Interesting. I read between 2 and 4 books a day during my school years, and, mostly one a day, since. I couldn't and wouldn't recognise an author from their way of writing ever. Then, again, I have read many authors.

I sent in my first story for publication around 1962 - to a narional publication for under 16's. I was 10 at the time. It was published. I contined to write.

I entered my first national writing competition at 18. The judge told me it was the finest piece of writing he had seen in 20 years. None of them said anything about voice.

I have won many prizes for my writing. I never did a writing course until after I had been published for 40 years.

Again, no one told me about a 'voice.' Or about 'learning to write.' It was considered a talent. In those days, you could srudy to become a journalist, but not a creative writer.

So why is it that everybody has to do writing courses, learn to write, be a beginner writer these days? What happened? My late father was already writing for major publications in Germany at the age of 17 - 1927, Berlin.

In those days, one simply wrote, submitted for publication, and was either accepted or not.

One of JK Rowlimg's professor's said that they didn't teach her to write - that she already knew how to write.

I think you defined voice correctly.

In my day, an editor read a paragraph or two of your work. Based on that, they determined whether you could write or not.

For every 100 scripts a producer gets sent, they read only one beyond the first page. The rest just don't have it.