Similarly to the author at the beginning of this chapter, I have never really understood what everyone meant when they talked about someone’s voice in stories. I’ve gotten writing advice in the past to copy a few paragraphs or a chapter of an author whose voice I wanted to emulate, but that doesn’t explain what voice is or how to use and develop it. This chapter helped in that regard. I guess I’ve always known the author’s voice without understanding ‘that’s what everyone is talking about!’ The language and tone, the diction and style used to portray the narration of a story; I can remember all these elements in works I’ve previously read. I can see my own voice in what I write. It’s often slightly sarcastic or tinged with understanding for certain characters, with long sentences of thought and short sentences for comedic relief. Usually it’s conversational, as though I were telling my story to a friend, or slightly more formal, like I was speaking to a room of other writers, but I can’t remember it ever being very formal or trying to portray accents/diction that I don’t regularly use. I’m not sure what to do with this realization. Maybe now that I understand it I can begin to experiment with other voices and don’t need to rely so heavily only on my own regular voice.
Prior to reading this chapter, I had a very limited concept of voice. I knew what it looked like dialogue, but I didn’t understand what it looks like in narration, or how to differeniate between the voice of an omniscient narrator versus that of multiple perspectives. This chapter helped define what I need to exemplify in my writing— especially since I write from multiple 3rd person perspectives most of the time. In my current big project, I juggle four perspectives, and I aim, as I continue drafting and then move on to editing it, to utilize the concept of voice to better distinguish my characters from one another.
First off, I have been loving the structure of these chapters. They all start out general and then continuously go more in depth as they move along and then all end up saying at the end that nothing said really matters all that much. In the end of this chapter, in the finding your voice section, it says that you don’t have to specifically pick a voice before writing your pice and stick to it, you can get everything on paper and then reread it and see if you like it or want to change things. I believe the same thing was said with POV as well. I loved the advice given at the end to read the whole thing out loud from start to finish and see how effective your voice is, and take note of where to tweak it and where it actually comes across really natural. If you have a good friend then they could always read it aloud to you also which will help you be able to just focus on how it really sounds instead of what you are trying to make it sound like. I also like the idea it gave with maybe using voice as a writing prompt! That if you don’t have a subject or plot in mind then you can choose someone who has a distinct way of speaking and just talk in that voice and in that headspace and see where it takes you!
Chapter 8 is all about voice. I think voice is a very interesting component in writing. If the voice doesn’t match the story then that disconnect is going to ruin the whole thing. I find it somewhat hard to find the voice of my narrators. Often I just want to write as if I was the one narrating and that usually doesn’t sound right in the story or at the very least it is clunky. I think I often choose for a first-person narrator or a third-person storyteller narrator which can either sound very good or it just sounds like you’re being talked at. I appreciated how this chapter delved into a more informal or conversation voice. I think this style of writing is particularly captivating to me as it is almost like you’re being pulled into the story by the narrator.
As the chapter discussed the various tones and methodologies to giving a story a unique tone. A particular part that drew my attention was the part regarding length of sentences and paragraphs. I had never (in absence of dialogue) considered using one to two sentences for the entirety of a paragraph. I enjoy how it can actually highlight and emphasize a certain phrase or idea. Sentence structure and length was recommended to be variable but to mix up the “rule” in order to create a desired effect. I may find it difficult to wright in way that gives characters or narrators a specific tone that fits the narrative or energy of the story as a whole. I tend to write formally and as such, many of my stories include a more formal form narration. In light of this chapter, I will be reviewing what I have read and try to execute it in practice.
I think that when the writer of this chapter says “voice” he doesn’t just mean the mood or vibe of the story, but how one writes and incorporates their personality into their work. I know for a fact that I’ve always had a very strong writers voice, and that most of the time it actually ends up showing through in essays I’ve written or projects I’ve done. There have been multiple times in high school- and college- where teachers and professors have had to tell me to focus on the project at hand because I go in depth on setting up my own ideals through scenery or metaphors with an emphasis on too much personal detail. This really hindered me back when I was a Bio-Chem major as a freshman, I had no idea how to write without my voice. It’s something I’ve always been confident in, on and off paper.
