Thursday 22 September 2011

VOICE - THE SHORT AND SQUEAKY VERSION

The way a person speaks is like their signature – individualistic. 

With only one word to make a good impression, when I meet people for the first time, or when I answer the phone, I do a lot more than let hot air pass over my vocal chords. To make sure I sound welcoming I modulate the tone and add warmth – as if I've just been interrupted in the middle of something funny.

It occurred to me that was also what I do when I write.

Voice.

THE GREATER RULE:

The shortest advice I was given on how to write with voice is: "Be yourself."

THREE LESSER RULES:

Balance vocabulary – the simplest word, that says everything what you want to say, is best.

Vary the length of the sentences so the reader feels the tension or the emotion of each scene.

Be grammatically correct, anytime you haven’t deliberately chosen to shake things up.

"A writer's voice is not character alone, it is not style alone; it is far more.  A writer's voice line the stroke of an artist's brush- is the thumbprint of her whole person- her idea, wit, humour, passions, rhythms."  Patricia Lee Gauch

WHAT WAS THE SHORTEST PIECE OF WRITING ADVICE YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN?

4 comments:

  1. Shortest piece of writing advice?

    "Write for you first."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Jennifer
    That is great advice. I still live with the echoes of the first novel I wrote.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I guess the shortest advice I've heard is to write what touches you. Great advice in this post.

    ReplyDelete