How writers think about voice

Insights from a survey on writing voice

How do you feel about your writing voice? Do you enjoy playing with it, or do you give it any thought at all?

As research for my next book, I’ve been asking people those questions. Unsurprisingly, the answers vary as much as the people.

Let’s start with what we mean by writing voice. Most of the definitions I found in my research focused narrowly on one domain, like literary fiction, poetic voice, or fictional character voice.

Roy Peter Clark has since given me a better definition, from the writing teacher Don Fry:

Voice is the sum of writing strategies that creates the illusion that the writer is speaking directly to the reader from the page or screen.

Let’s work with that one-it’s the illusion of a persona you create with your words.

The Voice Survey

To cast a wide net, I created a short survey on writing voice filled with these types of personal questions. Over 255 writers responded-too small a figure to be scientifically relevant, but it offered some useful insights.