Tips to Find Your Writing Voice - Learning to be You on the Page

by Cindy K Sproles @CindyDevoted

My first conference I distinctly remember two things: 

• Find your voice
• Don't write literary

Keep in mind that this was the bigger part of 22 years ago, but for those two things to have remained with me so long proves words are powerful. I had no idea what find your voice meant. I thought I had one when I spoke. Nor did I understand what everyone meant by don't write literary. It took time to find someone who could give me a snapshot of those things so I could understand.

Let's address the not-so-important advice first. Don't write literary. All I care to say about this phrase is that publishing is trendy. Styles have changed over the years. When I began to write, literary writing was a style that was not trending—that is enough said on that for now. 

But the voice—now that's a different bird and one that I think we make out to be more complicated than it really is. Of course, voice is not our speaking voice. Instead, it is our tone on the page. Your writing voice consists of several intricate parts, but first and foremost, it is who you are. Your voice is YOU.

It is the way you phrase sentences. Dilect you use. It's your personality, your movement, and how you express yourself. I said it once before—voice is you on the page. 

Often we hear folks talk about finding your voice as if it is some elusive thing when it's not. It is important, but it's not inaccessible. New writers often fall into something I call fancy pants writing. Trust me, this isn't industry terminology, it's purely mine, but it does explain a lot. 

New writers tend to write very proper. Stilted and stiff. It's as though they assume they must write like Shakespeare or C. S. Lewis in the back of their minds. Oh, no, no, no. There are two things at play here. First, the writing styles of both Shakespeare and Lewis were different, just like writing types are different today. Those styles were, in essence, their voices. Reading C. S. Lewis, or even Calvin or Luther, though insightful, can be a bit tricky to absorb simply because of the style—or their voices. Their sentences tended to be long and deep. Their vocabulary was stiff and a bit daunting. 

I find newer writers have not yet grown past feeling like they need to write prim and proper. This is not bad, but it is something they must learn. As we learn our place in the writing world, our voice begins to develop. We begin to relax, allowing our personality to mix with the ink and drop to the page. The more we write, the more our voice rises to the top. 

Our voice is found in our confidence and how we allow it to form sentences, phrases, and thoughts. It's our humor, be it dry or tart. Voice is our mood and the pace we want to set for the reader. As we begin to master that—when we stop trying to write like someone else and realize who we are in this writing world, we can see the value of our voice. By all means, read, read, read. Learn the styles of others, but do not try to be them. Pull from their styles and tweak your own unique voice. Be you.

Perhaps you're a non-fiction writer. It's easy to become very sterile in non-fiction as you write facts and craft books that teach and guide. Still, voice is important. When you allow your voice to relax, when you learn it's okay to use a contraction, then your mood on the page shifts. We still see the teaching, but rather than feeling as though we are trapped in a room with a monotone-speaking professor, we begin to feel and experience the guidance. The teaching becomes relatable. That is voice. It's not something you find in a how-to book. Oh, sure, you can find an explanation, but you can't find your voice. You have to learn to become YOU on the page. Your voice doesn't hide from you. It must be developed.

If you are a fiction writer, your voice is found in your characters, how they speak, phrase sentences, and even their dialect. It's allowing YOU to be expressed through your character's words and movements.

Earlier in my writing career, the amazing Cecil Murphy read one of my fiction books. Honestly, I shook in my boots because I'd heard him repeatedly say that he was not a Christian fiction fan at conferences, yet because of my strong Appalachian voice, Cec liked my books. Everything about my voice shouted Appalachian historical.

Again, voice is not elusive. It's there. You simply must learn to be you on the page. When you do that, you'll find the value in your voice and how it moves your writing to a new level.

TWEETABLE

Tips to Find Your Writing Voice - Learning to be You on the Page from author @CindyDevoted on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Cindy K. Sproles is an author, speaker, and conference teacher. Having served for a number of years as a managing editor for Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas and Ironstream Media, Cindy now works as a mentor, coach, and freelance editor. She is the co-founder of Writing Right Author Mentoring Services with Lori Marett and she is the director of the Asheville Christian Writers Conference. Cindy is also the co-founder of Christian Devotions Ministries and WWW.CHRISTIANDEVOTIONS.US, as well as WWW.INSPIREAFIRE.COM. Her devotions are in newspapers and magazines nationwide, and her novels have become award-winning best-selling works. She is a popular speaker at conferences and a natural encourager. Cindy is a mountain girl, born and raised in the Appalachian mountains, where she and her husband still reside. She has raised four sons and now resorts to raising chickens where the pecking order is easier to manage. You can visit Cindy at WWW.CINDYSPROLES.COM or www.wramsforwriters.com.