Finding Your Inner Voice....

Posted by Lola7384 at 9:54 AM Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Readers~

I hope everyone is having an awesome Tuesday!

Today's post is about finding your inner voice with your writing.

Voice in writing is key. Let's face it, if a person can't connect to the voice of your MC your book is going to fall flat.

Sometimes, you can find your voice right away. Sometimes it takes years. Me personally, I just found mine. And it took me eight years to find it.

Below I've provided several helpful hints that might help you in finding your inner voice.

1. Test out different tenses - One thing I've learned is that testing out different tenses is a good thing. Some people are better at past tense, some are better at present. This whole time I thought I was a past tense writer and I'm not. I'm much more comfortable with present tense. It flows easier and I'm able to put more emotion into my characters.

2. Test out different POV's - Some writers are better at third person, while others are better at first. Write your characters from all of POV's then decide which one works best for you or which one flows more freely.

3. Know your characters inside and out - Fully flesh out your characters. Know their likes, their dislikes, know their feelings. Most importantly, know how they'd react in a situation... And remember this; even though sometimes we put pieces of ourselves into our characters. WE ARE NOT THEM. You are not your character. And it's important that you know how to separate yourself from the character. Because let's face it, we put our character's through hell and we wouldn't necessarily do what they do.

Hopefully some of this helps!

Cheers! <3
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6 comments:

  1. Kelly Hashway said...:
    October 25, 2011 at 10:15 AM

    Great tips, Lauren. Voice is definitely key. I love your past tense writing, but I have to say your present tense is simply amazing! You definitely found your voice. :)

  1. Cassie Mae said...:
    October 25, 2011 at 10:47 AM

    Ooh, I've written in all sorts of voices. Male, female, first person, third person, 13 years old to 24 years old, past tense, present tense. I'm still searching for "The One", but it has been an absolute blast exploring it all!

    Great post!

  1. Miranda Hardy said...:
    October 25, 2011 at 4:26 PM

    Great suggestions. I like completing character sketches to flesh out my characters better. It helps.

  1. Jolene Perry said...:
    October 25, 2011 at 8:48 PM

    I think one of my LAST steps is making sure people understand my characters as well as I do.
    My FIRST step - usually before story or anything else is the idea of a character.

    This is a FABULOUS post.

  1. Kate Larkindale said...:
    October 25, 2011 at 10:04 PM

    My characters always come to me pretty fully formed. Then it's up to me to find a story for them.... Usually it's just 'how would x react if y happened? How would z?'

    The tense and style comes from them. I never have any choice than to do what they say... Darn characters...

  1. Kristin Baker said...:
    October 26, 2011 at 12:33 AM

    I'm just getting into present tense writing. I don't think I'd be good at writing it, but I sure love reading it.

    My first book practically wrote itself when I switched from 3rd to 1st person. My current WIP insisted on being written in 3rd. Weird how that sometimes works out.

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