Quick Fiction Fixes – Writer’s Voice, part six
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 six:
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.
Speak your voice through characters.
Like a ventriloquist, you throw your voice into a story character so that it’s you and yet not you speaking. More than anything, it should be the character’s voice that dominates, but your own voice will add vibrancy to your character.
Your heroine will have her own unique way of speaking, and it will also depend on her audience. She may speak one way to her mother and a different way to the hero. Through it all, don’t be limited by her personality–rather, let her individuality unleash your own raw voice.
Take a persona and notice if you speak directly in his voice–in his skin–or describe him as if you’re in the room. Sometimes, this can indicate a preference for first person versus third person.
Let this persona be uninhibited. Give her the quick mouth that would never survive in the real world.
Experiment with different personas completely different from who you are–an extrovert if you’re an introvert, or a high-powered attorney if you’re a teacher. Put them in different situations to discover who they are on deeper levels–stick your extrovert in a Hollywood party and then a monastery, or move your attorney from New York to Taiwan.
Then keep practicing.
Voice is developed by writing, writing, writing. And not just short exercises–use your manuscript as practice ground for unleashing your raw voice. With diligence and perseverance, it will come roaring out of you.
