Hello, writers. Many thanks to GussieFN for doing Write On! last week at a moment’s notice, for understanding I meant 8 pm my time, not his time, and for getting more comments with an off-the-cuff diary than I do with my carefully clipped and manicured ones. Which drives me crazy.
I know we’ve talked about critique groups on here before, and it’s not the topic of tonight’s diary, but I thought this article on how to have a productive critique group was interesting. The only thing I don’t agree with in it is that I think it would probably not be helpful to have each member talk for 30 minutes about how they don’t have time to write. But I could be wrong.
But let’s talk tonight about something that a doughty and brilliant WO! regular asked me about recently: inserting voice into your writing.
I think the most direct and easiest way to do this is to have one of your characters tell the story. I’ve often quoted (or misquoted) cfk’s comment from years ago:
May your characters sit down beside you and say “Let me tell you how it happened from my point of view.”
Or words to that effect.
Getting a point of view into the storytelling is one way to establish voice.
There are various ways to do this. One is to have an actual narrator, an “I”. For some people writing in the first person is easier than the third, for others it’s harder. (I’m one of the latter.) The “I” can be involved in the story (a la Dr. Watson), the main character (“Reader, I married him”), or someone not involved at all, but only observing.
This does not have to be done in the first person. By lessening the psychological distance to zero (which is the reward for the non-omniscient point of view) you can see the world as one single character would see it, and write about events as s/he would tell them.
Another thing you can try is imagining a narrator. This narrator never speaks or appears, but simply provides you wth a voice: The story as seen through the eyes of a born pessimist, or a born optimist, or a griot, or an elderly druid.
Let’s try it now.
Tonight’s challenge:
A callow youth and his or her stout companion have heard that a certain junk dealer in the marketplace has a map for sale— though he won’t readily admit it— that shows the way to the hiding place of the Jewel of Togwogmagog.
Write the encounter in the voice of the callow youth’s mentor, the always-offstage Froop.
Try to limit yourself to 150 words. And try to use the word "yclept".
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