Quick Fiction Fixes – Writer’s Voice, part two
We’re all busy, whether working full-time or chasing/chauffeuring kids around all day. Yet we’re also writers, striving to get our words on paper and then polish it to a sparkle.
This column gives quick fixes for fiction manuscripts specifically for busy writers. Pick and choose what works best for you!
Developing your writing voice, part two:
Last week I explained why I’m doing this series, and how short exercises to develop your writing voice can help you revise and add that oomph! to your manuscript. If you didn’t read my column last week, go read it now. It was very inspiring. 🙂
Your writer’s voice is what will capture the editor or agent who reads your manuscript from page one. That’s what you want.
I liked the book, Finding Your Writer’s Voice by Thaisa Frank and Dorothy Wall. Not all the exercises resonated with me, but many of them were great to shift my thinking to a place where I could unleash my voice with more clarity and power.
So I’ll be giving a handful of short, easy writing exercises that you can use to develop your writer’s voice in whatever few minutes you can snatch from your day.
Unusual situations and a sense of urgency will bring out voice.
External stimuli: Create a certain setting or mood by surrounding yourself with objects that will put you emotionally in different states.
Try laying on your desk several things that make you mad. Or maybe things that make you sad. Be creative and utilize all five senses. Create different atmospheres that run the gamut of your emotions.
Maybe you’re in the middle of writing a tender scene with a heartfelt declaration of love from the hero, so you surround yourself with objects and colors and scents that make you feel romantic.
Maybe you’re writing a scene where the heroine is in danger in a bog, so you lay out greenery for mood and scent, you darken the room, and you create an aura of mystery and fright.
When you’re ready with your interior decorating, then write–don’t hold back. Explore difficult emotions, intense emotions. Let the atmosphere sway you.
Internal stimuli: Use your mind to put you in different places, at different times. They can be exotic or commonplace—just different from where you are.
A cold, lonely prison cell. A loud, crowded prison cell. An abandoned warehouse during WW2 with bombs exploding. A desolate cornfield during the Depression. The planet Ethusian with hoardes of killer spider-creatures. New York City in the rain.
What’s important is to put yourself in an unusual situation or one with some type of emotional urgency. Create some type of conflict in your mind-world.
Immerse yourself in your imaginary world, feel the culture and tension around you. Be detailed and extensive.
Once in that atmosphere, free-write. Write about anything and everything. Use the computer or use a pen and paper. Don’t let yourself stop writing–write gibberish or repeat yourself if you have to.
Do this for many different types of external and internal stimuli. The object is to experiment and discover what stimuli helps create that sense of urgency to unleash your voice.
