I wanted to find my “voice” but had no idea where to look.

Where Do I Start? | On Voice

Jan 01, 2025

Voice is one of the most compelling elements of any form of creative writing. It’s the thing that really makes your story or novel or play or screenplay unique.

Voice draws your reader into your work and is often what keeps them reading.

When I first started writing, the idea of voice felt very intimidating. How do you create voice? How do I find my voice? I wanted to find my “voice” but had no idea where to look.

Essentially voice the special thing only you can bring to your own writing. It's connected to all the choices you make in terms of tone, style, word choice, diction, and sentence structure.

Voice is what you say and how you say it—in your narration, in your dialogue, in your descriptions, and all your choices of phrasing.

Example of Voice

“This Person” by Miranda July is an example of how voice operates in literary fiction. Note the use of repetition, the word choice, how the sentences are structured, the move between abstract and specific, the tone. All of these choices create the voice of the narrator.

From “This Person”

Someone is getting excited. Somebody somewhere is shaking with excitement because something tremendous is about to happen to this person. This person has dressed for the occasion. This person has hoped and dreamed and now it is really happening and this person can hardly believe it. But believing is not an issue here, the time for faith and fantasy is over, it is really really happening. It involves stepping forward and bowing. Possibly there is some kneeling, such as when one is knighted. One is almost never knighted. But this person may kneel and receive a tap on each shoulder with a sword. Or, more likely, this person will be in a car or a store or under a vinyl canopy when it happens. Or online or on the phone. It could be an e-mail re: your knighthood. Or a long, laughing, rambling phone message in which every person this person has ever known is talking on a speakerphone and they are all saying, You have passed the test, it was all just a test, we were only kidding, real life is so much better than that. This person is laughing out loud with relief and playing the message back to get the address of the place where every person this person has ever known is waiting to hug this person and bring her into the fold of life. It is really exciting, and it's not just a dream, it's real.

Read “This Person” on NPR

In “Asleep Till You’re Awake,” Francine Cunningham uses straightforward language and then juxtaposes it with a conversational tone, understatement, surprise, contradiction, indirect dialogue, repetition, a scene summary. All of these contribute to the voice of the narrator.

I went to the walk-in clinic because I’d started falling asleep in weird places. The first time happened in a grocery store. I was holding two boxes of cereal and I got tired, so I sat down in the aisle. I’d never thought to just sit down in a grocery store, but when your eyes are burning and the blinks come slower and slower, it becomes impossible not to. So, I sat. And then I leaned. I should never have leaned. I should have sat up straight, like someone who does yoga, but I don’t do yoga. I don’t even stretch, really. So, I sat, then leaned, and then a man with a brown coat and black sneakers started shaking my shoulder, asking me if I was dead. Okay, he was asking if I was fine, but basically that’s the same thing. So, he asked me if I was fine and I said no. And then he just walked away. Like, who does that? I said no, you’re supposed to help, but he walked away. I got up. I didn’t even buy any cereal. I just went home.

Read “Asleep Till You’re Awake” by Francine Cunningham (Excerpt from God Isn't Here Today: Stories and also published in Issue 16 of Send My Love to Anyone)

Tips for Finding Your Voice

While there's no easy trick to finding your voice, there are a couple of exercises that can help you begin to recognize and develop it:

Free writing can help bring your voice to the forefront because you will be less critical and self-conscious with this type of writing. Every morning set aside between 10 and 30 minutes and just write without purpose. See who and what emerges on the page. You'll be surprised.
Recording yourself is another way to capture your own voice. Try explaining something to someone. It can be as simple as how to brush your teeth. Or recording yourself telling a favourite family story. Then transcribe these recordings to see if you can hear your particular way of speaking.
Writing monologues can draw out voice because voice is a central element of the form.
Listening for voice when you observe/listen to conversations.
Reading voice-driven fiction, monologues, plays, and screenplays.
Write the same paragraph (yours or someone else’s) using five different voices to convey the information. For example, write it from the voice of a five year old then try from an elderly person. Then try it from a voice of someone who is depressed and then someone who is confused. See how the paragraph changes depending on these choices.

Writing Prompt

List five topics you feel strongly about.
List five settings where your story can take place such as a barber shop, doctor's office, elementary school, etc.
List five people who could be characters in your story. Hey, your characters don't have to be people. Think of an armchair monologuing to a coffee table. What would it say?
Then pick one topic, one setting, and two characters and write a monologue in which one character passionately tries to convince another character to have the same position as them on this topic. Have them use an anecdote or story to illustrate their point.
If you're up for it, write a monologue from the other person's point of view in which they have the opposite opinion and are trying to convince your first character to see the topic their way using their own anecdote.

Structure, goals, and conflict are embedded in this prompt.

Because your first character wants to convince the second character of something, there is a goal. Because it's something the character feels passionately about there are some stakes attached that will bleed into the monologues.

The conflict is the result of the differing of opinions and opposing wants.

The story will resolve itself with the characters succeeding or failing in their goals.

Share your process of this writing prompt or your results in the comments.

For Inspiration

Five Short Stories from The Teeth of Comb by Osama Alomar, The Paris Review

"Boy in Hoodie" by Daniel MacIvor, The Rusty Toque

"Space Man" by Kathy Fish, Fictionaut

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