Story Components: Voice
As seen from the introduction of this series, a story can be very simple. It has a character and it has a plot. Something happens to the character. We may not know why or where or any other detail surrounding the plot but we have to be told that something happened to the character. How that information is sent to our minds is the voice of the storyteller and it can make or break the story.
If you look through the reasoning for awarding an author a Nobel prize the vast majority are because they have a unique and powerful voice. The poets in the list are the masters of voice, this isn’t surprising since poetry is a condensed form of storytelling where each word is loaded with meaning so much that voice is the leading tool after which the other components of this series follow.
Type it loud!
Most day to day discussions are factual in nature, we relay information to friends and family like “I’ll be ten minutes late,” or “They only had navel oranges not mandarins.” Usually we embed efficiency into this and it spills over into conversations which can make them dry and boring. You can change this though, by thinking about your voice and adding changes to words to give subtle context for feeling to change the impression of the listener. This is the art behind storytelling.
A voice is unique to each individual, and it can change over time too. An author at the beginning of their career can have a drastically different way to tell a story in the midpoint and then again towards the end. It is much like setting in this regard, time is a distinctive factor. I think a good author can change the voice to match the occasion. You can write a love story or a horror story (i.e. Mary Shelley) and the tone is (almost) required to be different. The voice will also need to change if a narrator is a key character, the character’s voice needs to come through, not just the author which falls into acting or dramatic artforms too.
As the fundamental medium for the art of storytelling voice is the most critical piece of all the storytelling characteristics. If you want good stories, have a clear voice. If you want your characters to be understood, have a clear voice. And if you want to suck people into a written work or just a happy hour anecdote, let the voice sing and the rest will follow.