Quick Fiction Fixes – Writer’s Voice, part three
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 three:
On March 9th, 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 that 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.
Write your voice with your whole body.
An opera singer or a screaming child uses his entire body to project his voice. It’s a comprehensive, total physical feat.
A writer is the same. You want to use your entire being–your whole body–to bring out your writer’s voice.
This will mean different things to different writers. For some, it’s putting yourself in physical tension. For others, it’s putting yourself in action. Or maybe it’s something completely different.
The important thing is to discover your own all-encompassing combination of rhythm, force, and music that is your voice. The key is all-encompassing–try to involve all of you, not just your mind.
Try to imagine what it’s like for you to write from your gut, from your toes, digging in with your shoulders, straining with your spine. Make it an energetic feat, requiring force and strength, pulling in aspects of your whole body.
Then just do it–free-write.
