I hear your voice, it’s like an angel sighing
I have no choice, I hear your voice
Feels like flying

~Madonna

While I’m sure the Material Girl was not singing about voice in writing, I still feel like this applies. When you read your favorite author and mentally hear the words they have written, you connect to their voice and that’s what speaks to you. It’s the particular words that they choose, they way they turn a phrase or their cutting dialogue. It feels like flying.

So how do you get that writing voice? According to Kelly Delaney and that really cool webinar I took recently, there are four ways to work on finding your voice:

1. Practice. (I think this is sometimes the hardest)

• Write every day (super hard for me!)
• Don’t focus on finishing projects to share (not as hard for me)
• Experiment with different styles and genres ( I haven’t tried this yet)

2. Talk to yourself (You mean, do what I’ve already been doing my whole life anyway? Check!)

• Tell your story out loud (This makes a huge difference! Especially in my picture book manuscripts)
• Pay attention to differences between spoken and written stories (Hmm, I will.)

3. Don’t force it (But I’m desperately trying to find my VOICE!)

• Forcing strains voice (Oh…gotcha)
• Don’t mimic other voices (Mimic not, I will.)
• Rhyming makes things harder (But I got more rhymes than a Bible’s got Psalms! See it even worked for House of Pain)

4. Retelling (as I explained in my last post)

• Take another piece of short text and tell that story in your own words (You can use my post and retell it in your words or go back to retelling obituaries, you weirdo, you.)

There you have it. Four practical ways to find your writing voice. Just like a prayer, I’ll take you there!