Does Your Voice Match Your Story

When we talk about the voice of the story, it is simply how it sounds as we read it. Pretty straight forward. But for too many authors out there, the voice they use to write the story simply does not match the actual story. I would also add that the voice of the story might not match their actual target line or genre.

Let's start first with the story.

A lot of times, I will see a great premise in a story from the initial query letter or pitch from the author. It might be taking on a pretty serious topic, or a story that really would have an extreme amount of depth. For example, the author might be looking at a story about parents dealing with severely Autistic children, or stories that would rival Game of Thrones in terms of depth. These are the stories that editors and agents dream of. Maybe the author has a storyline that should be one that has us rolling in the aisles because it is so funny. I think you can get the idea.

But then we read the story and something is just not clicking. The voice does not match. The author who had a serious topic starts off with a lighter tone, or the way it is reading seriously lacks the depth. The stories that should have the depth rush forward with a wild abandon leaving us wondering where that Game of Thrones depth is. We were expecting one thing and the author went a different direction.

The same thing happens when someone pitches a story for a particular line, genre or even as a series or single title story. Examples here include people pitching stories that are 110K in word count, "book club or literary fiction" or even authors who want to write for publishers that are pretty clear about what they like in a voice. Again, there is a huge disconnect.

In this case, I always like to use the example of authors writing "single title" books but the voice is nothing more than a series romance voice. It just happens to be longer.

I worked with an author several years ago who openly claimed she was a single title author. The reality is that her voice was 100% series/category. She really thought it all came down to just the word count. Nope!

It is important to remember that you cannot just simply call your story something. Everything has to match what you are doing. This requires analysis of other authors in that same area you are targeting to truly understand their voice. Without finding that match of your voice to your story, you will simply go no where with your writing.