Voice and other indescribable things

So let me start by saying everybody likes to talk about voice when it comes to writing. It's one of those intangible things that makes everybody stand up and take notice, but not everybody seems to have a grasp of what voice is.

In reality, it's more than one thing.

Characters have a voice. If they don't, then everybody you write is the same person: You, but a poor copy of you.

Distance yourself from your characters. You can share traits with them, feel their pain, revel in their joy, but the bigger, more important thing to consider is how the reader will do all those things.

You should be able to write a person who disagrees with your world views without becoming a caricature of that perspective.

It is not easy, but how do you create a reprehensible villain without being one yourself? Which... by the way brings me to a quick side note. Reprehensible villains are great for Disney. They make for stilted fiction.

Give the villain a cause, a reason to be, otherwise they are simply twisting their mustache while chaining the hero to the train tracks. Most evil things don't think they are evil. Maybe they don't care. Maybe their morality is twisted onto a different plane. For an example, see Damon on The Vampire Diaries. He's done some nasty crap. People love him.

Back to the original point, however.

The next type of voice is the author's voice. This is where you, as the creator of works of fiction, straight from your imagination and into pixels and pages, get to shine. You have a way with your words that is hopefully your own.

Sure, you may emulate a famous author, to some degree, but you should strive to be yourself. Learn from yourself as much as you learn from others. Pick up hints as to how to make your writing better, but trust in your inner voice to shine and when you hear the same thing over and over again, work to make your voice better, clearer, and work out your style.

Beta readers, critique partners, they may try to change you toward their own style, and in some ways, finding a compromise could work, but you have to be true to yourself... that is, unless you suck.

If you do, don't worry. We have all sucked at writing. Some of us still suck at some aspects of writing. No one person is all things. No one character is all things.

Write. Improve. Edit.