The Voice by Marsha Diane Arnold

        Christina Aguilera and Blake Shelton know all about The Voice, when it comes to singers. And we writers must know all about the voice when it comes to writing.
        I’m in the middle of the Middle Grade Mastery course over at Children’s Book Academy.  Hillary Homzie and Mira Reisberg are doing a fabulous job of leading us students through writing the middle grade novel. The course is closed for 2016, but do consider it when it’s open next. I promised myself I’d write a complete first draft to my first novel this year and the course is skillfully guiding me through the labyrinth, with lots of support from Mira, Hillary, and the other students.
         One of the  subjects they’re leading us through is voice. Let’s take a look at this most important component of our stories, a component that can cause our story to fail or succeed.
         The voice of our story is often the voice of our main character.  In reality, this is you playing a role, communicating a persona. Your characters' voices can be heard whether you’re writing in first person or third person.  It’s just easier to hear in first person.
        Simply put, first person stories are written from a character’s single point of view, using “I” and “me”.  Third person stories are written from the point of view of a narrator who “stands beside” the character.  We experience the character’s feelings and thoughts, using “he” and “she”.  There’s also second person, in which the narrator addresses the protagonist as “you,” but it’s challenging and rarely used. 

        Here’s my unpublished, fantastical story Slobberchops where the main character, Freddie Stufflebean, tells his story in first person, in dialect.  The voice mixes humor and melancholy.
         “That summer in Sallisaw County was as dry as an old chicken bone, the driest summer anyone could remember.  Every night we’d pray for rain.   I didn’t let anyone hear, but I always snuck in a prayer for a dog of my own.  Ma and Pa would have hit the roof if they’d known I was askin’ for another mouth to feed.” 
         I usually write in third person, but I adore good first person. As I’m now starting a novel, which is a huge deal, I'm studying my favorite books, my favorite characters. Miss Moses LoBeau is one of those favorites. Not only does Moses have a great voice, but in the opening of the first of her trilogy, Three Times Lucky, author Sheila Turnage gives us tension, mystery, and great description and setting. The story actually starts with the word, “Trouble.” What could be more foreboding?

​        “Trouble cruised into Tupelo Landing at exactly seven minutes past noon on Wednesday, the third of June, flashing a gold badge and driving a Chevy Impala the color of dirt. Almost before the dust had settled, Mr. Jesse turned up dead and life in Tupelo Landing turned upside down."
          "As far as I know, nobody expected it.”
         Another of my favorites is Deborah Wiles' character Comfort Snowberger from Each Little Bird That Sings. The beginning reels us in again with death.
        “I come from a family with a lot of dead people."
​         "Great-uncle Edisto keeled over with a stroke on a Saturday morning after breakfast last March. Six months later, Great-great-aunt Florentine died – just like that – in the vegetable garden.”

        Though I love reading first person and worry a bit about writing in third, there are plenty of wonderful novels that use third, including A Wrinkle in Time and The Entirely True Story of the Unbelievable Fib. These are also on my list to read and study.
​Above and beyond your story’s voice is your own personal voice, the voice you develop as an author as you learn your craft and explore your art.  That voice is visible in who and what you choose to write about. One way to think of your personal voice is as your personality.  Your personality includes things like what kind of news stories you’re attracted to and your sense of humor or lack of it.  It’s who you are and how you see the world. If your readers were to meet you, they wouldn’t be surprised that it’s you who wrote their favorite stories.  
  In some stories, your personal voice will be stronger, up front and center.  In other stories, it will be subtle, hiding in the shadows.  But always your personal author’s voice will be woven into your story. Your character’s voice will be an extension of your own.                                
      Think of the voice of A Prairie Home Companion’s Garrison Keillor.  Not only is his physical voice unique, memorable, and unforgettable, his written voice is too.  It demonstrates a shy kindness, full of homespun humor.  It’s a voice you’d know anywhere.     

        ​If you want your story in third person, but are having a challenging time discovering the right voice, try rewriting it in first person.  Rewriting in first person can pull the “just right” voice out of you.  Once you’ve found it, go back to writing in third person.
        We really can’t have a great voice without a point-of-view. I like to think of point of view as two sides of the same coin. Most people think of point-of-view in terms of first person or third person.  But on the other side of that point-of-view coin is who is telling the story.  A story’s viewpoint character might be that of a ferocious lion, for example.  The story can be told in first person or third person, but the point of view remains that of a ferocious lion.  The story would be very different if told from the point of view of a shy ant.       
​        We’ll return to point-of-view in another blog, but for now experiment with your voice. Let it sing, loud and strong.

Marsha Diane Arnold is the award-winning author of twelve books that have sold over a million copies. Her latest book Lost. Found received three starred reviews, is a Junior Library Guild selection, and was just selected as a Bank Street Best Children's Books of the Year. She enjoys traveling the country visiting schools to share her love of writing and books as well as doing manuscript consultations from her home base in Florida. www.marshadianearnold.com