Aloha, everyone! I’m so excited to be joining the lovely ladies here at Go Teen Writers as a guest this summer.

I’m the author of Porch Swing Girl, which I actually started as part of a GTW challenge way back in 2016. The incredible help from Stephanie, Jill, and Shan eventually led to me getting a publishing contract for that book, and now I’m so excited to visit and share some of my own favorite writing advice with all of you!! If you want to connect with me, I’d absolutely love to do so via my website (http://www.taylor–bennett.com/) or Instagram (http://instagram.com/taylor.bennett.author/). Happy writing!

Have you ever taken voice lessons? What about piano or guitar? Chances are if you play an instrument or have ever watched The Voice, you’ve heard musicians talk about things like tone, phrasing, and feeling. Imagine you’re sitting in the front row of your favorite Broadway musical, listening to the show’s most well-known song. What does it do?

It makes you feel something.

It does that because of the singer’s tone. Their phrasing—the feeling. In short, it’s because of the singer’s voice.

If we want to write books that truly grab hold of people and touch their hearts—shake them to their core—we have to put aside our status as writers and learn how to sing.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you actually go out and start taking voice lessons (unless you, like me, have a secret dream of singing somewhere other than your shower) but it’s important to use the same techniques as vocalists when we’re developing our own author voice.

Technique #1: Watch the Tone

“She stepped outside in that magic hour between sunset and nightfall. Birds, sequestered high in the boughs of the neighbor’s ancient oak, whispered amongst themselves as streetlights lit up with a warm golden glow.”

How does that make you feel? Happy? Peaceful, maybe?

What about this?

“She stepped outside just after the sun had disappeared from the sky, stolen away by the ever-impending night. Sharp chirps and trills sounded from the old, gnarled tree across the lane and a streetlight flickered to life in a feeble attempt to delay the coming darkness.”

How do you feel now?

These two snippets have the exact same location and context but a vastly different feel because of the tone I used while I was writing. If you’re working to polish your voice, you might start first by describing the same scene using several different tones. Not only will it stretch your creative muscles, but it will also give you more insight into the tone that fits best for you.

Not sure which tone to try? Pick a location and describe it in ways that will make readers feel joyful, frightened, confused, curious, or even sad. Which tone comes most naturally to you?

Technique #2: Phrasing Matters

How do you say the things you say? Are you a literalist? Do you appreciate alliteration? Smile at similes? Marvel over metaphors? Chances are you have a favorite literary device or two in your back pocket that you just love to pull out—and that’s part of your voice!

I’ll never forget when I heard an author refer to a man’s beard as “a flowing Niagara”. The metaphor instantly brought an image of the man to mind, and it solidified the author’s voice and writing style.

If you’re new to the game of similes, metaphors, and the like, that’s okay! Take a day and see how you can use these unique methods of phrasing to describe ordinary, seemingly mundane things. You might hit upon a style that you love so much you want to make it part of your voice!

Not a fan of flowery prose? That’s okay. If your phrasing is more direct and to-the-point, that can be part of your voice too. Instead of playing with description, vary your sentence length and structure to see how you can get your story across in the best, most engaging way possible.

Technique #3: Feeling it

What’s the difference between tone and feeling? They bothreflects the overall mood of the scene, but feeling goes deeper.

When you write with feeling, you not only strive to write in a way that emphasizes your story’s atmosphere, but you do it in such a way that directly impacts your reader and paints them into the story too.

We want our readers to experience the same emotions our characters are feeling. That’s what creates a truly moving story. When we write scenes with feeling—scenes that make readers want to reach out and give their favorite character a hug or high five—we’re using our voice.

Think about how the classics Little Women, The Hobbit, and To Kill a Mockingbird couldn’t be more different, yet there are countless people out there who have read and loved all three. That’s because each author wrote with feeling and tackled subjects that spoke to their very soul. When you write, pick topics that make your heart sing.

When we feel strongly about an issue or even one of our characters, it will be reflected in our writing. When we write with feeling, our readers will read with feeling. They might even cry! (Because that’s secretly what all writers want, right?)

Do you feel like you have an author voice? If so, how are you working to “train” it? If not, have you ever tried to “find” it?

Taylor Bennett is a dandelion-wishing, world-traveling lover of books, words, and stories. Based in the PNW, she dreams of seeing the world and writing stories set in unique locations.

Although she dreams of traveling to many different places, her favorite destination thus far (aside from her charming hometown in Oregon) is Lahaina, Hawaii. Her love for this tropical hamlet led her to write about it, hence her debut YA novel, Porch Swing Girl, the first in a series of books set in Hawaii.