As authors, we simulate the human voice in our writing–each of our characters has their own “voice” – their own sound and rhythm of speech yes, but also their own outlook on life, their own values and their own worldviews.

But as authors, we also need our own voice–our particular, peculiar ways of telling stories that make those stories unique to us.  There are, at best, three dozen or so plots in the whole world so far–there is nothing new under the sun, and it’s the way we as individuals tell those stories that make them mediocre, or make them great.  Voice is that elusive quality that editors and agents look for that makes a book stand out, and sadly enough, it isn’t something that can be taught.

The only way to find your voice is to use it.  The amazing experience that is listening to a pipe organ is made or broken by the acoustics in its cathedral.  Same with your writer’s voice.  Find your cathedral and then let your Vox Humana echo from the rafters.