Old vs New:
I have read my old writing recently, and it stayed black words on the page, clunky. Of late, my writing has come alive. I actually hear the voices of my characters and have to put them down. How did this happen? It’s probably a combination of things.
1. Humor:
One of those things was the discovery of the critical nature of including humor. I will be writing a blog on this soon as a guest blogger on a friend's wall. I can scarcely read a book or watch a movie anymore that doesn't have at least a little humor. I loved the 90s rendition of "Mission Impossible" when I was a kid. I recently tried to watch it but couldn't make it very far. Why? Because the characters were too serious. I don't do sitcoms. I don't want a show or a book with a built-in laugh track, necessarily. But I also don't want to watch an unremittingly grim slugfest. "Dark Knight Rises" illustrates exactly how hard it is for many people to enjoy that. More on this in a later blog.
2. Writing out loud
Another factor in the life in my writing was the discovery I made last week, that the writing in isolation doesn't work for me. You can just page to the previous post for that discovery. If I can talk through the dialogue and the narrative, if I can read it out loud and hear the voices in it that aren't mine, my writing has started to come to life. If it sounds like me, I still have work to be done.
3. Character Planning:
Yet another factor is the careful crafting of characters in advance. I have to know what kind of person this character is and often have someone I know to use as an emotional model in my head. The character has to care about something or someone, which makes me care about them. My blog about heart of the story is here.
4. Read what You Want to Write:
A fourth factor is reading voices in fiction that come to life. If you read oatmeal fiction, you write oatmeal fiction. Oatmeal fiction is the kind that is sloppy and lazy, the kind that some writers tend to write early in their careers and some tend to write when they're constantly racing the clock, where all of the characters feel like stock and little effort seems to have been put in considering and crafting each line, each word. When the book tends to feel more like a summary than a lively tale that comes alive in your head, it's oatmeal fiction. Sometimes cold, lumpy oatmeal fiction.
However, there are writers whose voice is fresh and fascinating. Harry Potter books, especially the later ones, are like this for me. The characters leap off the pages. I can see them, hear them, and imagine myself sitting and chatting with them for hours. These characters were meticulously planned out and often based on someone the writer knew to help the writer get the voice right. The power of Rowling's fiction transformed the face of children's fiction, fiction in general, movies, and the world.
The Percy Jackson is another popular example of a series wherein the writer's voice is fresh and unique. It's clearly in the tradition established by the Harry Potter series but does not feel derivative since it draws from Greek mythology rather than fantasy fiction. Every chapter title reveals, amuses, and keeps one guessing. Percy's first person voice is snarky and full of personality. And for me, a great charm is that he has both dyslexia and ADD. He feels unique and real because he struggles with problems many readers may understand. If one wants to hear what a lively, intriguing voice sounds like, skip the bland movies and go right for the book.
The third of these writers that have blown me away with their unique voice is Shannon Hale with her Ever After High: Storybook of Legends trilogy, particularly the third one. This series follows the fairly recent fad of following the adventures of high school-aged offspring of famous fictional characters, a la Monster High, but it is so much more. The pages are full of wit and intriguing characters. In the third book, the narrator goes insane like the rest of the world. The daughter of the Mad Hatter takes over as an unreliable and quirky narrator. Later, the daughter of the Cheshire Cat joins the party as a narrator so unreliable, she's willing to make events up because what's actually happening isn't interesting to her. For an example of unique voice, I highly recommend that book. I didn't like how the text used the device of effectively erasing the story for characters involved, but the book is well worth reading.
These writers employ humor, research, wild imaginations, and careful planning to create something new and compelling for readers. Their characters are fully realized with quirks, flaws, sometimes trauma, and even occasionally disabilities (a topic I blogged about here). Hearing the narrative and character voices of writers like these in my head helps my capture my own voice. If I read oatmeal fiction, my writing may start to feel like oatmeal. If I read lively, quirky fiction, my writing can pick up that flavor as well. I can forgive a lot of issues if you have the voices down. Clear voices share clear motivation, which helps push the plot. I want to hear from the characters and know what they are doing and why. This is what helps characters and the entire text come alive.
5. Becoming the Character:
Good writing is like method acting. One doesn't just write about a character. One becomes the character, hears the voices in one's head, speaks and writes with that voice. I never know what my characters are going to say until they say it on the page. But as hear their voices in my head, I become them for that short time.
6. Writing Truth
As I’m writing, it feels real, exciting, funny, emotionally charged to me, and I tend to get a positive response from my readers. I can cry over my own writing or laugh with my characters. Good writing is unexpected, well-crafted, meaningful. I find I write my best when I'm true to my heart and to my light within, when I write what I know to be true and real encoded in fiction. I share a version of my experience or the emotional realities of those I know through my stories. When I write truth, my stories mean something, and my writing comes alive. I feel guided, so I know it's not just me writing. If it's meaningful to me, it will be meaningful to others as well.
7. Polish:
At the end of writing, do make sure to edit well. Get readers to help you make sure your characters and story are complete and flow well. Just now, I started looking into the editing software Autocrit. The reviews are positive, and it looks like it may help me liven my writing by avoiding redundancies, filler words, adverbs, etc. Whether you use a service or not, your lively writing will be easiest to read if well edited. But I save editing for later. If I belabor one short fragment of the text as I write before moving on, I don't go anywhere.
Your Turn:
For a long time, I sought a voice. Now, I've found that voice, and it comes from inside. It makes writing fun and interesting for me and the reader. For those still seeking, good luck finding yours.
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