I've been told that I have a "middle grade voice" in my novels and I used to be okay with that. Now, however, I want to find out more.
As I start to explore writing different types of books and pushing my personal creative envelope, I've become a lot more interested in the whole concept of voice. It's a common term in the publishing industry. Editors and agents are always looking for new voices, a strong voice, a unique voice. "WONDERFUL voice in her book!" a review will declare...but what do they actually mean?
I've come across many different definitions of voice. Some editors say it's hard to define a great voice, but they recognize one when they see it. Others say it includes word choice, sentence and story structure, and even the way you use punctuation.
Anyway, I'm going to be doing some in-depth research about voice as it applies to one's writing, and sharing what I learn. In this series of weekly blog posts, I'm going to be answering the following questions:
What IS voice, exactly?
How important is voice, compared to other factors in your writing?
How can you figure out what voice YOU have? How can you develop your voice?
Can a writer have more than one type of voice? Can a middle grade writer develop a YA voice and vice versa? How?
Stay tuned for more. Plus check out the comic I recently posted about voice on Writer Unboxed.
--- Debbie
Voice is one of those things in life I can't understand (like popcorn without butter). I'm looking forward to this series!
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Awesome! I look forward to reading your thoughts on this. I know a lot of writers who flip back and forth between MG and YA and I think there are definitely different styles to those, but I still carry my voice to each of them. :)
ReplyDeleteYAY! Thanks for taking on the challenge of such an elusive butterfly. Looking forward to your posts.
ReplyDeleteI'm really looking forward to this series! Yeah!
ReplyDeleteThis is something I've been thinking about lately. Looking forward to your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI too am looking forward to this series! I've seen a lot on YA, but not MG or MG vs YA.
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