You Gotta Have Voice
Thursday, January 14, 2010 And I'm not just talking about on American Idol. Today, I'm over on Writer Unboxed talking all about why I think that the voice of your novel and your protagonist is, in my opinion, the most important factor (among many important factors) of your book. As I've noted here, I sincerely and mightily struggled to find the voice of Tilly, the protagonist in The One That I Want, so I share how I eventually (and hopefully) found that voice and why it was so critical that I did.
One thing that I forgot to include in that post is that I think it's really critical to heighten the stakes with your characters' voices. I touched a bit on that, in terms of making them less blah, but when you're writing, ask yourself if this person were your friend, would you actually find them interesting? We all have friends whom we adore but with whom we wouldn't want to spend 300 pages, much less listen to them for 300 pages. This is what you're asking readers to do: listen to your character talk for 300 pages, so make sure that he or she is interesting enough to do just that.
Craft, writer unboxed
Reader Comments (5)
LOL to the Idol joke.
Really good point in that last para. So many times I hesitate to write a voice that sounds "over the top" or "not like a normal person," but you're right: you gotta make the voice interesting or no one will want to stick with it for so long.
Anyway, heading on over to your WU post. Thanks!
Great tips. I've started outlining an idea for my first novel and this will be very helpful to remember. So far I've got pages of notes, I guess the next step is to start writing....
Voice really is so important.....as a reader, if I can't identify with or become intrigued by the voice of the protagonist within the first 50 pages , I'll put the book down.
Actually, that's an interesting question: as a reader, how many pages will you give an author to draw you in before you put the book aside?
Or as an author, how many pages will you write of a story before you decide it's just not working....either because you don't like the protagonist or the story is losing steam?
thank you.
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