The Voice Experiment

[Kissmequick]

So, as per another thread re voice, here is an experiment I found very useful.

I will need victims, um, volunteers.

From those four or five brave, brave, people I will post snippets from old posts of theirs.

It's up to everyone else to guess whose post is whose -- which voice is which. (No using the search!)

Once everyone is guessed (hopefully guessers will articulate why they feel said post belongs to said person) we can try to post in another's voice.

Anyone game?


PS: If you want to volunteer, don't say so in thread!

 

[hopewrites]

I think this is an excellent idea, and look forward to trying to vote. I do wonder though, as some posters use more than one voice imo. I could be wrong but I think I have at least two distinct voices, my "air-headed jabbery happy go lucky"-ish voice and my "well thought out insightful opinion" voice.
I'm still excited to see how well who knows who. Thought the thought of voting gives me a case of nerves.
In the best possible sense.

 

[Mouse]

I reckon I know the regulars pretty well... (Sit back and watch as I get them all wrong!)

 

[Kissmequick]

Well, I had more volunteers than would be practical!

Yeah, Hope, I think many people write slightly differently depending on topic (or character in book ) but the overall voice is what people mean by authorial voice.


Watch this space.

 

[Kissmequick]

Right, so here we are. Ten numbered snippets. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to put together the two snippets you think are written by the same person and crucially, tell us why you think so. Bonus point if you can name that person.

So, for example, you might think 2 and 6 were written by me. Or you just think they are written by the same person because they consistently spell 'aardvark' wrong, but aren't sure who.


Btw, I haven't gone out of my way to find particularly quirky/telling posts posts.
Ready?

1

It's a stupid cat. It lives inside all the time (so no grass, sadly) and it eats what a human eats rather than special food.* I just wondered if anything it would eat would make it sick.


*Fictional cat. No cats were poisoned in the writing of this scene.

2

Probably am overthinking it! But one person will tell me one thing, then someone else'll come along and tell me something else and everybody contradicts each other all the time and gah!

3

I definitely think there's power in a slow start, as long as there's intrigue. I don't like (mainly because I can't write that way) big, showy starts with lots of action and drama, and I think with that you do run the risk of exhausting yourself if your story isn't meant to be that way.

4

I read a book once where they went to an island to retrieve lost knowledge and it had all been stored electronically (the characters didnt know this but I could tell) and so they had to go home empty handed (ok they had their lives, most of them) because nothing had been printed down.

5

Now i know every book doesnt have to have an action scene to start but i do struggle with creating hooks, and considering there are a few of us going for the harper window, i thought now was a good time to ask. (not that I'm intending on changing mine agin, but you never know)

6

Just to add -- one of the things that agents seem to consistently dislike is being told that someone else has turned the manuscript down (as in -- it's a 'pet peeve' for lots of them).

Someone I read recently likened it to a first date -- would you tell someone you'd just met that things hadn't quite worked out with the guy a couple of boyfriends ago, but when he dumped you he told you he'd thought about proposing? No -- you present yourself as positively as you can.

7

*Gwen flutters in and leaves little gifts for all her friends, bakes 12dozen different kinds of cookies, 3kinds of pie, and settels a kettel of cider an appropriate distance from the fire*

8

For the first time I did a read through of the wip and didn't change anything. Not that it can't be made better - never that! - but for now I'm too close to see the clunky bits. Anyway im taking it as a sign to leave well alone for now.

9

You've got like a billion answers now but yeah, for a change of POV and change of scene then it's a hash. For a change of POV during the same scene, you need a line break. (Though I still do a hash sometimes, just in case!)

10

Bit of a left-field question here - does anyone know what prisoners of war were put to work to do in ancient (I'm thinking Roman Empire) times? All I can glean from wikipedia (reliable source I know...) is that they were enslaved or became gladiators. Any ancient historians out there who could help a gal out?

 

[allmywires]

Does it count if I can recognise myself?

I think 5 and 8 may be springs due to the mentions of constant changes and I know she has done several bajillion rewrites.

 

[Kissmequick]

Oh, first guess! And correct too. So you linked them due to content rather than style/voice?

