Finding My Writing Voice

Over the past few months, I’ve thought about a phrase that comes up often 'writing voice.' I’ve questioned and thought about what this means. It is easy to say something, but sometimes defining it can be harder. Our screenwriting class had a guest speaker, Dominic Morgan, a script consultant. He gave very helpful insight about finding my voice as a writer and what it means!

He described it as a colour pallet, which represents genres and specific types of writing. E.g. comedy, romance, thriller etc.

I want to be known as a writer with a voice for writing within the areas of thriller, psychological and horror as these are the types of scripts I enjoy writing.

I’ve always been fascinated with films that have plot twists at the end of a story. One of my biggest memories of a major plot twist was reading the final Harry Potter novel at my grandparent's house when I was 15 years’ old. It was 4 a.m. and I kept and kept reading. After reading the chapter titled 'The Prince's Tale' and realising that the whole of the series has built up to this – that Snape has been helping Harry despite hating him because of his father in love of Lily Potter was an emotional hit for me.

It took me hours to get to sleep and for the next few weeks the feeling of knowing Snape was a good guy all along stayed with me. The plotting was incredible by J.K Rowling; the twists, the misconceptions, and the build up through the previous six books was mind-blowing.

Spoilers ahead: The feeling I get after a major twist at the end of a novel (Harry Potter: Snape loved Lilly Potter), film (Arrival: the beginning is the end), or TV show (Homeland: Carrie is still working for Saul Berenson) is what inspires me to replicate that emotion in others.

I am very glad I’ve found my writing voice as it helps me to relish my writing!