To Find Your Writing "Voice," Find Your Internal (and External) Audience
Aka, Who ya talkin' to?
Have you ever spoken in one tone, only to realize somebody else was actually listening…and wishing you’d chosen other words?
If you haven’t, might one of your characters, on the page?
Do you or your characters shift in an approach to language choices when speaking to…say…a police officer, a parent, an ex, or a drunk and disorderly upstairs neighbor? Do you/they use the same set of tools, same tone, syntax and diction?
Do you or your characters choose different words among dear friends than when giving, say, a keynote address? Do you or they speak differently in the presence of children?
We carry ourselves with us, with our particular vocabulary, worldview and values, through all kinds of situations and concerns, but people are also capable of adjusting an approach to meet the needs of an audience.
Remember when a prominent misogynist, Mr. Need-Not-Be-Named, referred to his assertions of a right to sexual assault as just “locker room talk”? With that phrase, he knowingly or otherwise put forward the idea that “locker room talk” is a thing, and that culturally we permit it, without challenging the speaker’s moral character.
As I write those words, I wonder if anyone among my readers might feel differently, see things differently thank I do, regarding that unnamed speaker and so-called locker room talk…
These are questions of audience.
People and language are endlessly mysterious, flexible and functional, intermittently nuanced and blatant, sometimes both or all at once.
It’s often said that once a writer finds their voice, the writing kicks up a notch and work finds publication. Voice is a communicative tool. I’m going to say: find your audience, and you’re on the path to finding your writing voice.
Who are you writing to? Audience is internal and external, beneficial and oppressive.
Join me in this conversation! Coming up soon:
Mini lightbulb explosion here in Philladelphia. I never thought about how characters might talk differently to different characters in a story.
a wise cracking cop would be more polite with the neighborhood police than say a teenage subject. He wouldn't be snarky in both places. I'll read more to see if I can find examples in the stuff I'm reading. Thanks.
BTW - I'll see you via zoom on 3/26. Looking forward to it.
sorry typo -neighborhood priest not police.