Literary Voice and Personality are much the same thing, but it is politically incorrect to acknowledge that fact in literary theory.

Some people talk of writers' finding their one true voice. Others say that writers can, and do, have many voices.

But everyone would agree that the writer’s characters must each have their own voice, and that the characters must have voices that differ from each other.

So, one way or another, most writers and literary theorists acknowledge that writers have multiple voices.

Now, the thing is, there is no basic difference between voice and personality. “Voice” is a euphemism for “personality.” Why is there a need for euphemism? Because people are comfortable with the idea that writers have multiple voices, but not with the idea that writers have multiple personalities.

In my last post, I pointed out that a book by Agatha Christie had a different authorial voice from that of two books by Mary Westmacott (a pseudonym for Agatha Christie). And people who read that post may have thought, “So what. A writer had two voices? Is that news?”

Well, if you think of it in terms of voice, it is not news. But if you realize that voice is personality, it is.