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How to Learn about Your Voice
 Posted by Michelle Butler Sep 25 2011, 9:16 pm in fear, inspiration, Michelle Butler, Michelle Mondays, Writing For years the one concept in the craft of writing that scared me the most was voice. It always sounded so mysterious and literary and out-of-my-league. I couldn’t wrap my mind around what it was much less how to figure out what my voice was and how to improve it. I started to calm down about it when I went to a few workshops that explained that your voice was very organic and was part and parcel of who you are. Your education, your upbringing, your life experiences and interests all helped to make up what your voice was. Even if the concept does not scare me anymore, I still want to learn more about how to identify my own and improve it. Last week, my local WRW chapter brought in the fabulous Barbara Samuel, who also writes as Barbara O’Neal and Ruth Wind, to give her famous voice workshop. She led the group through a series of hand-on, interactive writing exercises to show us what makes up an author’s voice, or unique fingerprint, and how to learn more about our own. It was a very empowering experience. Many of her exercises were free writing such as write about a particular picture or your memory of a favorite childhood food. Others were creative ways to identify aspects of your voice and storytelling. One that we’ve blogged about here before was to make a list of your top 10 favorite movies of all time, your favorite book when you were 15 and your favorite book of the last 6 months. Another interesting exercise was to list 10 to 25 of your most favorite things in the world. She challenged you to be more specific than to just list your husband or your children’s names. Some people volunteered to read their lists out loud. For the first person who volunteered, Barbara said that what she gleaned from her list was: warmth, food, community, sensory, family and comfort. I didn’t read my list out loud, but what I had jotted down were: books, music, food, hanging out with people who get me, learning, tea, laughing with people I love, reading, figuring out what I think/believe through writing, storytelling, and being with the fabulous boyfriend. I was struck how cerebral or transcendent some of these items were, but I’m not sure what this tells me about my voice or storytelling. Barbara said that if the list of ten did not tell you much, expand the list to 25 and it may be easier to figure out what it has to say. I do remember getting a lot out of the “what can your 10 favorite movies tell you about your voice”, so I may need to push harder on this exercise. The whole workshop was chock full of tidbits and inspiration. She said that you have come to writing to heal a wound. Certain themes may show up in our work manuscript after manuscript, and she gave an example of a friend of hers who always has characters with father issues. She advised that when we get to the raw stuff in our writing, we should not sanitize it or give in to political correctness. Let it rip because that may be the most powerful stuff in our writing. She swore it was her duty to give use permission to just be ourselves as a writer. She ended her voice workshop by reading from the essay “How to Give Yourself Permission to Write Remarkable Fiction” from the blog Because You’re a Creative Bad Ass. What do you think about Voice? How do you try to learn about and improve your voice? What are your ten to 25 favorite things and what does that tell you about your voice? What are your 10 favorite movies, your favorite book when you were 15 and your favorite book from the past 6 months, and what does that tell you about your voice?
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I’m glad you had a great workshop, Michelle – there is nothing more inspiring than a fab workshop! I’ve heard great things about this one in particular, so glad it lived up to expectations.
I’m not sure what those favourite movies tell me about my voice – almost all are romantic comedies! They span a long period in movies from Cary Grant and co to Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, via the Brat Pack (with Star Wars and Indiana Jones thrown in *g*). But as much as I love them, I can’t write them. I’m just not funny! I can do the odd one-liner, but no more.
My TV viewing tends to be dramas – often gritty, but also light too, like Leverage – which sums up my reading as well. I can’t remember my fave book when I was 15, but it was probably a romance! My faves over the past 6 months have either been gritty romantic suspense or light-hearted contemp/historical.
Three things shine out, I think – I love the clever one-liner, the ingenious plot twist and a cast of people I can revisit.
My writing has become darker and more gritty, over time. And, probably has features of all the things I love.
As for my voice? English LOL? I don’t really know what my voice is, but people seem to like it, so I focus on improving the craft and hope that my voice takes care of itself *g*. Doesn’t really help you, I’m sorry!
I’m guessing your voice is getting darker and grittier. I think voice is made up of writing, storytelling, style, word choice, etc. I wonder if you could substitute “voice” for “writing” (as a noun) and capture the same concept half the time.
Great post, Michelle. I had trouble thinking of ten things…guess that means I should do 25! I’m not sure how it impacts my voice–most have to do with spending time with people (watching TV, sipping wine, or getting out of town for a few days), but to me, my voice isn’t really “comforting”. Lots to think about
I would think that Barbara would say that community is important to your voice since you have so many items devoted to spending time with people. Jenny Cruisie often says that community is important to most female writers.
I do think voice is just something that is always there but develops naturally over time as our writing gets better and we become less hung up on those writing “rules” we hear as beginning writers.
Favorite movies — Avatar, Last of the Mohicans, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, the Underworld movies, Leap Year. Lots of variety there — space, fantasy/urban fantasy/paranormal, and a romantic comedy. As far as reading, I like American-set historicals, paranormal, urban fantasy, and post-apocalyptic and dystopian. I don’t know why I like all this dark stuff since I’m not a dark-natured person, but I do. Maybe it’s because I’ve always loved survival stories, man against his environment, even in the books from my youth — Island of the Blue Dolphins, Julie of the Wolves, The Swiss Family Robinson — and movies like The Day After Tomorrow.
As for my writing, something that I’ve noticed is that I tend to write about second chances and being able to remake one’s life. I find those types of stories powerful.
It sounds like you prefer stories with high stakes – perhaps even life or death stakes. It also sounds like world building is very important to you.
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