Finding Your Writer’s Voice

What is a writer’s “voice”?

This is one of those phrases that people think they understand. But let’s take it apart a little… Is your writer’s voice the same thing as your own voice? What makes it different? How do you know when you’ve found it? Where do you get one? How much does it cost? Voice is one of the few writing intangibles that cannot be taught, though oddly enough, it can be uncovered, discovered, and developed.

So how do you discover and adapt your own writer’s voice?

Voice is equally applicable to fiction and nonfiction. It’s the way a writer uses language, the “feel” of the words. I think it’s inherent in each person’s writing and automatically matures over time if one writes enough, and I also think some people have very distinctive voices even when they’re still struggling with the mechanics of writing. I remember a woman I worked with years ago; she had the most exquisite lyrical voice to her language even though she had a lot of trouble with sentence structure and grammar. She had it easy: the grammar can be taught and learned. The voice? Not so much.

I believe the voice of a writer is inherent, not something that can be learned or taught: it’s discovered and developed.

What is it?