On Writing: Voice

[anthrodisiac]

*Morgan Freeman*
Voice. We all have it. From the very dawn of language, voice has been humanity's shadow, an inexorable-

Sorry, that was all I could afford to get Morgan Freeman to read this post.

Voice! It's an omnipresent part of writing, inescapable. So, what is it?

Boiled down to its most basic, voice is how you tell a story. It's the words you pick and the way you arrange them.

There are two main types of voice:

• Dialogue: How the characters talk. You may have noticed that not everybody speaks exactly the same. They use different words based on where they grew up, what cultures they're in, their education, their personalities, who they're talking to, and many, many more factors.
• Narrative Voice: How the narrator narrates. Really, not too dissimilar from dialogue. How a narrator narrates the story says a lot about that particular narrator, which is particularly crucial when we're inside the narrator's head.

Dialogue can be its own thing, so I'll focus on narrative voice for this thread.

Narrative voice, many will argue, is important mostly for first-person POV. When you write first-person POV, you're writing in that character's voice, so the words you pick and how you arrange them say as much about the character as anything else. Is your character well-educated, with the words they pick to tell the story loquacious and rife with meaning and double-entendre? Are they a clever clod who enjoys a good repartee? Are they a simple fellow who doesn't feel the need to use big words?

Who your character is colors and dictates what words to use, and what structures to place those words in. How you write a sentence is as much the purview of voice as the words themselves. First person provides an opportunity to not just tell a story, but show who the character is through their narrative style.

But narrative voice is also important beyond first person. It says a lot about the narrator. Most writers will use their own voice to tell a third-person POV story in a fairly detached manner. However, the voice colors the story as well. Is the narrator detached? Invested? Mocking? Supportive? Do they seem to have favorites? Even an omniscient narrator has a voice, and while it doesn't play as big a role as first person, it does impact the telling of the story.

Some writers tend to write stories with very different voices (I'm partial to this, even in third person), others tend to stick with their own preferred style. Opinions on voice are as wide and varied as the voices we have.

What are your thoughts on voice? How do you employ it in your own writing? How important it is, really, to the enjoyment of a story?

 

[ADirtyPerv]

I usually write in 1P, because the MC's voice grabs me and guides me early on. An early word choice on my way to the premise will inform me of the MC's character, and their voice unfolds from there. The result is a wide range of narrative voice for my 1P characters.

3P is hit and miss. I think it mostly ends up sounding like me by default.

Mocking?

I would love to read a story with a mocking narrator that still manages to be... Erotic. Hot. I don't see a world where the Stanley Parable narrator narrates a sex scene, but I would love to read it.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I would love to read a story with a mocking narrator that still manages to be... Erotic

Maybe not quiet what you had in mind, but adjacent…(and only 3,300 words)

https://www.literotica.com/s/signifying-nothing

 

[anthrodisiac]

I would love to read a story with a mocking narrator that still manages to be... Erotic. Hot. I don't see a world where the Stanley Parable narrator narrates a sex scene, but I would love to read it.

A wild plot bunny appears!

In my head, it's definitely the MC arguing with the narrator:

His dick, average at best-
"It's slightly above aveage!"
-penetrated the girl who was clearly out of his league.
"She's not out of my league!"
"Babe, who are you talking to?"
Yes, Ed, who are you talking to?

Edit: Or almost exactly what Emily put.

 

[ADirtyPerv]

Maybe not quiet what you had in mind, but adjacent…(and only 3,300 words)

https://www.literotica.com/s/signifying-nothing

Holy shit I have a headache. Well done?

 

[EmilyMiller]

Holy shit I have a headache. Well done?

I had a blast writing that

 

[anthrodisiac]

Holy shit I have a headache. Well done?

Don't read the 150k book I wrote that's increasing levels of that

 

[ADirtyPerv]

I had a blast writing that

It's definitely funny, don't get me wrong. I just couldn't follow the in-jokes and references to your work, which I haven't read much of. I've read some, but it was all anal and lore-less. That premise, executed on a more author-agnostic basis, would be delightful.

@anthrodisiac I think that was a record for thread derailments. You may sic the polar bears on me. I'm ready.

