In writing, voice is everything. It’s the music, rhythm and lyricism of the words. It touches the essence of storytelling. The discovery and/or development of voice can be simple or complicated, depending on how you view it.
And the question remains: Can voice in writing be taught?
As an English major in college, I had to fulfill credits in a second language. Although I first signed up for Italian, I soon dropped it. I’d studied Spanish in high school and the practical side of me won out. By the time I advanced to intermediate Spanish, my assignments involved writing compositions, essays, or autobiographies, any sort of lengthy prose.
One day, my teacher, a petite, young, and energetic woman from Spain, took me aside after class and said she really admired my work. I still remember her words. “I hear the voice in your writing.” I left the class exhilarated and, admittedly, perplexed. How did she hear my voice? What came through that eluded me? Yet, my writing style was somehow being communicated in a language I knew on an elementary level. Admittedly, my vocabulary had expanded enough to make my word choices more varied, and, somehow, with a voice! She topped it off by suggesting that I could write stories in Spanish! I was kind of blown away. Years later, my Spanish lexicon has diminished. I’ve forgotten so much of what I’ve learned, and I couldn’t replicate the level of storytelling or composition I did in those bygone days when immersed in study.
But I did understand what my Spanish teacher meant by voice. As a junior, I became a writing fellow in peer tutoring and counseling at my university. I was assigned to specific honor level classes, limited to 20 students. After a thorough review of their papers, I met each student for an in-depth discussion. The ones with a passion for writing had a cadence to their words and something akin to a singing quality in their sentence structure. And their logic was easy to follow with well-developed thesis statements and persuasive arguments. Yet, these students were the most critical of their own writing and craved constructive feedback. They hungered for it. And then there were students with papers that were disjointed, dull, or rushed. I’d read through them sweating out how I could set up an hour-long appointment to talk about their writing without being too critical. I always tried to focus on the positive elements, but sometimes it was a tough road. Interestingly enough the mediocre writers tended to defend every word they wrote, as if I just didn’t get what they were communicating! Either they really thought it was their best work or weren’t very interested in extensive rewriting to improve their papers.
The writing voice is something I hear when I read. And for me it’s louder when I read silently. Repetition and arrangement of words, length of sentences, and the narrator’s distinctive tone—all these choices illustrate the writers’ voice and how they tell a story. There’s a flow, even if cacophonous by design, which forms the voice! And I don’t think it can be taught, although I know most teachers would disagree with me.
But, I get it. Writing is taught because it’s based on language that we learn! And I believe, once we learn language, all of us can write down stories both fictionalized and real, or a progression of thoughts to make a point. Personally, I struggled as a news reporter because I wasn’t sure my voice and writing style was coming through. Even so, humans are storytellers by nature, an innate quality. But, that doesn’t mean every writer has a distinctive voice, even if they should! All I can say is I know it when I hear it! I can read a book and get somewhat engrossed in a story, even follow it to the end. If the writing remains flat until the final page, I become tone deaf or don’t hear the music. Not every word and sentence has to be electrifying. But I have to see some quality that says, “Wow, this writer has something that I want to hear again and again.” Fancy words aren’t everything. They may look impressive, but they don’t give the voice. And I understand that writing is rewriting and that we can become better at it with practice, practice, practice and reading stories that leave us spellbound or inspired!
If every writer does have a voice, I’m not always hearing it. But when I do, it’s the most magical of experiences! I’ve read that “voice cannot be taught, but can be learned.” It’s really up to the writer to learn his or her voice. So find your voice! It’s a gift that you’ll give to others in your words, your stories, and your sacrifice of self!