I’ve been reading this craft book, Finding Your Writer’s Voice. I first heard about voice in my first fiction writing class at the Callonwolde Arts Center here in Atlanta. It’s still very hard to explain exactly what voice is—other than editors LOVE it.
But what about character voice? Especially 1st person point of view (POV)?
When I first started on this current novel, I started off in 3rd person POV because I wanted to try it. But I was always drawn back to 1st person POV. It has always amazed me how an author like Deb Caletti writes 1st person POV for all of her novels but the character for each novel has her own voice. They all sound different yet you still know it’s a Deb Caletti book.
In her latest release, The Secret Life of Prince Charming, Deb gives a master class in voice. Not only does she write 1st person POV for Quinn, the main character, she also has several of the supporting characters express themselves in vignettes. It’s a great book to read as a writer for voice.
Last summer, during my “3rd vs. 1st” POV dilemma, I compared character voice with some of my favorite YA novels. It was a great learning exercise. As a reader, I found I could get the feel of the character within the first paragraph. As a writer, I studied the voice in the novel—how did the author do it consistently?
Here are four examples from my research:
Contents Under Pressure by Lara M. Zeises
Friday, 8:33 p.m. My best friend, Allison, and I have set up camp on the industrial-carpeted floor of her mostly refinished basement and, at the moment, are in the process of giving ourselves disco-orange pedicures. We picked orange because Halloween is only a couple of weeks away, and since we both feel that we’ve outgrown the whole trick-or-treating thing, it’s our way of honoring our formerly favorite holiday.
Dancing on the Edge by Han Nolan
Gigi said my guardian angel must have been watching over me real good when I was born. Maybe so, but I wish the angel had watched over me less and seen to Mama more. I never liked hearing about how I came into this world anyway. It didn’t seem natural, a live baby coming out of the body of a dead woman. Gigi said it was the greatest miracle ever come down the pike.
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
Froggy Welsh the Fourth is trying to get up my shirt. This is the third Monday that he’s come over to my apartment after school. Every week we go a little further, and today, on September twenty-third at 3:17 p.m., he’s begun inching his fingers across my stomach and toward my bra.
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
When summer comes to the North Woods, time slows down. And some days it stops altogether. The sky, gray and lowering for much of the year, becomes an ocean of blue, so vast and brilliant you can’t help but stop what you’re doing–pinning wet sheets to the line maybe, or shucking a bushel of corn on the back steps–to stare up at it. Locusts whir in the birches, coaxing you out of the sun and under the boughs, and the heat stills the air, heavy and sweet with the scent of balsam.
All of these characters have a distinctive voice. Within the first paragraph, you can tell what kind of person the character may be. I find it fascinating. It’s a great way to learn how voice can create a unique character.
that is fascinating! I want to check that book out. Voice is very important and it’s so tricky. I’m amazed with Jumped how Rita Williams-Garcia is able to do three different characters in 1st person with different voices. Wow.
Nice post! Point of view makes all the difference in the world. Faulkner’s “Sound and the Fury” would be a completely different novel without the contrasts and juxtapositions of the various POV’s. For those not into Southern literary classics, “The Usual Suspects” starring Kevin Spacey provided an even more interesting lesson in POV, but via a cinematic backdrop.