 

[EmilyMiller]

It's definitely funny, don't get me wrong. I just couldn't follow the in-jokes and references to your work, which I haven't read much of. I've read some, but it was all anal and lore-less. That premise, executed on a more author-agnostic basis, would be delightful.

It was a for the fans work for sure.

My 87,000 word novel only refers to anal once, when the creators of the FMC are testing her responses to different sexual stimuli.

 

[ADirtyPerv]

Don't read the 150k book I wrote that's increasing levels of that

I can't. You haven't posted it.

 

[anthrodisiac]

@anthrodisiac I think that was a record for thread derailments. You may sic the polar bears on me. I'm ready.

Life would be boring without thread derailments. I just hope at some point we actually get back to talking about voice — and not your voice screaming because I sicced polar bears on you, which I won't do because then I'd have to reset the Lit Polar Bear Attack counter, and that feels like effort.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I can't. You haven't posted it.

It exists outside of Lit, so don't worry, you won't trip over it here

 

[ADirtyPerv]

@EmilyMiller I weighed in on the actual thread subject. Your turn. Don't make Anthy mad at me.

 

[EmilyMiller]

@EmilyMiller I weighed in on the actual thread subject. Your turn. Don't make Anthy mad at me.

Those claws look sharp and soooo many meerkats.

I’m too tired to be sensible .

 

[EmilyMiller]

Some writers tend to write stories with very different voices (I'm partial to this, even in third person), others tend to stick with their own preferred style. Opinions on voice are as wide and varied as the voices we have.

I’ll stick to 1P.

I’ve written both female and male narrators (and one Futanari). I try to vary my language and the rhythm of sentences to reflect different characters. But I suspect I often gravitate back to my own voice.

When I have shifting narrators in a 1P story, I try to have certain leitmotifs for each one, something that marks them out.

I do the same with dialog (regardless of which person I’m writing with) I hear different characters differently and so write them differently (or at least try to).

 

[NuclearFairy]

I don't know. O.O How do I employ a voice in writing? Hmmm.... Well even in third person, while I tend to use more exact words than the character themselves might know, I still try and make my narrator echo the tone of my POV character. Not sure if I manage. I kinda suck at self analyzing.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I’ll stick to 1P.

I’ve written both female and male narrators (and one Futanari). I try to vary my language and the rhythm of sentences to reflect different characters. But I suspect I often gravitate back to my own voice.

When I have shifting narrators in a 1P story, I try to have certain leitmotifs for each one, something that marks them out.

I do the same with dialog (regardless of which person I’m writing with) I hear different characters differently and so write them differently (or at least try to).

That was really garbled and unclear - sure signs I should go to sleep.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I would love to read a story with a mocking narrator that still manages to be... Erotic. Hot. I don't see a world where the Stanley Parable narrator narrates a sex scene, but I would love to read it.

No. If I do something like this, the narrator would sound like GlaDOS because I operate on potatoes. Nevertheless, Alice went into the testing chamb- I mean, she went into the kitchen for cake, but she didn't have any because I ATE IT ALL!

She seems to have not gone for the cake. What is she doing? Apparently she is curious about a sentry, how incredibly dumb she can be! She doesn't know what that sentry does, and is... is...

I'm sorry, I can't process that prompt. Contact Aperture Science for more information on packages that turn me into the sexbot of your preferences, you sick freak. No wait, everybody's dead. And it's all your fault.

 

[THBGato]

Dialogue: How the characters talk. You may have noticed that not everybody speaks exactly the same. They use different words based on where they grew up, what cultures they're in, their education, their personalities, who they're talking to, and many, many more factors.

This is quite important to me, especially when reading several stories by the same author. I don't care if a third person narrator sounds the same, but if the characters all sound the same, it bugs me.

