Voice and POV

Have you ever wondered what a ‘good’ writer uses in order to make his world, his story remain in a reader’s thoughts? Before I get to this question, let me just say that every writer has his or her own distinct writing voice.

Some writers may study several great writers, use some of their techniques for creating memorable storylines, but at the end each writer begins to develop his own voice that sets them apart from other writers. That voice is what connects and draws your target audience to your books. That voice jumps to your character’s voice, making them unique and enabling your reader to bond with them on a deeper level.

So the first answer to my opening question is ‘voice’. That voice has now allowed the character to develop. Each character in a book must have his own ‘voice’ and personality to set them apart from others in the book. By doing this you avoid using the constant dialogue tags, ‘he said/she said’ – this applies when there are two characters speaking to one another in any given scene.

How can you give your character a unique voice? Give them a slant that belongs to them only. Have them speak in a manner different than the other characters in your story. This facilitates a reader’s understanding as to who is speaking without having to backtrack and check who spoke last in a dialogue tag.

Where was your character born? Does he have an accent? Does he like to repeat or use a certain phrase? Does his body language reveal more about his character? His actions and reactions to situations also helps to define who he is at all times.

Another answer to my question is the point of view. Writers understand that the point of view of the main character is important because the reader can really dig into that character’s mind and feel/hear/see/touch/smell what he does. They ‘live’ in his shoes and experience everything he goes through. However…

…one way of dislocating a bond with a reader is to headhop, and as an editor, I’ve seen this many times. Some believe by allowing more than one character express their inner thoughts in a given scene helps a reader bond to them. That’s not so. It absolutely takes them out of the story because they have lost track of who to follow. Each scene should have one character’s POV. You can either introduce a second POV character using a scene break−* * * *−or giving them their own chapter.