Growing as a Writer and Finding Your Voice
Do you ever look back on things you wrote a year ago and cringe? Um, I do. It's a good thing, really! It means you're refining your voice. "Voice" is a difficult term to describe, as it encompasses a lot of 'feeling'. It's the individual writing style of that author , a combination of idiotypical usage of syntax , diction , punctuation , character development , flow and dialogue . Just as a trumpet has a different voice than a tuba or a violin has a different voice than a cello, one author's style will sound different from another's (ideally). An author's voice may be described as quirky, lyrical, light or dark. An author may have many voices, depending on the POV they use to tell their story, and the feeling of the story itself. You wouldn't want to use a light voice to tell a dark story, or vice versa. You wouldn't want to use an overly professorial voice when telling a story from the POV of a teenager, either. So,...