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August 22nd, 2004 02:21 amI am somewhat fascinated whenever I notice that an author has a really distinctive voice. The kind where, if you read something of theirs but you don't know it's theirs and the subject material has nothing to do with other things they've written, you can still tell who's writing by the manner in which they're stringing words into sentences.
My attention was first called to this by a middle school English textbook which was going on about how distinctive Gary Paulsen's writing was. And after that I noticed the voice of my all-time favorite author, Robin McKinley. It was totally different from Paulsen's voice, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever that I could actually recognize these voices.
I read something awhile ago about a guy who did meticulous research on the subject, and could identify practically any individual's writing with other pieces of his or her writing. He used the method to attribute a eulogy or something to Shakespeare that had never been recognized before.
But I'm nowhere near that good. I can only get a sense of a voice after reading and rereading a couple novel's worth of writing, and only if the voice is distinctive. In the fandom there's only a few that I know. Cassandra Claire has her own voice, definitely. And also Iniga, although hers is more subtle and harder to catch.
I had never fully realized, I don't think, that JKR had a unique voice too, until I reread a series of short stories that had been on my favorites list but I'd forgotten why. They were Angie Astravic's, which I gave an extended rec of a few days ago here on LJ.
But what I found so fascinating about them was that in some ways she managed to imitate JKR's voice. I'd never seen that before, in all the vast pages of fanfic I'd read, and she did it well. And I know I wasn't the only one who saw it, because a lot of her reviewers noticed the JKR-esque-ness and commented on it.
Anyway, in that rec I didn't elaborate on what I meant by referring to JK's style, and I realized I maybe should have, but more than that, I just wanted to post about my perceptions of voice and see if maybe others had noticed some of the same things, or different things, and wanted to discuss.
Because I have been dying for a good discussion on this topic for ages.
My attention was first called to this by a middle school English textbook which was going on about how distinctive Gary Paulsen's writing was. And after that I noticed the voice of my all-time favorite author, Robin McKinley. It was totally different from Paulsen's voice, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever that I could actually recognize these voices.
I read something awhile ago about a guy who did meticulous research on the subject, and could identify practically any individual's writing with other pieces of his or her writing. He used the method to attribute a eulogy or something to Shakespeare that had never been recognized before.
But I'm nowhere near that good. I can only get a sense of a voice after reading and rereading a couple novel's worth of writing, and only if the voice is distinctive. In the fandom there's only a few that I know. Cassandra Claire has her own voice, definitely. And also Iniga, although hers is more subtle and harder to catch.
I had never fully realized, I don't think, that JKR had a unique voice too, until I reread a series of short stories that had been on my favorites list but I'd forgotten why. They were Angie Astravic's, which I gave an extended rec of a few days ago here on LJ.
But what I found so fascinating about them was that in some ways she managed to imitate JKR's voice. I'd never seen that before, in all the vast pages of fanfic I'd read, and she did it well. And I know I wasn't the only one who saw it, because a lot of her reviewers noticed the JKR-esque-ness and commented on it.
Anyway, in that rec I didn't elaborate on what I meant by referring to JK's style, and I realized I maybe should have, but more than that, I just wanted to post about my perceptions of voice and see if maybe others had noticed some of the same things, or different things, and wanted to discuss.
Because I have been dying for a good discussion on this topic for ages.
