Voice

In articles and reviews, the much-desired poetic “voice” is spoken of in admiring tones. However, for a writer starting out it may take years to develop, along with the courage not to be ruled by the latest literary cliques or fashions. But what does it actually mean? Gabrielle Lusser Rico offers a fine description:

Voice is the authentic sound, rhythm, texture of a unique consciousness on the page. It is the written expression of the endless oscillation between, and cooperation of, your Sign [left brain] and Design [right brain] minds in such a way that the resulting unique personality is powerfully expressed on the page. Voice is an expression of the natural you unfettered by the stultifying injunctions about writing you have labored under. Any first-rate writer is almost by definition one whose voice is distinctive. Milton, for example, had a rich and resonant voice; Frost, a relaxed, conversational voice;…Emily Dickinson, a spare, cryptic voice.¹

 And yours? 

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1. Gabriele Lusser Rico, Writing the Natural Way: Using Right-Brain Techniques to Release Your Expressive Powers (Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher Inc., 1983), p. 136.