Writers Tricks of the Trade SPRING 2017 ISSUE 2, VOLUME 7 | Page 14

V OICE (C ONT ’ D )
Kill a Mockingbird, a young girl’s voice. It is the consistent nature of that voice
from page one to The End that makes up the power of these stories. We are
enraptured not by a turn of phrase, not by a single prop, symbol, or plot
development; we are mesmerized by the SOUND of the book as it plays its music in
our mind’s eye.
The narrative voice, the controlling voice, is that of a mother, a father, a
detective, a journalist or a Viking boy coming of age, or a young woman chasing a
mystery. The writer succeeds only after she/he nails down the CHARACTER voice
and not HIS or HER own voice. Too many students go about in circles trying to
‘find’ themselves rather than find the CHARACTER voice, but the Authorial Voice of
the given story she/he is working on proves the real treasure.
Anyone can put down a story; anyone can re-tell a tale, a dream, an idea for a
plot, but not everyone can make it SING. Resonate with verve, a strong Voice.
Now here are my last and hopefully useful, lasting words on Voice. Any story is
only as good as the effect it has on its reader(s) and to get any effect at all, your
readers must be carried away by the Voice telling the story, not necessarily your
voice at all, but the voice of the ‘character’ you have created to tell your story.
Even nonfiction authors who are successful affect a powerful Voice that in day-to-
day may not be their own, not necessarily so. Let me add the following and we are
done here: VOICE loud, firm, strong, and consistently put down on paper can ring
a perfect bell for your story and mine. I urge anyone still confused to read the
section on Voice and Point of View in Making Shapely Fiction by Jerome Stern.
Then read or listen to my own Dead On Writing – a how-to for the dysfunctional
writer in us all.
R OBERT W. W ALKER has written and published over 70 novels, 3 short story collections & the how-
to Dead On Writing, all since his first published work in 1979, Sub-Zero. A graduate of
Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., Rob holds an MA in English Education & today is an
adjunct professor at West Virginia State University. While he was born in Corinth, MS., Rob grew
up in Chicago, setting for many of his novels. Today Rob has ten separate series characters in as
many genres. Rob’s Instinct Series began with Killer Instinct & is Rob’s longest running franchise.
Rob has taught writing almost as long as he’s been writing—since his junior high days. His first
novel, completed in high school was Daniel Webster Jackson & The Wrongway Railroad, a book
highly influenced by Mark Twain’s boys’ tales. Rob’s favorite authors are Twain and Shakespeare.
He lives in Hurricane, WV with his wife and step-children.
S PRING 2017
P AGE 6
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE TRADE