All Dogs Bark

Four dogs loped toward us. I walked along a country road with Dusty, my Husky Lab mix. Public lands spread out to the left, the back side of a rural neighborhood to the right. The four dogs looked friendly enough. I led Dusty down to the wire fence for a sociable sniff. The middle-sized dog suddenly lunged at the fence, finding an opening almost big enough to penetrate while barking fiercely. We backed up and continued along the road which paralleled the dogs’ enclosure. All four dogs continued to bark as they matched our progress along the fence.

The largest dog, maybe seventy-five pounds, let out a single woof every few feet as if commanding us to stop. The next biggest dog shouted ruff, ruff, ruff in a surprisingly high pitch for his sixty-pound frame. The one who had tried to breach the fence warned with a deep bow-wow-wow-wow for us to keep our distance. The smallest of the foursome at approximately thirty pounds periodically stood with his front paws on the wire fence inviting Dusty to play with an arf, arf.

What do dogs have to do with writing, you might ask? Each dog had a distinct voice. Just like a pack of dogs, each writer has a unique voice. Writers use a combination of word choice, tone, and perspective to develop their distinctive voice.

Word Choice

Word choice is more than vocabulary. Angry and furious can describe a person or a storm. This is the kind of choice writers make that define their voice.

The angry storm ripped roofs from buildings and hurled tree branches at motorists below.

The furious storm whipped through town destroying everything in its path. Roofs peeled off like candy wrappers and a roaring wind flung tree branches through the air.

 Some writers use long sentences and flowery language. Others are short and to the point. They may choose words specific to a profession or more general language. These choices can affect tone.

Tone

Humorous, scary, sarcastic or condescending, tone refers to the emotional impact on the reader. Does the writing make your heart swell with love for the hero; laugh out loud at the antics of the sidekick; cringe at the antagonist’s efforts to undermine the main character? Or maybe the words on the page instill fear, anger, or desperation. Word choice, imagery, and dialogue all play a role in tone.   

Perspective

The author’s life experience will reflect in their written words. Is the author an environmental activist? Expect to see that perspective rise to the surface. Or perhaps the author is a musician. How would each of these address home-schooling for instance? Carry that into fiction and you can see that a fantasy world built by an environmentalist may look very different from one built by a musician.

Back to the Dogs

All dogs bark. Some woof, others ruff, bow-wow, or arf. Let’s call that doggie word choice. They set the tone with those choices. The biggest dog on my walk let me know with an authoritative woof, he was in charge. He sees himself as the top dog and expects all who enter his domain to obey his commands. On the other hand, the dog hysterically shouting ruff, ruff, ruff had no self-control. He was merely reacting to the chorus of barking around him. There was no mistaking the fence penetrating dog’s bow-wow-wow. He was clearly defending his territory from an intruder. But the dog who went arf, arf only wanted to play. Each had his own perspective and his own role to perform.

It takes time to develop your own voice as a writer. Whether you woof, ruff-ruff, bow-wow-wow, or arf, arf, word choice, tone, and your unique perspective drive your writers voice.