Writing Tip # 5: You have a voice!

When I open a new book, often what draws me in is the author’s style or voice. Voice is the author’s unique way of writing – it shows their personality and attitudes. If you use your own voice when you’re writing, it can make the story more interesting for the reader. Some writers experiment by using different voices for their characters. Here are a couple of my favourite examples:

“Peoples are strange! The things they are doing and saying—sometimes they make no sense. Did their brains fall out of their heads?”
(The Unfinished Angel, by Sharon Creech)

“Wrestling with the straps of her survival kit backpack, which she had with her at all times, then jogging down the dry streambed toward home, Lucky thought of a question that Short Sammy's story had lodged into one of her brain crevices. She figured she had so many crevices and wrinkles, almost all of them filled with questions and anxious thoughts, that if you were to take her brain and flatten it out, it would cover a huge space, like maybe a king-size bed.
(The Higher Power of Lucky, by Susan Patron )

Activity:
Pretend you are writing in your own diary. Start off with the words…
Dear Diary. This is how I make my breakfast…
Don’t be afraid to write exactly the way you speak – that’s your voice, and it can give your writing a special spark.