The Elusive VOICE

Class wednesday had me leaving so determined, again, to get this writing thing write right. Caleb is pounding the concept of narrative voice into our brains. But it seems that voice is a concept that's so hard to actually TEACH. You just have to "get it." Not VOICE! Caleb would kill me if he thought I was telling you that voice will just come to you somehow. No no Warnock-sensei, I understand that voice is a choice. What I was struggling "to get" was to understand what VOICE even MEANS!!! Everything I read portrays voice as such an abstract concept, and I just wasn't grasping what it was I was supposed to be shooting for.

OH THE FRUSTRATION! I am a perfectionist-bound soul. I cannot accept the idea that I don't get something, or that I'm not doing it right.

I'm so grateful I had two things in my favor wednsday night to help me see the light. #1 Caleb's assignment to me. #2 My lovely book mentioned in previous post.

Assignment: Take the little story I brought to class, my Grab the Phone, Mom's Sick! article on my cookie blog, and write it from three different voices (Totally freaking out because I simply don't understand VOICE). Take the story and write it how they would tell it, he explains. Okay. I think I can do that. And I did that night--stayed up till 1 am going about it just how teacher taught me. At first I'm thinking how useless, right? We always think that about the exercises that are secretly the truly useful ones. What the practice accomplished is that it made the concept of VOICE just *click* Wish I could explain it with all my heart, but it's something you just understand. Voice is personality, attitude, sometimes mannerisms. And you have to communicate it.

Book: A section on POV in the book really sealed the deal simply because it introduced a new term that clarified everything.

"Authorial Voice"

There is Narrative Voice and Authorial Voice--the latter being the actual voice of the author, and actually a very legitimate choice in storywriting. Examples follow and "Oh. Oh--OOOHH!!!!" Simply put, Narrative Voice is Character Voice.

And everything I've been learning just started coming together. Voice is a performance. Story writing is acting. Because as my all-wise-actual-graduate-of-creative-writing sister explained SOMEONE has to tell the story. It can't just be a story out of air. THE STORY ITSELF IS A CHARACTER. Whether it's a character the reader ever sees or NOT, it's a character the reader must fall in love with.

My own final words on the subject: "You just CANNOT tell the story the way everybody else tells a story. You just CANNOT sound like everybody else."

Ladies and Gentleman, that's voice.