Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Wed, Jan 27 2010
Voice in story form
Some people are more likely to speak if they have something negative to say. This isn't a judgment, but merely an observation. A friend used to tell me about a co-worker I'll call Sam who everyone dreaded seeing. It seems that Sam could bend your ear for the better part of an hour, telling you what was wrong with the company where they worked. Sam was generally quiet when contented and if you pressed him he would even come up with pleasant things to say. But if he came to a meeting or went to lunch with co-workers he was able to turn the conversation to a season of griping and complaining in no time at all. I don't know if it was a habit or something else. But there it was.
I tell you this because it reminds me of how important voice is in telling a fictional story. If I told you a story I would have a very different way of telling the story than Sam would have. I might tell you about how the main character came in last in a footrace. I might talk about the race in terms of tomorrow being another day and of how the main character felt that he or she would do better next time. Sam might tell you about the same character and the same race. But Sam might focus more on the way coming in last had been inevitable. There would be a subtle shift in what Sam would zero in on when picking the details of a setting.
And what if Sam was your main character? Would Sam run the race with high hopes? Would Sam feel fatigue long before the end of the course? And what if Sam was telling/writing the story and had a very positive, upbeat kind of main character to write about? What would Sam say and how would he say it? What's Sam's voice? What's yours?
posted at: 21:11 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Some people are more likely to speak if they have something negative to say. This isn't a judgment, but merely an observation. A friend used to tell me about a co-worker I'll call Sam who everyone dreaded seeing. It seems that Sam could bend your ear for the better part of an hour, telling you what was wrong with the company where they worked. Sam was generally quiet when contented and if you pressed him he would even come up with pleasant things to say. But if he came to a meeting or went to lunch with co-workers he was able to turn the conversation to a season of griping and complaining in no time at all. I don't know if it was a habit or something else. But there it was.
I tell you this because it reminds me of how important voice is in telling a fictional story. If I told you a story I would have a very different way of telling the story than Sam would have. I might tell you about how the main character came in last in a footrace. I might talk about the race in terms of tomorrow being another day and of how the main character felt that he or she would do better next time. Sam might tell you about the same character and the same race. But Sam might focus more on the way coming in last had been inevitable. There would be a subtle shift in what Sam would zero in on when picking the details of a setting.
And what if Sam was your main character? Would Sam run the race with high hopes? Would Sam feel fatigue long before the end of the course? And what if Sam was telling/writing the story and had a very positive, upbeat kind of main character to write about? What would Sam say and how would he say it? What's Sam's voice? What's yours?
posted at: 21:11 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
