Voice is the element which all agents and editors say they are looking for in a manuscript – but that’s by no means the only reason to work hard on the word-by-word text and textures of your novel: in the end, the power of your story comes from the words you have put on the page.
In this practical workshop we will start by unpacking the idea of Voice: what does it mean for your storytelling, and why does it matter so much. Then explore through short exercises how to make your prose rich and rare but never purple (except when you mean it to be), and how to strip it back without it becoming drearily threadbare.
By the end of the workshop, you should have tried some new approaches, and acquire a clearer sense of what this all means for how your characters and your narrative speak.
