New York Times essay by Lev Grossman, “Finding My Voice in Fantasy,” fails to explain Writer’s Voice

Lev Grossman—author of the Magicians trilogy; and book critic for Time magazine—tells us he wrote fiction for seventeen years before discovering that “writing about magic felt like magic…I’d found my mother tongue. It turned out I did have a voice after all. I’d had it all along. I just wasn’t looking for it in the right place.” And that is how his essay ends.

But most Times readers will not understand all that he means by finding his “voice.” They will think that finding his “voice” in the fantasy genre means only that he found where his talent lies and what he loves. They will not suspect that he uses the word “voice” because he actually hears the voices of his characters. (I don’t know him. I’m only guessing, since that is what other great novelists have described about their own creative process.)

To repeat, novelists use the word “voice,” because they hear their characters’ voices. However, they don’t like to be too explicit about this when speaking to the general public, for fear that it might sound crazy. Fortunately, this kind of hearing voices is not crazy.

You can find my posts about the literary “voice” by searching (in this blog): 1.“writer’s voice,” 2.“childhood talents,” and 3.“child’s mind.”

To read what other great novelists have said about hearing the voices of their own characters, search individual novelists in this blog, such as Charles Dickens, William Faulkner, Stephen King, and Toni Morrison.