“I
want to hear you, not your voice”
—Iris Warren, Voice Teacher.
whispers you how the stories get written.
The
sound of colloquial voice:
“When
colloquial language unites with literary language, a third language often
emerges—an alchemical blend of your natural speaking voice, and a more polished
language capable of arousing the imagination of the reader. The more you write,
the more this language occurs naturally, and the more your speaking and writing
styles may begin to converge.”
Writing
in the pressure cooker:
“Improvisation
is an inescapable reality of fiction. That wonderful, scary freefall into
improvisation through freewrites and spontaneous jottings is where voice
begins. Once you’ve got something on the page, you move into a second-order
improvisation: you start improvising with the found objects your voice has
offered. Whatever they are, to move your voice into a story, you have to make a
commitment to working with certain found elements.”
Craft
and the voice of the story:
“As
you learn to weave back and forth between loss of control and more conscious
manipulation of voice, your raw voice will change, broaden its range. Skills of
craft become so automatic you do them without thinking.
A
surprise also occurs: The more skilled you become at writing a story, the more
voice has a way of disappearing.”
Catalysts
for the story:
“When
thinking about what energizes your voice, it’s often useful to categorize
novels and stories in the following ways: character-driven, plot-driven, and
vision-driven. What catalyzes your voice is often what drives your story.”
Point
of view:
“Point
of view is a primary vehicle for voice. Like voice itself, point of view is
usually instinctive.
For
all its spontaneity, then, point of view has everything to do with intention.
It’s a choice that lets you tell the story you want to tell.”
Secrets
as a key to character:
“One
of the best ways to discover what characters speak only to themselves is to ask
them to tell you their secrets.
Listen
to your character with interest and detachment. Watch her for a while, as she
moves about her life.”
*****
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Deconstructing INFATUATION
by Merce Cardus
Giveaway ends April 23, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
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an inspirational novel about the courage to be oneself freely.
a thought-provoking novel about infatuation.
Copyright © 2013 by THE PYTHAGOREAN STORYTELLER. All
rights reserved.
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