How can I develop a good narrative voice?

[Guest]

Hello, wonderful community.. How can I develop a good narrative voice?

[Arrian]

Speak from the heart. Be confident in the subject material and know first hand about what you write.

[Jacques]

Write a lot of stuff and read it aloud. Get rid of what sounds unatural for you and rewrite and read aloud again.

Keep doing this and eventually, you'll find yourself (in the literary sense)

[Rocky]

By listening to others’ as you read, and trying to keep yours consistent throughout. Also by realizing that voice is often influenced by the world of the novel.

[Ernest]

Smoke a lot and drink a lot of whisky....

[Gary]

You need to understand good Graham and word usage. You need to understand that using certain types of sentences and phrases create certain types of mood and you must use them consistently in your narrative voice. And narrative voice imply certain values and personality characteristics about the narrator even if it is a third person narrator. You must discover what these qualities are and use them consistently in a way that enhances your story

[Gary]

If there's a person you have a consistent voice or a series of voices that are consistent in different moods, you have a key to a consistent narrative voice. If you have no consistent voices a person but change and certainly all the time it's possible you need to become a different person a more consistent one to develop a good narrative voice for fiction

[Bob]

Weird paradox here. If you can't tell "good narrative voice" in the writings of others, you might as well forget it.

But if you can tell, study those who do it the way you like it, compare this to less effective prose, and apply what you glean to your own writing.

(Personal observation: One of the hardest things a writer has to learn is to develop a sort of split personality. You have to, as you're writing--but also during smoothing polishing, and rewriting--simultaneously write but also read what's being produced as if you are coming to this piece fresh, with no idea of where it's going. I.e., you have to read the thing as if you had no idea what was in the writer's head while it was being written. The better you can do this, the truer your "reaction" to the words and the content of your story will be. Is this writer's prose clear, concise, suspenseful, rich, engaging? (Your writing isn't "great" because it came from you. You have to read it as if it were written by someone you don't know or maybe even as if it were written by someone you don't even like.( Is it doing what you expect/need/want, and if not, why not? In other words, you can judge it because you're reading this for the "first time"! What would you have done (what advice would you give this writer) to make this play better for the audience? What will make it sing? Give yourself that feedback.)

Good luck!

[Phillip]

Write it like you hear it in your head. Lots of people can’t speak well, most carry on an internal dialogue that’s cogent and flows well.

[Andrew]

Try to make your characters sound like the people around you every day. Don't resort to long words most people rarely use. Keep sentences and dialogues as short as you can.

[Rodel]

Voice only comes through thousands of hours of practice. Write consistently for at least 5 years, and you will be on your way to developing your voice.

Until then, accept that you will have to read other people's work and decide what your voice will be. Experiment. Play.

[Jared]

What do you consider 'good narrative voice'? I love Jean Shepard's and T.C Boyle's narrative voice, but some may prefer something different. I personally don't like Stephen King's narrative voice, but I love his earlier plots…

Having an unique narrative voice is a double-edged sword. It distinguishes you from the other writers, and that separation makes it easy for readers to criticize your writing. The more more unique, the more critical they will be…