 Drama: September 20, 2017 Issue [#8493] |
  Drama
This week: Our Specific Fiction Voices as Writers Edited by: Joy  
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“The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.”
Alain de Botton
“Indeed, I find that distance lends perspective and I often write better of a place when I am some distance from it. One can be so overwhelmed by the forest as to miss seeing the trees.”
Louis L'Amour, Education of a Wandering Man
“His voice was cloves and nightingales, it took us to spice markets in the Celebs, we drifted with him on a houseboat beyond the Coral Sea. We were like cobras following a reed flute.”
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
“The reality of a serious writer is a reality of many voices, some of them belonging to the writer, some of them belonging to the world of readers at large.”
Aberjhani
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about finding our special fiction voices.
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
Note: In the editorial, I refer to third person singular as he, to also mean the female gender, because I don't like to use they or he/she.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
The voice we tell our stories is important to our readers because when our voices have that special edge to them, readers feel like the narrator is talking to them. That narrator isn't necessarily the author himself but the persona he creates in the readers' minds. Point of view (POV) is not the same as voice, however.
Point of view is the narrator’s connection to what’s being said. In other words, it has to do who the narrator is. Is he a participant in the actions and events or is he someone telling them from a distance? If from a distance, is he invisible or does he tell the readers who he is? As we all know, the point of view could be singular or plural, in first, second, and third persons.
The specific narrator’s voice, in contrast to the point of view, has to with the narrator’s feelings, attitude, and how the narrator interprets the events and character actions while telling the story.
First in line for achieving this is the language the narrator uses, such as expression, syntax, rhythm, sentence length, etc.
Second is his tone, which has to do with his word choices that show his attitude toward the subject, which can be factual, romantic, comic, or cynical.
Third is the narrator’s perspective. This has to do with the total interpretation of all the feelings and thoughts of the narrator and the characters in the story, usually shown through comparison or contrast. Perspective also has to do with the narrator’s age. For example, writing a teen novel with the perspective of a 75-year-old narrator wouldn’t attract many readers.
As fantastic as a suspense builder Dean Koontz is, one of his high points is the voice he uses while telling his stories. Here is a descriptive passage from one of his books, From the Corner of His Eye. Just watch his perspective and how he unites it with his tone and language.
“Walter Panglo, the only mortician in Bright Beach, was a sweet-tempered wisp of a man who enjoyed puttering in his garden when he wasn’t planting dead people. He grew prize roses and gave them away in great bouquets to the sick, to young people in love, to the school librarian on her birthday, to clerks who had been polite to him.
His wife, Dorothea, adored him, not least of all because he had taken in her eighty-year-old mother and treated that elderly lady as though she were both a duchess and a saint.”
Our fictional voice also has to do with the dialogues we show in our stories. Matching the dialogue to the storytelling can be a problem. This has a bit to do with the story we are telling. As much as each writer may have his specific voice, he may feel he has to fit it to the story’s needs first, and also, to the dialogue sections in the story. This has a lot to do with the kind of story he is telling. The major categories are mainstream, literary, and genre. If genre, each genre's readers have different expectations, as do the readers of other categories; however, there is no cut-and-dried rule for this. Sometimes, different types of dialogues intersect or cross over from genre to genre. Delivering the perfect dialogue that would match the voice could be a chore for any writer.
It is a fact that, trying too hard to match the dialogue to the voice especially by using rigid formulas can give an unintended negative edge to the storytelling. Our best bet in this area has to be writing the truth by thinking like what a specific character would say and letting the characters express themselves in an uncensored fashion.
In short, we writers need to listen to ourselves, to what we are saying, in order to find and develop our best fiction voices. While doing that, we must also take into account our characters' needs and our imaginary readers.
Until next time! 
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 This Issue's Tip: If using unusual language, some slang makes the storytelling sound conversational. Lots of hip slang makes it sound young. Dialect and archaic language should be used only sparingly.
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Feedback for " Choosing the Viewpoint Characters"
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Osirantinous 
Hi Joy, great newsletter! My main novel used to be a single POV (in first person), but I found that I almost knew less about the MC that way. So I've been rewriting the novel, but now I actually have three narrators. All first person. I've found I've learned more about my MC and the whole story is a lot more in depth now that I have the other two characters speaking too. Everything feels more complete now and I know my characters these days rather than thinking I know them.
Thank you!
It is wonderful that you find a good way out. Sometimes, especially in complex stories, just one POV won't do justice to the plot. Best of luck with the novel, not that you need it!
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Quick-Quill 
I find when reading WDC writer's work, some want to tell us what all the characters are thinking. I have to caution that we only know what the MC POV is. They observe the situation. When a writer wants to tell what everyone is thinking it becomes confusing. This is where a writer begins to transform from a story teller to a real author. Little points like this will make or break a writer. Be open to instruction. Once you've mastered the single POV of a character then move on to adding more. Pick your leading character with care. This is the person who will drive or wreck your story.
Thanks for the input, and I so agree. Main characters are the most important elements in a good story. As writers, we can't possibly reflect what is in the mind of every single character. Maybe a select few, but even that should come with experience.
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