On Writing: Voice

The magic quality you can't learn - but that you have to earn.

What is ‘Voice’ for a writer?

Voice can carry a book to such an extent that plot, character and so on - the meat and potatoes of writing fiction - become largely irrelevant. Think of ‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce or Thomas Pynchon’s ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’ or more recently, ‘ A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing’ by Eimear McBride. Such books are loved by critics, b…