TFB – Voice | Hachette UK

A novelist is like a film director. It is not enough to say: in this scene such-and-such happens to so-and-so. The novelist must decide how to portray such events happening. As a writer, it is your job to decide where to position your camera so that you have a viewpoint that works with your story.

Experiment with this by taking a passage from a favourite novel and rewriting it. Change the viewpoint and the tense. Assess the impact of the change. And do the same with a piece of your own writing.

Nigel Watts & Stephen May, authors of Get Started in Writing a Novel

March 18 2017

‘The only rule about the use of viewpoint and tense is that there is no rule’

The only rule about the use of viewpoint and tense is that there is no rule from Get Started in Writing a Novel by Nigel Watts & Stephen May If a particular technique works, use it. Some successful novelists are cavalier with viewpoint, dealing it out like a pack of playing cards; some…

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Patrick Gale, author of novels including A Place Called Winter and Notes from an Exhibition

March 18 2017

‘I like writing to feel like the striving for an utterly accurate record of a pin-sharp memory’

‘I like writing to feel like the striving for an utterly accurate record of a pin-sharp memory’ How do you decide whether to write in first, second or third person? I’ve always written in the third person and the past historic because that was the narrative convention in most of the fiction I grew up…

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Emma Darwin, author of Get Started in Writing Historical Fiction

March 18 2017

‘Establish where the narrator stands in relation to the events of your story’

Establish where the narrator stands in relation to the events of your story from Get Started in Writing Historical Fiction by Emma Darwin Narrators The basic choice you have to make, right at the beginning of your story, is whether it is being told by someone who takes part in at least some of the…

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Elizabeth Hay, author of Late Nights on Air

March 18 2017

‘Writing in the first person is like putting on a pair of old slippers. They’re comfortable, but you can’t go everywhere in them’

Writing in the first person is like putting on a pair of old slippers. They’re comfortable, but you can’t go everywhere in them. How do I decide to write in first, second or third person? This is one of the thorniest questions and I face it with every book. My natural inclination is go with…

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Zoe Fairbairns, author of Write Short Stories

March 18 2017

‘If you want to shake up your writing, why not consider using a neglected perspective - second person’

Consider using a neglected perspective - second person from Write Short Stories by Zoe Fairbairns As you inserted the key into the lock, you were hoping it would stick. That would have allowed you to believe that it was the wrong key, the wrong lock, that you had come to the wrong house. But…

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Lisa McInerney, author of The Glorious Heresies

March 18 2017

‘The more you read, the more scope you see for experimenting’

The more you read, the more scope you see for experimenting. There’s no short cut, I’m afraid. A writer’s style develops through two (lifelong!) habits: reading and writing. The more you read, the more scope you see for experimenting, and therefore finding the best voice with which to tell your story. It doesn’t have to…

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Francine Toon, Editor, Sceptre

March 18 2017

'I often find the best voices choose stories only they could tell.'

I often find the best voices choose stories only they could tell. What makes a confident voice? I often say that, of the debut novels sent to me, I am drawn to those with a ‘confident voice’. What do I really mean by that term and how can you apply it to your work? Let’s…

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Isobel Dixon, agent

March 18 2017

‘No singer steps on a stage without warming up their voice. So, limber up, train your eye and ear and write, write, write’

No singer steps on a stage without warming up their voice. So, limber up, train your eye and ear and write, write, write. ‘Voice’ is a much-used – indeed over-used – word in the arsenal for writers of jacket-copy, submission letters, blurbs of all kinds – the voice of a generation, a bold…

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