The first licensed public radio stations emerged in the early 1920’s. The first TV became commercially available in the late 1940’s. Before radio and TV were popular forms of entertainment people had other forms of amusement: reading, playing music, dancing and singing were common activities. The art of storytelling was also popular during this period because not everyone could read. I imagine that a good storyteller was welcomed by everyone. He told suspenseful stories creating a mood by changing his voice to match that of his characters. He would also vividly describe the setting and sounds that were in the story. The storyteller had a major advantage as he could change his story based on the audience’s reaction. How wonderful it must have been to sit among a group of people and listen to tall tales.

The author’s voice in a written story is not much different from that of a storyteller. It is the author’s job to vividly describe the setting and set the mood with written words. He will also capture the emotions of each character and effectively narrate but, unlike the storyteller, will not tell the story himself. A good author will let the characters tell the story for him through their dialog. The combination of the author’s voice and the character’s dialog will make the difference between a good story and a mediocre one. The author can not change the story based on his reader’s reactions but, if the story is well written, he can successfully influence the reader’s mood.

Every author has a different voice and will narrate in his own unique way. Ten authors can write the same story and every single one of them will be different. There will be some good stories and there will be some bad stories. Logic might tell you that there can’t be good stories and bad stories if all authors wrote the same story. You might think that the stories must be equally good or equally bad regardless of who wrote it. This logic only works for recipes. The heart of a story is how you tell it. For this reason the author’s voice is the most important ingredient in a written work.