Find your voice. If you've spent any time trying to break into the industry, someone has probably said this to you. The trouble is, for most screenwriters, "find your voice" raises more questions than it answers. What does a screenwriting voice actually mean? And how, practically speaking, do you go about finding one?
What Is a Writer's Voice?
A writer's voice is the unique and original personality, perspective, and storytelling style that presents itself in five ways:
- Projects Chosen
- Dialogue
- Scene Description
- Prose
- Writing Style
Project Chosen
What screenplays you choose to write can showcase what you vibe with in your writing, be it subject matter, genre, time period, etc. Some writers are constantly drawn to grounded human drama while others thrive in action, scares, or thrills. The concepts, themes, genres, and emotional conflicts a screenwriter continually explores can reveal a great deal about their storytelling voice.
Dialogue
Dialogue is one of the most recognizable aspects of a writer's "voice" because every writer has distinctive shades and colors of rhythm, pacing, humor, realism, and expression, all heard through the words their characters speak, and how those characters convey those words. We all know the style of writers like Quentin Tarantino, Diablo Cody, and Aaron Sorkin. Their voices are easy to spot.
Some writers prefer fast, witty exchanges while others lean towards more restrained and naturalistic dialogue. Some love to create highly-stylized and hyper-real conversations while others prefer a less-is-more approach. The way a character speaks — and the way the subtext is handled beneath the dialogue (and in between the lines) — usually becomes a conduit for the writer's voice.
Scene Description
Your voice can also emerge through how you write your scene description. Some writers use minimal and stripped-down description that quicken the pacing and make for faster reads. Others use more atmospheric descriptions that offer a little extra detail to establish important visuals that are vital to the story, tone, and atmosphere of the script.
Prose
Prose refers to the overall flow and readability of the script, from the scene description to the dialogue. You may have sharp, punchy, and rapid-paced prose, while another writer may have more of a lyrical or immersive approach, offering more stylistic detail. This is all shown within the structure of sentences and the energy of the writing. Prose is all about how a writer tells the story.
Style
Style encompasses the combination of creative choices that consistently appear throughout your work. Tone, pacing, atmosphere, genre blending, humor, visuals, structure, and other screenwriting elements all come into play when it comes to what a writer's style is like. If you challenge yourself, you can switch back and forth between certain writing styles effectively. But your general style will stay somewhat the same over the course of many projects. This is part of your voice.
Why Your Voice Matters
Voice is what industry pros like producers, development executives, managers, and agents are looking for. They read countless scripts that are technically competent.
- The formatting is solid.
- The structure works.
- The pacing is decent.
But what they don't feel like is unique.
Voice can be the difference between a script that feels generic, and a script that feels memorable.
Two different writers with two different voices can take on the same exact concept, with the same exact plot points and characters, and come out with two very different screenplays. Why? Because of their voice.
How to Discover Your Voice
Now that you know what a writer's voice is, and why it matters, let's discuss how a writer can go about discovering and developing their voice.
Your Voice Is Already There
Your voice is already present within your writing, long before you may discover it yourself. If you've already written some screenplays, read through them and pay attention to the five elements of voice that we mentioned above.
Your voice can be:
- Loud and flashy
- Subtle and restrained
- It can be found more in the dialogue
- Or more in the scene description.
You may also find certain patterns in your own work.
- Particular types of protagonists and antagonists
- Similar emotional themes
- Common genres
- Specific concepts
- Recurring character archetypes
It's already there. Now it's just time to fine-tune it.
Avoid Copying the Voice of Others
The biggest mistake screenwriters make is emulating others. They write their versions of Quentin Tarantino, Diablo Cody, Aaron Sorkin, Greta Gerwig, or James Gunn. They copy or overly-emulate the dialogue, scene description, and overall prose.
Hollywood doesn't want what they already have, despite what many think. Sure, they love the familiar because that's what audiences often love the most. But they're always looking for something new and different as well.
Instead of outright writing like someone else, try to find a way to blend your inspirations into your own style.
Don't Be Overly Stylistic for the Sake of Standing Out
Finding your voice isn't about yelling the loudest to turn more heads. It's about working within the established sandbox while showcasing your voice elements that make you stand out organically without the noise.
Most script readers can spot a writer that's trying too hard to stand out. It's distracting. It takes away from the read of the script, the story, and the characters
- A writer trying to be too funny.
- A writer trying to be too witty.
- A writer trying to be overly moody.
- A writer trying to be overly reflective.
- A writer trying to be overly descriptive.
- A writer trying to be too cool or too clever.
Readers see right through that type of writing. If you go about finding your voice that way, you're actually standing out for all of the wrong reasons.
Your Voice Is Your Perspective and Personality
Your background, perspective, and personality will come through in your writing. How you view and portray conflict, relationships, humor, fear, redemption, love, trauma, and family will showcase your voice.
That's why voice isn't just about style. It's about how you interpret the world, or the worlds you create.
Some writers love flawed characters while others prefer inspiring underdogs. You may love stories grounded in reality while others always seem to prefer heightened genre concepts.
There's no right or wrong answer. It's all about an individual's perspective and personality that they bring to the table. That's their voice.
Challenge Yourself
We grow as human beings by trying to experience different experiences and cultures. You can grow as a screenwriter by challenging yourself. How?
- Write under strict contract-like deadlines (two months per script) to tighten your process.
- Write different types of stories.
- Utilize different types of story structures.
- Explore different genres.
The more you write, the more you will find your unique voice. The more you challenge yourself, the more you'll grow as a screenwriter.
Your Voice Will Evolve Throughout Your Career
Your voice will evolve as you evolve.
- You’ll gain more experience
- You’ll learn more tricks of the trade
- You’ll find shortcuts to accomplish what you envision
- You’ll see more movies
- You’ll find more inspiration
- You’ll learn from feedback you get
- You’ll grow from notes you’re challenged to apply
Your voice is organic. It will rise up on its own through your writing.
The writer you are at 25 won’t be the same as the writer you are at 45. Even established and successful pro writers throughout their careers.
Look no further than Jordan Peele. He was initially known for his brilliant comedy via MadTV and Key & Peele. His voice was of parody, satire, comedic absurdity. But then in 2017, a couple of years removed from his hit comedy sketch show, Peele wrote and directed Get Out, a critically-acclaimed box office hit. But it wasn't a comedy. It was a psychological horror story with deep racial themes. It went on to win Peele an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. He then became the latest voice in horror with followups to Get Out like Us, Candyman (script), and Nope.
Even Quentin Tarantino evolved his voice away from pulp crime thrillers like True Romance (script), Natural Born Killers (script), Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Jackie Brown to the Kung Fu homage Kill Bill, and then onto stories set in history with Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, and The Hateful Eight.
He still retained that stylistic dialogue, but his voice evolved as he challenged himself with different styles, themes, and subjects.
Just Be You
Your voice is what you write. Plain and simple. If you want to change that voice, change what you write. And if you ever wonder what your current voice is, look no further than what you are currently writing. It's that simple.
Your voice is you. Your voice is whatever you would like it to be. If you want to adjust it, adjust it. If you want to enhance it, enhance it. If you want to stand out more, just be careful not to be overly stylistic or loud for the sake of standing out. In the end, great screenwriting is always about telling a great story in the best way possible.
If your voice overshadows the story and characters, it’s counter-productive.
Instead, the projects you choose, dialogue you write, scene description you conjure, prose you convey, and the style that is born should act as your voice to tell the best possible story.
Your voice is just that extra oomph that can tip the scales in your favor.