 

[Mouse]

I actually think I know all of these! I'll tell you the people, but I won't say who's who as there's not been many guesses. But I'd say Hope's there, springs, Hex, amw and me.

 

[alchemist]

5 and 8 - springs
7 - hopewrites (based on voice) and really stumped for the second. Let's say 3
10 - amw (content) and maybe 4
1 and 6 - Hex (the humour)
2 and 9 - Mouse (the frustration of no. 2)


Maybe...

 

[Dozmonic]

I misread and thought you were talking about actual audio recordings at first

 

[Hex]

It's quite tough because the voices are similar.

1 & 6 -- no idea.

2 & 9 -- Mouse (she uses a bit of slang -- "like a billion answers", and the "but yeah" made me think Mouse on no. 9. Also, there's a rhythm to everything she writes so it sounds good when you read it back (HOW??) and she never stops being a writer -- the language she uses reflects the points she's getting across. Nice examples here -- esp. No.2 with the lengthening sentence of Frustration)

5 & 8 -- springs -- er. One of the things that makes me recognise springs' posts is the absence of capital letters (not always), which is a factor of the keyboard on her phone, I think, not really voice (or is it?)

I struggled with 3 -- it's either springs or amw. The "(mainly because I can't write that way)" makes me think it's amw.

3 & 10 -- amw (cheating on no.10 -- I remember her starting that thread!)

4 & 7 -- hope (intuition & general niceness)

 

[Mouse]

I PM'd KMQ my answers earlier cos I didn't want to spoil it. But some of my reasonings were the same (humour, lack of capitals).

2 & 9 -- Mouse (she uses a bit of slang -- "like a billion answers", and the "but yeah" made me think Mouse on no. 9. Also, there's a rhythm to everything she writes so it sounds good when you read it back (HOW??) and she never stops being a writer -- the language she uses reflects the points she's getting across. Nice examples here -- esp. No.2 with the lengthening sentence of Frustration)

Missus, you can write about me all day.

 

[Hex]

Yeah. I cringed when I re-read kmq's original post and saw the "everyone else".

Sorry :s

 

[Mouse]

Yeah. I cringed when I re-read kmq's original post and saw the "everyone else".

Sorry :s

Ooh. I didn't mean that you'd spoiled it. I just meant cos I'd guessed quick and it was only amw at that stage who'd replied.

Gonna be fun trying to write in other voices.

 

[hopewrites]

I think AMW sounds like a posh version of myself. That was more apparent to me when I was reading through and ran across posts and thought "well that sounds like me but I don't remember writing that." *giggle* when I started here I had a hard time keeping spring mouse and hex separate in my head, but the more I participated in conversation with them the clearer their voices became. I'll sit down and do my votes when I get home from work, as I don't want to try and jockey up and down from list to reply on my tiny phone screen.

 

[Hex]

Missus, you can write about me all day.

You know you're my Writing Goddess.

Ooh. I didn't mean that you'd spoiled it. I just meant cos I'd guessed quick and it was only amw at that stage who'd replied.

I meant that But luckily alc got involved so at least he was in between (thanks, alc!).

I'm a bit worried about writing like one of you guys -- weirdly it would probably be easier to write like someone very different.

 

[Kissmequick]

So, Hex and Mouse guessed correctly. And so quickly! (maybe because the pool of posters here is smaller...)

So there you have it -- your authorial voices. Sentence structure, word choice, punctuation, rhythm. They all add up to your voice, even when you're talking about different subjects (and in different character voices, to an extent as well)

Anyone want to try to post as someone else -- copy their voice?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Sorry, been a long day here! I got me, yey, Hw, one of AMW, one of Mouse's. oh and i got both Hex's too!

In someone else's voice

If I was to write like this person -- I'd love to, they're fab -- I would use way less semicolons. Only, I like semis - gah!

 

[Hex]

Mouse?

*gives springs a big, warm hug and skips out, waving delightedly to everyone*

 

[Ursa major]

Anyone want to try to post as someone else -- copy their voice?

People are going to get confused muchly, missus.