Day Two: The Discovery of Your Voice
In day one of this series on voice I defined it as a writer's personal writing style based on who the writer is (personality, experiences, attitude) and the atmosphere the writer wishes to create in the book. I was left wondering how an author truly learns what his or her own voice is before setting down to write a book.
The books I've read that leave an impression on me carry a voice that has a power over my emotions and makes me believe in the book's story. But how did these authors tap into such deep truths of the human spirit with voice? First they had to discover their own individual depths of the soul.
What Are Your True Aspects of Humanity?
In her book Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott states that "you cannot write out of someone else's big dark place; you can only write out of your own." To reach the core of our humanity, Anne suggest that we confront our "anger and damage and grief." And it doesn't work to tackle this confrontation with someone peering over our shoulder; we have to release ourselves to exposure in order to tell the truth in our own voice.
How Can You Acknowledge the Truth?
A first step to take in taking down the barriers and grapling with your deepest truths might be to make a detailed descriptive list of your opinions, beliefs, fears, and hopes. And from these branch out to consider the strengths and weaknesses of each item in how they relate to you as a human.
A second step might be to ask yourself what you've repressed inside of yourself since childhood. What secret identities, personalities, lifestyles do we dream of living but don't? I tried this out by creating a conversation with my self and my shadow (my self being the writer-mama-wife that I see every day and my shadow being what I dream I'd be doing in a dual reality, a rainforest biologist and painter).
When I look to the deepest truths of myself I am embarrassed, sadden, surprised, humbled, happy, and inspired.
From this foundation I can begin to develop my voice. In Day Three of this series I will attempt to learn how a writer develops their voice.
The two steps I've taken to think about what lies at the core of my soul that speak of humanity are just two ways that I've tried. What other steps have you taken to discover your voice?
2 comments:
I think this is definitely worth exploring.
For me however my characters don't reflect who I am necessarily. (I don't want to read about me :)
I've written about a widowed single mom, a chauvanistic mid 40's playboy, a married man with cancer, a couple each hiding secrets using both POV in first person. While some of what I right may resonate with me, I don't know that I reach down inside myself to find my character. I rather reach inside my character to figure out who they are because I am telling their story and not my own.
Laurie Shnebly teaches a wonderful class dealing with ennegrams and personalities to create characters. It's in June. Email me if you want the info.
Looking forward to tomorrows discussion!
Thank you Andrea for your help! I'm interested in learning more about the class and hope there might be a second one I could take since my baby is due in early June. I'll send you an email! Your ideas about voice for characters makes sense to me and I've begun working on my characters' sketches to tease out the details of them.
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