V – Voice

One of the most important things in writing – because it is one of the most unique things you have access to as a writer – is your writer’s voice. After all,

There is nothing new under the sun.

–Ecclesiastes 1:9

I was surprised when I found out this was a quote from the Bible, actually, because for one thing, it doesn’t seem to fit, and for another thing, that was a long time ago for people to already be believing that there were no new stories or ideas! Yet that same mentality exists today, in full force: there are no new stories.

I’m not here to argue that point. Well, I’d be happy to in the comments. My point, though, is that if there is nothing new under the sun – if your readers, by applying their life experiences (which include any number of books and movies and other stories) find references and analogies between your writing and stories and something someone else has written, well… you’re likely just like every other writer ever! Even if you did not mean a similarity – even if you had never experienced it before – it can still happen. And probably does. All the time. Like, maybe, all the times.

But that just brings us back to Voice – it is how you write that will distinguish your work from someone else’s, no matter how similar or different. It shows the difference in how you understand things. It is also the sort of thing that will bring readers back to your works – enjoying how you write, they might try something they would not otherwise read, just because you wrote it.

Whose writer’s Voice do you like? One of my very favorites is Peter David – his humor, his pacing, his character. He has done a lot of work in existing universes – comics, Star Trek, movie novelizations, things like that. However, I’ve found his work in these fields surpasses others, because of how he writes it. I gave a number of examples in the post linked above… since then, I have tried out the Marvel comic A+X, where they do two ten-page stories, with no continuity, no relation to each other or another story, and by a wide variety of writers and artists. And of those, the ones by Peter David might be my favorites. They stood out to me. They were great. Also, this is a fun comic if you want to check out different writers and illustrators and see who you might like!

I should add also that it’s been over a year since that post, and since then Peter David is doing much better, and is back to writing 🙂

I asked a question and then answered it, but let me ask again: whose writer’s voice do you like? Who would you hunt down to read, who do you buy a ton of? And I guess… are all these questions the same thing? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

And if you haven’t read any Ecclesiastes, I highly recommend it. Likely not what you are expecting.