voice
How to Fight Writer’s Depression
I am almost sad and depressed today. Why? Because I’m looking at the wrong things. Writers of picture books or novels must remember to pay attention to their work, not the audience’s appraisal of their work.
The Audience is Always Late
The audience is always late to the party. When I sold The Journey of Oliver K. [...]
The Gingerbread Man’s Top 5 Writing Tips
The Gingerbread Man gives his writing tips. Be sure to see the related post, Poor Gingerbread Man for funky cookie cutters.
Event Repeat
The story of the Gingerbread Man uses an event-repeat type plot. An event is repeated several times, with only a minor change. When the Gingerbread Man escapes and runs away, he [...]
Story Tension
How do you create tension in a story? I’ve been talking with a friend and his gut instinct is to withhold certain information, for example, the exact location of the scene.
Story Tension
In How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card says that tension is created by withholding “what happens next.” You [...]
Starting a Novel with Voice
I’m still looking for a way into a new novel. So, here’s my plan for today: experiment with voice.
Starting with Voice
I’m reading Finding Your Writer’s Voice: A Guide to Creative Fiction by Thaisa Frank and Dorothy Wall. While I don’t like every exercise they suggest, there are some interesting ones.
For my purposes today, [...]
Narrator’s Voice
I’ve been thinking about the narrators chosen to read various books-on-tape . As I revise my current novel project, I wonder–
who be chosen to read my current WIP? I need suggestions!
The Voice Problem
One of my favorite fantasy titles is Lirael by Garth Nix, the the first book in the Abhorsen Trilogy.
This week, I listened [...]
Approaching Voice: summary of comments
This is an attempt to summarize and organize the comments on my posting last week about voice. Thanks to these writers for making comments: Janni Simner, Joni Sensei, Sarah Miller, T.E. Wymer, Lori Van Hoesen, and Linda Urban. Apologies, if I’ve misconstrued anything. Read the full discussion.
Voice: A summary of [...]
How to Approach Voice
When you approach the topic of Voice of a novel and how to produce a pleasing Voice for fiction, especially as you revise, I think a helpful attitude is to think of the approaches as a continuum.
The Approach to Voice Continuum
The continuum runs from a Craft Approach (very left-brained, structured craft oriented skills that can [...]
Twisted voices
As you Wish
Are you a fan of the Princess Bride movie? My daughters can quote that move backwards and forwards. J actually went looking for the screenplay online, downloaded it and studied it. Now, she and her friend use quotes from Princess Bride as a shorthand for things.
Well, I love the [...]
3 Writing Voice Tips
Patricia Sargeant on the importance of the writer’s voice. (Scroll down to her advice for other writers.)
Author Grace Paley died yesterday at the age of 88. Here’s an excerpt of her comments about the way your cultural roots affect your writing voice.
Cynthia Morris offers a checklist for evaluating your writing voice.
This RSS feed will make [...]
Name that author!
From their fantasy novels–can you name the author of each opening line?
Do you recognize their voices? (All published since2003)
1. Getting dressed was always the hardest part of the afternoon.
2. Jack woke before dawn and listened to the cold February wind lash the walls of the house.
3. Rain fell that night, a fine, whispering [...]
