WRITING KNOWHOW Voice (part three)
We hear a lot about voice in writing, or industry professionals not connecting with a voice – but what exactly is meant by a writer’s 'voice'? SCBWI's Emma Finlayson-Palmer gives us the lowdown.
Have you ever read a book and wished you’d written it? More specifically, have you ever read a book and loved the voice so much that you wish you could write like that? What was it about the voice that hooked you in and made you want to read on and buy every book in a series?
I’m a big fan of writing lists, I do them for everything. If there’s a particular theme I want to write about I begin a list of words related to that theme. The end result is your own lexicon of words you can dip into to use for your current work in progress. It might even inspire other stories. Lists aren’t just good for themes, you can build lists of place names or characters you might like to use. By doing this you get a bank of ideas that are yours that have grabbed you in some way and these are the words and names that might lead you to your own unique voice.
*Header by Tita Berredo
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Emma Finlayson-Palmer is an autistic, working class writer who lives in the West Midlands with her husband and a multitude of children, cats and chickens. Author of the Autumn Moonbeam series, including Dance Magic and Spooky Sleepover, published by UCLan in 2022. Emma runs #ukteenchat, a writing themed chat on Twitter and edits, mentors and reads competition entries for #WriteMentor and also reads flash fiction entries for Retreat West. She’s also one half of Word Witches as a children’s fiction editor. Find Emma on Twitter @FinlaysonPalmer
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Got an idea for KnowHow or a subject you’d like to hear more on? Let us know at knowhow@britishscbwi.org
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