none of us would be struggling to write.

The narrative is made up of many (and I do mean MANY) different components like voice, point of view, style and devices to name a few. I've briefly touched on points of view in the past; style is also relatively straightforward. So today we'll be talking about voice.

Voice is unique to each author. No two people think alike, and no two people see situations or events in the same way. This is why police have a hard time with multiple witnesses to a crime. You've probably seen this in your writing groups if you've ever participated in a group write in with a prompt or as a part of a themed compilation.

So why is that important? Well, if you're ghostwriting for someone else, it can be a pain in the neck, especially if they already have parts of the story written. Sometimes as writers we are required to match someone else's voice, like in a collaborative effort. But beyond that, as a writer, it can be challenging to find your voice.

But Corbyn, you just said everyone has their own unique voice.

I did. But that doesn't mean that an author doesn't have to cultivate it. Everyone speaks and writes a certain way, but your voice is more than that, especially when telling the story of a character. This is something that I struggle with. Sometimes my characters come off to well spoken. I mean them to be, but not overly polished. Just a little bit better than a common thug. I tend to go excessively formal. I don't think of myself that way, but I realize that most of it is me coming off too loud when it should be the characters personality driving the story instead. Your voice also has to do with your willingness to use dialect, tone, and even how much violence or swearing you put into your writing. Cooler people call this edgy writing. (I'm not that cool.)

It takes work in the form of editing and revision to dial these issues down, or change them. A retraining of your brain if you will. Sometimes I find that to be the hardest part. Retraining myself not to get in the way as I see the story section play out in my head. (I know that sounds a little weird, but I'm not mental... promise ) I'd almost rather see the scenes play out because I know then that the character is driving the story, and it's coming naturally, not me forcing the writing.

The bottom line when it comes to voice is that you have to practice the things that work for you until it becomes a habit. If it's a habit, then you'll have fewer issues in the long run with pesky problems like writer's block.

And on that note minions, you'll be happy to know that our world domination plans are kicking into high gear. I'll be posting more frequently both here on the blog and to the novel workshop as I pluck away at my latest novel. I've gotta pay for your cookies and DSL somehow!

As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this blog. If you feel like there is something you’d like to see me cover, or I haven’t covered correctly, please leave a comment below. Happy writing!

-Corbyn