Sep 14 2023 32 mins
Are you prepared to challenge how you think about your writer's voice? If you think, as I did before this podcast interview, that your writer's voice is mainly how your personality shows through, you're in for a surprise. It's true that our "writing voice" is how we "sound" in our writing, or the persona your reader detects as they read your words. But it's also more than that. My new understanding is all thanks to the newest book by Anne Janzer, called The Writer's Voice. In the introduction to her book, Anne asks us to consider whether our writing voice lives in the words on the page. Or is it part of our personality as a writer? Or is it a bag of stylistic tricks? Or, even more intriguing to me, is what role the reader plays in determining our voice.
"Rhythm matters. Rhythm affects how when people have a chance for things to seep in and understand. Paragraph breaks give people organizational structure to inhabit the things that you're writing about.” —Anne Janzer
Whether you write fiction or nonficton, I believe this conversation could be a gamechanger for you.
Anne Janzer is a nonfiction book coach and the author of multiple award-winning books on writing, including The Writer’s Process and Writing to Be Understood. She is fascinated by the science and mystery of writing, and is always searching for clues to better communication.
In this episode, you will:
- Discover how an effective writer's voice can bolster your writing
- See how you can blend creativity and analytical skills to drive more impact
- Explore the power of choosing the right words to enhance your work
- Gain insights into how reader perception trumps tone in your writing
- Explore the effect of engaging readers through your presence or absence in your work.
The key moments in this episode are:
00:00:01 - Introduction to The Writer's Voice
00:03:15 - Discovering and Shifting Writing Voices
00:08:01 - Playing with Punctuation
00:11:55 - The Inner Reading Voice and Rhythm
00:13:47 - The Muse and the Scribe
00:16:54 - The Importance of Both Muse and Scribe
00:18:04 - Words that Pack a Punch
00:21:51 - The Role of the Reader in Determining Voice
00:25:31 - Presence or Absence
00:28:37 - Writing Voices and Ghostwriting
00:32:28 - The Importance of Writing in the Book
00:33:44 - Discovering New Aspects of Voice
00:33:56 - Nonfiction Book Coaching and Geeky Talks
00:34:31 - The Fertile Void
00:35:08 - Find Out More about Anne Janzer
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