I'm pretty sure I disagree with most of the world on this.
I think the "voice" of the story should be the character's voice, regardless the point of view. To give an example, the mc of a story I recently wrote is a British expatriate woman. Because of this, the language in the story is entirely different from the language I use for my YA novels. I wrote the story in third person. Still, I wanted to use her pattern of speech to tell it. I wanted her voice.
But many would argue that writers need to find "their own voice," that sets one person's writing apart from the rest of the world's.
Is there a perfect balance here? Is a balance even possible?
What do you think? I really want to know.
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I don't know about balance, but I agree with you about making the voice consistent. I know others don't though; I remember a lecture one of my college professors gave me on this subject. I made the voice of my research paper similar to Sylvia Plath's voice in her diaries, and he gave me a B+ (and a lecture) for being too informal. I still think it was one of the best papers that I wrote in college.
ReplyDeleteMyrna, that's too bad! I guess it just goes to remind us how subjective opinions about writing can be -- even in college!
ReplyDeleteI guess I can see why people would want to "brand" their writing with their own voice, but I feel that this limits creativity. Or maybe I'm a chameleon because I haven't found my own voice yet. I don't know....