I wanted to find my “voice” but had no idea where to look.

When I'm writing dialogue, I often he... "For those to whom it matters."

I wanted to find my “voice” but had no idea where to look.

Voice is one of the most compelling elements of any form of creative writing. It’s the thing that really makes your story or novel or play or screenplay unique.

Voice draws your reader into your work and is often what keeps them reading.

When I first started writing, the idea of voice felt very intimidating. How do you create voice? How do I find my voice? I wanted to find my “voice” but had no idea where to look.

Essentially voice the special thing only you can bring to your own writing. It's connected to all the choices you make in terms of tone, style, word choice, diction, and sentence structure.

Voice is what you say and how you say it—in your narration, in your dialogue, in your descriptions, and all your choices of phrasing.

While there's no easy trick to finding your voice, there are a couple of exercises that can help you begin to recognize and develop it:

Free writing can help bring your voice to the forefront because you will be less critical and self-conscious with this type of writing. Every morning set aside between 10 and 30 minutes and just write without purpose. See who and what emerges on the page. You'll be surprised.

Recording yourself is another way to capture your own voice. Try explaining something to someone. It can be as simple as how to brush your teeth. Or recording yourself telling a favourite family story. Then transcribe these recordings to see if you can hear your particular way of speaking.

Writing monologues can draw out voice because voice is a central element of the form.

Listening for voice when you observe/listen to conversations.

Reading voice-driven fiction, monologues, plays, and screenplays.

Write the same paragraph (yours or someone else’s) using five different voices to convey the information. For example, write it from the voice of a five year old then try from an elderly person. Then try it from a voice of someone who is depressed and then someone who is out to lunch. See how the paragraph changes depending on these choices.

Writing Prompt

List five topics you feel strongly about.

List five settings where your story can take place such as a barber shop, doctor's office, elementary school, etc.

List five people who could be characters in your story. Hey, your characters don't have to be people. Think of an armchair monologuing to a coffee table. What would it say?

Then pick one topic, one setting, and two characters and write a monologue in which one character passionately tries to convince another character to have the same position as them on this topic. Have them use an anecdote or story to illustrate their point.

If you're up for it, write a monologue from the other person's point of view in which they have the opposite opinion and are trying to convince your first character to see the topic their way using their own anecdote.

Structure, goals, and conflict are embedded in this prompt.

Because your first character wants to convince the second character of something, there is a goal. Because it's something the character feels passionately about there are some stakes attached that will bleed into the monologues.

The conflict is the result of the differing of opinions and opposing wants.

The story will resolve itself with the characters succeeding or failing in their goals.

Share your process of this writing prompt or your results in the comments.

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