"Voice is the imprint of ourselves in our writing. Take the voice away... and there's no writing, just words following words." -- Donald Graves
Ah, the holy grail of writing. The all-elusive Voice. That thing which hooks our readers, propels them through the pages, and compels them to keep going. Where does it come from? Does it define our work, or is it defined by it?
Perhaps it is the substance that Randy Ingermanson calls our "content". That inner wisdom woven together from our experience in the loom of our imaginations into the tapestry of our stories. Or something like that.
Yes, but how to develop our Voices as writers? Like the physical voice, our writing voice needs to be exercised in order to wax strong and melodious. Like our stories, it begins with its roots in the plain and ordinary. Through vigorous exercise, we build it and give it shape into the extraordinary.
One supposes it all goes back to the Writer's First Rule, no?
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