How does it sound?

I was wasting time on YouTube and ran across a hilarious clip of Christopher Walken reading some lyrics to Lady GaGa's Poker face.



It got me thinking.

There are lots of variations and interpretations of this song.



Just a quick note, I love Faith No More!!!





And the original...




I promise I am going somewhere with this.

So as the videos above show, there are many ways to interpret things. So, that brings up the question, how does our writing sound when read by others?

We, as the writer, try to give our work a unique voice, but does that come across strongly to the reader? Do they hear our voice or something else?

That brings the question of, "How do I give my writing a unique voice?"

I chose the clips above to help drive home the point, that people interpret things in their own way. Our job as the writer is to try and make our voice stand out. Make the reader actually hear what we say and not just read the text.

But what is voice?

Now I am still pretty green here. Writing is a learning process, but from what I understand, voice, in a basic sense, is something that we create through word choice, the pattern of our sentences, use of (or lack of) contractions, and common jargon.

It's how we speak to the readers.

Think about it. Are you formal, technical, chatty, or laid back? Do you (or your characters) use slang?

Notice I added, or your characters, in that last sentence. That's right. Your characters should have a unique voice too. (get into their heads and think of how they would actually say something.)

Most of us as new writers, use our own voice to be the narrator. Imagine yourself sitting in front of a room filled with people, telling the story.

They way we would speak the story to others, becomes our voice. If we write as we would speak it, the narrators voice is our own, and that is the first step to creating a unique voice.

Of course, I would love to see Christopher Walkin reading a passage from my story. Voice or no voice, he has such a unique speech pattern it would be fun to hear his interpretation.