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by Darcy Pattison Voice. It’s a confusing, complicated topic. Do you have questions you want discussed, dissected, batted around? I don’t always have answers, but I like thinking about the nuances of voice. Please post Voice questions or Revision questions here, or email me privately at darcy at darcypattison dot com. I’ll try to research [...]
by Darcy Pattison Does point of view affect voice? Yes. The current trend is to encourage first person point of view for young adult novels, and sometimes, I think this adversely affects the voice. The default for many years for novels was third-person point of view; you only when to first person when the attitude/personality [...]
by Darcy Pattison Robert Frost says, “Good writing is good speaking caught alive.” In other words, the pitch changes, intonation and rhythm pattern can carry the meaning of a sentence like, “Nice haircut.” You can say that phrase and by changing your intonation patterns you can give it different meanings: ironic, disapproving, enthusiastic. How you [...]
Recap: Sentences Voice Friday: Sentences Voice Friday: Sentence Control Words Voice Friday: Word Choices Voice Friday: Word Connotations Voice Friday: Word Sounds Words, then sentences. The building blocks of good writing. But how much control do you have over your sentences? Can you write a 268 word sentence? The sentence must be correctly punctuated–like this [...]
Recap: We’ve spent three weeks talking about how words affect voice. Voice Friday: Word Choices Voice Friday: Word Connotations Voice Friday: Word Sounds Today, in discussing voice, I want to return to the two examples with which we started the discussion of words. But now, we’ll look at sentences. Voice Friday: Sentences Voice Friday: Sentence [...]
Voice Friday: Word Choices Voice Friday: Word Connotations Voice Friday: Word Sounds One last posting on how words affect voice–though these thoughts on words will echo throughout any discussion of voice. Newbery winner, Paul Fleischman says, “. . . the sounds of the words on the page, I would like to argue, are as worthy [...]
This week, I’m thinking about audience as I revise my teacher resource book. Teachers are a new audience for me and I?m grateful for the editor for this project, who has lots of experience with teachers. Oh, I get aggravated when she sends back a section–yet, again–for a couple of minor fixes. Yet, I am [...]
Voice Friday: Word Choices Voice Friday: Word Connotations Voice Friday: Word Sounds A professional writer must be a lover of words. It is the basis of their craft. We know about the definition of words, what words mean. Today, I want to talk about connotations of words. Connotations Speaking to Connotations John Ciardi and Miller [...]
Voice Friday: Word Choices Voice Friday: Word Connotations Voice Friday: Word Sounds Voice: Word Choices Consider the opening of these two books: The little boat crept closer, over the grey-green water of the loch. Tommy could hear the slow creaking of the oarlocks, and see the white hair of the lean old man bent over [...]
by Darcy Pattison Starting tomorrow: Villains (3-day series) The Bad Guys Wear Black Famous Villains Creating Villains Today, I wanted to give you links to a series on National Public Radio about “Vocal Impressions.” Listeners are asked to listen to a variety of voices and then describe that voice. In light of our discussion of [...]
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