 

[TheLobster]

In my head, it's definitely the MC arguing with the narrator:

I believe you could do it without breaking the fourth wall if you wrote it like a sort of nature documentary, with a sarcastic David Attenborough-esque narrator who offers his unsolicited commentary or even advice on the sexy proceedings he "witnesses". Bonus points for doing it in such a way that the characters' dialogue seems to contradict him on purpose:

David approached lingerie-clad Jenny, his hard dick swaying more than he would like to. The girl found the instrument appealing and she took it in her hands, no doubt hoping that it would grow even bigger.
"Ooh, it's already so big! I'm not sure if I can take it..."
Pleased with this development, David proceeded to kiss his mate while he worked on her bra. The clasps proved elusive, as they typically do; the eager male needed assistance before he could lay his hands at the supple goods within. But once he did, his touch would undoubtedly prove stimulating to the inexplicably overheated female.
"Ahh! Not so hard, babe!" Jenna squealed. "My nipples... are sensitive..."
"Sorry."
Undeterred, he continued to make out with the topless, his hand already slipping down to the lacy line of her panties. It would certainly be too quick, for the young woman wasn't yet sufficiently prepared, and the growing heat in her body required at least a few more minutes —
"Oh god!" she moaned. "Don't play with me, Dave! I'm too fucking wet... Just fuck me!"

 

[StillStunned]

What are your thoughts on voice? How do you employ it in your own writing? How important it is, really, to the enjoyment of a story?

Unless I'm deliberately trying something different, I suppose I default to my own voice for narration. Which is probably either laziness, or prioritising story over form.

Narrative voice, many will argue, is important mostly for first-person POV. When you write first-person POV, you're writing in that character's voice, so the words you pick and how you arrange them say as much about the character as anything else. Is your character well-educated, with the words they pick to tell the story loquacious and rife with meaning and double-entendre? Are they a clever clod who enjoys a good repartee? Are they a simple fellow who doesn't feel the need to use big words?

I think there are two ways (at least) to approach 1P narration.

The first is to treat it more or less as dialogue, or only very slightly removed. If your POV character speaks their dialogue in a particular way, then it stands to reason that they'd narrate their story in the same way. So any idiosyncrasies of their speech would also be present in the narration.*)

The second is to adopt a neutral voice. Everyone measures other voices against their own: they consider their own voice to be normal. So their narration would be closer to the author's natural style (again: because everyone considers their own voice to be normal), or whatever style their pursuing.

The first might feel more authentic than the second, but at the same time it's probably more difficult to keep up. The more "authentic" it becomes (i.e. the more it strays from the "normal"), I think, the more difficult it will be to read and the sooner readers will nope out.

*) This probably also goes for close 3P, with a different narrative voice corresponding to each POV character's dialogue patterns.

 

[crookedletter]

I like to vary the voice from story to story. Some end up being very similar to each other, I'm sure, especially if they're first person narratives without wildly divergent characters. But I write a lot of different types of things, and it seems intuitive to me that a narrator of a 750 word second person erotica would strike a different tone than that of a 80K word sci-fi horror novel.

It's not something I sit around and muse on before I start writing, generally. I just have a vague sort of notion of the way I want a story to sound, and I let my pantser brain take the wheel for a while. Voice tends to kind of shape itself. Then the challenge is keeping it consistent, and, more challenging, keep any distinctions in voice between shifting perspectives in place.

I've tried a bunch of variations. Mocking (not in erotica, yet, but I really like the idea), lightly comic (never swinging for belly laughs), detached, lyrical, intense. I enjoy the way voice tends to affect how I write a story, and how I think of what I'm trying to do with it. Sometimes I'll think a story is going to be super serious, for example, and it's not working, so I tone the voice down, give it a lighter touch, and things start to come together a little differently.

It's a tough subject for a craft discussion because it's very nuanced. It's more about feel than about a clearly delineated approach. But I think about voice quite a bit when I'm writing -- and reading.

 

[StillStunned]

But narrative voice is also important beyond first person. It says a lot about the narrator. Most writers will use their own voice to tell a third-person POV story in a fairly detached manner. However, the voice colors the story as well. Is the narrator detached? Invested? Mocking? Supportive? Do they seem to have favorites? Even an omniscient narrator has a voice, and while it doesn't play as big a role as first person, it does impact the telling of the story.

This is tempting me to set up a Writing Exercise where everyone tells their own version of a specific scene, each using a different voice and/or POV. But I think people might be suffering a bit of craft fatigue.

 

[EmilyMiller]

This is tempting me to set up a Writing Exercise where everyone tells their own version of a specific scene, each using a different voice and/or POV. But I think people might be suffering a bit of craft fatigue.

Do it in a month or so maybe.

 

[StillStunned]

Do it in a month or so maybe.

I predict that some time tomorrow afternoon I'll have forgotten all about it.