Voice is one of the more mysterious elements of writing. While your book is being edited, your voice is being preserved, if all goes to plan. The voice is also refined when the process works well. Voice is made of many elements, including syntax, vocabulary, and tone.
Tone is also mysterious, but it can be identified. Tone equals attitude, or tone makes ‘tude. “I don’t like your tone of voice” might be heard during a conflict. Such attitude is determined by the situation and the relationship of the people in that situation. Objects don’t make tone, but settings can, with careful work. One exercise from my workshop days invited my writers to describe a setting that illustrated a character who spent a lot time in that spot. You weren’t allowed to let us see the character.
We show our readers tone from our characters through postures, gestures, and facial expressions. But “he smiled” is pretty meaningless when used over and over. Or worse, when used as a dialogue tag: “like this,” he smiled.
We establish tone, says Janet Burroway in Writing Fiction, with “a choice of words that seems appropriate in intensity or value to the meaning conveyed. You manipulate intensity and value in your choice of language.” And so there’s the vocabulary, and sentence construction of syntax, at work.
Expressed across a wide swath of a book, tone can develop a mood. Eerie is a mood, for example, or maybe riveting or alarming. When tone matches and emphasizes the meaning of the words, you’re establishing mood if you stick with the tone long enough.
Start with attitude. Give your readers mood. If you’re interested in grooming your ‘tude, have a look at the Assorted Liars chapter of Burroway’s book. Plenty of writing schools use Writing Fiction: A Guide to the Narrative Craft.
