Developing Your VOICE

The concept of “voice” is an elusive one for many writers, but when you utilize techniques to develop your author’s voice, the narrative voice, and each character’s voice, your manuscript will become significantly more dynamic.

Below is an exercise from Donald Maass's The Fire in Fiction to help find and develop your author's voice.

1. Choose a page from your manuscript.
2. Rewrite the page, stripping all colorful description and replacing nouns and verbs with generic choices. Make the characters and action bland.
3. Rewrite the page again, using all upper crust formality.
4. Rewrite it again, making main character easily offended by everything.
5. Rewrite again, observing as a foreign tourist, with awe and bewilderment.
6. Rewrite it again, utilizing the wisdom of an elderly person.
7. Finally, rewrite it as it will appear in print, embracing your own voice—opinions, observations, sensibilities.

(The above exercise is paraphrased from Donald Maass’s The Fire in Fiction.)


An author's voice is “… the outlook, opinions, details, delivery, and original perspectives that an author brings to his tale. Above all, a singular voice is not a lucky accident; it comes from a storyteller’s commitment not just to tell a terrific story but to tell it in a way that is wholly his own.”

-- Donald Maass, Literary Agent

What do you think? Have you mastered your own distinctive author's voice?

10 Books to Improve Your #Writing Skills

Want to know how to write well?

Read.

A lot.

 

Read award-winning and best-selling works of fiction within your chosen genre.
 

And …

 

Read books on the craft of writing. Read them with a highlighter and pencil in hand. Mark up the pages of the book, flag key passages, and take notes on how to implement the ideas into your own writing. Study and practice and read some more. That’s the formula for writing well. ... At least I *think* it is. ... I'm still striving to improve my own writing skills on a daily basis. ;)
 

 

Here are ten of my favorite books on the craft of writing:

THE FIRE IN FICTION by Donald Maass

HOOKED by Les Edgerton

THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE by Strunk & White

SELF-EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS by Browne & King

SAVE THE CAT! by Blake Snyder

THE STORY BOOK by David Baboulene

WRITING YOUNG ADULT FICTION FOR DUMMIES by Deborah Halverson

WRITING IRRISISTIBLE KIDLIT by Mary Kole

HOW TO WRITE A DAMN GOOD THRILLER by James Frey

ON WRITING: A MEMOIR OF THE CRAFT by Stephen King

 

 

What’s your favorite book on the craft of writing?
 

D is for Donald Maass

 

So … you want to be a writer? Where do you start? How do you get there? No worries. This month I’ll be sharing my A to Z list of writer’s resources: books, blogs, and beyond! Check back each day to find helpful resources for improving your writing and navigating your way through the publishing industry.


D is for Donald Maass

I have found the books written by Donald Maass to be extremely inspiring and resourceful as a writer. I refer back to his books time and time again. Two of my favorites:

 

 

According to his website (click here for more info) "Donald Maass founded the Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York in 1980. His agency sells more than 150 novels every year to major publishers in the U.S. and overseas.  He is the author of The Career Novelist (1996),Writing the Breakout Novel (2001), Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook(2004), The Fire in Fiction (2009) and The Breakout Novelist (2011).  He is a past president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, Inc."

What about you? Have you read any of his books? What did you think of them?

The Beginning and The End

Source: http://www.forging-ahead.co.uk/bookends.htm

Have you ever evaluated how the beginning and ending of your manuscript are related? What about the beginning and ending of each chapter? Each scene?

Other than the obvious facts that these are related by plot and characters, consider the following comments from successful people in the industry:

"The opening image is also an opportunity to give us the starting point of the hero. It gives us a moment to see a "before" snapshot ... there will also be an "after" snapshot to show how things have changed. ... The opening and final images should be opposites ... showing a change so dramatic it documents the emotional upheaval ..." (Blake Snyder, SAVE THE CAT, pp. 72-73).

And, Donald Maass spends pages discussing the topic as well. "Does it matter what is the last line of your scene, or the first? Apparently, many authors do not think it does. ... That's a shame. Like a handshake, an opening and closing line can create impressions and expectations. They can set a tone. They can signal where we're going, or what we've done, or serve any number of other useful story purposes. ... Creating them deliberately, is a discipline worth developing. ... Suppose you did a first line / last line draft, doing nothing but honing the bookends of every scene in your manuscript. Would those little changes give your story a bigger and more effective shape?" (Donald Maass, THE FIRE IN FICTION, pp. 69-73).

What do you think?

Source: http://www.forging-ahead.co.uk/bookends.htm

Should every scene, chapter, and story have their "bookends" related in some fashion?

The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass

Fantastic book! Donald Maass refers to secondary characters as "special" characters. He writes, "Look at the special character through the eyes of your protagonist. List three ways in which they are exactly alike. Find one way in which they are exactly the opposite" (page 51). Great character building tip!