Finding your voice

I've written eight novels, and I still can't quite wrap my head around the concept of voice. Like porn, you know it when you see it. But what does voice really mean?

Hypothesis: Voice is the ability to communicate with precision, whether you hope to communicate punchy one liners or epic quests through baroque dreamscapes.

Finding your voice means developing the craft of clearly articulating your ideas and feelings. You do not arrive at an answer through search, but hone a skill with practice.

Clarity is not short sentences. Or long sentences. Or sentences of any particular flavor.

Clarity is forging your imagination into a pebble that, when tossed, will ripple through other minds.

Complement with a brief anatomy of story, the creative process behind True Blue, and these interviews with my favorite authors about craft and creativity.

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Eliot Peper is a critically acclaimed novelist who writes speculative thrillers that explore the intersection of technology and culture. His Analog Novels grapple with what it might mean for a tech platform to become sovereign and democratic. His writing has appeared in the Verge, Harvard Business Review, VICE, and the Los Angeles Review of Books and he has given talks at Google, Comic Con, Future in Review, and SXSW.