Workshop:
Six Conversations for Writing Creative
Journals
“We tend to
think of voice as something we hear; it can be squeaky or mellow, loud or soft.
But in writing, voice is what we hear in our head: the medium.”
Barbara Drake
These excerpts are a character study to capture voice. Whereas
in fiction or memoir we have the luxury of developing characterization over a
long period of time, there are sometimes where we only have a brief sentence or
paragraph to highlight a particular characteristic, especially in secondary
characters or for a moment’s insight into a situation. Also our style of
characterization needs to be true to the character. We find our voice—yes—but
it is experienced through the character themselves.
As you continue to build your material, working with
vignettes will help focus the voice you choose and the key perspective. For
example, if sharing from your own personal voice is too raw or complicated to
see through, then use a fictional format to give yourself some separation. The
main character is still you, but by sharing as a third person narrator you can
be more objective alongside sharing your heart.
The
following are three different approaches to discovering the significance and
value in relationships and experiences: as fiction, as interviews, and as
memory. Watch for which words or emotions you respond to, or are curious about.
Fiction
“The Hero
and the Crown,” by Robin McKinley
“Katah was
not the only one that the passing of time did not heal. Galanna’s hair had gone
grey during the first winter, and was white by the time the second spring after
the battle came. She was quieter, and slower, and while she looked with no love
upon Damar’s new queen, she caused, and wished to cause, no more trouble.
Non-Fiction
Memoir
“What She
Couldn’t Tell,” by Patricia Hampl
“I took her
to Mass now and again. I got in the habit of taking her grocery shopping. She
was a wily shopper, her purse bulging with carefully scissored newspaper
coupons which she paid out at the checkout counter like a stack of chips at a
casino. She was gleeful about her strategic buying, by turns petulant over the
price of peaches and contemptuous of what the supermarket thought she would pay
for a cut-up chicken. Ha! She’d cut up her own chicken. I drove her all over
town, stalking deals, running up mileage on my mother’s car.”
Poetry
poem on my
fortieth birthday to my mother who died young
by lucille
Clifton
well i have
almost come to the place where you fell
tripping
over a wire at the forty-fourth lap
and I have
decided to keep running,
head up,
body attentive, fingers
aimed at
darts like first prize, so
I might not
even watch out for the thin thing
Grabbing
toward my ankles but
i’m trying
for the long one mama,
running like
hell and if I fall
i fall.
What
differences, if any, do you notice between these three genres in the way a
character is portrayed? Which one most appeals to you as a voice or style?
Over
the next few blogs we’ll look at each style separately so you can choose your
narrator’s voice.
Action
Steps:
Choose
one or two people either from your own experience, or from photos, for a verbal
vignette snapshot.
1. Write each of them up in three ways. A) As
a brief line description. B) As a non-fiction description memoir style. C) And as
a fictional character in a brief scene.
2. Take one of your descriptions and rewrite
it as a poem.
3. Examine what differences you discovered in
tone of voice between the examples.
Share: Which style
connected the most to the voice you identify with in your memories?
Read deep, marcy
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