SATB? Neither, I'm a writer

Shhh...listen. Do you hear that?

No? Listen closer because I think I found it.

What?

My writer's voice.

A few months back literary agent Rachelle Gardner hosted two-part contest on her blog. The first portion of the contest asked writers for the best opening line. From the opening lines she found most appealing, writers were asked to make up a compelling first page.

I didn't win. Sorry.

BUT, my entry ranked at the top of the list.

How do I know? Because she critiqued it on her blog.

Her assessment started me thinking about what that entry had that Long Road didn't. I eventually realized it was the opposite. The main character in Long Road felt distant and disconnected and the writing was, well, it was written liked I'd write a blog or a newspaper story.
Straightforward. They were just words strung together without a real sense of person or feeling.

So I looked at my own connection with my main character and ways to make that connection deeper. I took serious notes from my favorite writers and worked on developing my own way of describing what they described.

For the past few months, I've been revising Long Road from the first-person, and I'm almost done. I didn't realize it until working on a separate project last week that I had discovered my voice. I recognized it in the piece I wrote that was completely unrelated.

I finally understand what agents are talking about when they talk about voice.

Yea! I'm Kat Harris. Read me roar!