I thought this chapter on voice was pretty interesting. Something I took note of was the section on the difference between style and voice. I’d never thought of these two terms as different things, but it gave me a new perspective on how you can describe an object, location, person, anything with details that reveal both the characteristics of the item/person and the conventions of your writing. I also thought the paragraphs section was interesting. I’ve never really thought of paragraph length as a way to influence the voice of my writing, usually I just let my writing flow into whatever length sections I feel are appropriate. Being cognizant of paragraph length and how that may affect the points I’m trying to get across may be a good way to incorporate more voice into my writing. I really like the exercises in this chapter. I don’t usually do them but reading them and thinking of how I would approach the writing questions they pose is really interesting.
I really liked this chapter because it helped me define the differences between my voice as a writer, the voice of the characters in a story, and the overall voice a story has. In a lot of my personal writing and essays and such I tend to write in a pretty comedic laid back and even sometimes sarcastic tone, because that’s who I am as a person, and it shines through in my writing. But that sort of style doesn’t necessarily work for every character whose POV I show, or of I’m writing in a different field or format for example I couldn’t write humorously in a scientific paper (although I would live to try), it just wouldn’t work with the corresponding tone and subject of that paper. This chapter really helped me to define the differences between these 3 types of voices, and how they sound. I really like how this chapter also reinforced the role voice place in setting the tone of a story, location or character. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they speak and what mannerisms they use, and character voice is a great way to do that in writing, when you can’t physically interact or see the characters.
Before going into this chapter, I thought I had a pretty good idea of “voice” as I have experience writing books that contained several different POV characters and that project gave me a lot of practice in learning how to differentiate between tone, personality, and rhythm from person to person, narrator to narrator. However, after reading chapter 8, I realized there was so much I didn’t know. For one, I never thought much about the different types of voices. I focused mainly on highlighting personality within my characters and didn’t think much about the different types of stylistic choices I could make with these voices. I thoroughly enjoyed the examples used in this chapter, as they really helped me understand the author’s point and the differences between the different styles of voice. My favorite was the example from Joyce’s Ulysses, under the “Other Voices” section of the chapter because it was kind of crazy, hard to follow at times, and functioned/read very much like a mind with thoughts jumping in and an inconsistency to the flow of words. It was very interesting and I felt that although it reads as confusing, it had a nice artistic flow to it. Although, I don’t think I favor that in terms of being a style of voice I would like to use. I usually stick to some sort of informal voice maybe with a mix of a few other elements. I think I sometimes slip into a formal or maybe even the lyrical type of voice. Overall, I think voice is one of my favorite things to play with when it comes to writing a story and I think this chapter just further solidified how much I love this aspect of writing.
This chapter discusses different ways you can show voice in short stories. What I found most interesting and helpful was the section on words. The way you use words in a short story especially if its a characters can really help the reader understand the character and how they would sound and act. It also talks about different syllable styles to use in what situations to make the tone of voice more real. Another section that was helpful to read was sentences. I feel like a story can’t be a story unless the sentences flow together smoothly and are easy to follow and understand. The chapter gives examples of different formatted sentences with different styles to show the differences in story telling. This will defiantly be helpful as I work on my short story.
Chapter 8 was about the voice of the story. Before I read this chapter I also assumed voice was how the characters spoke, and how their words and thoughts conveyed the idea of the story. But after reading this section I’ve come to understand that voice is how the story sounds. I really liked the idea that the voice is how the story sounds in the head of a reader, and how the way the words get translated into the understanding of the overall story. I also liked how there were different examples given about what types of voice can be used, and stories that we have heard this type of voice in before. I think that going forward in my writing career, being able to decipher the type of voice I want present and then continue that idea throughout the story is going to be really important. Like the author of this section said, I really didn’t give voice as much of a thought as I should have. Now with my understanding, I know exactly how to move forward with my writing to make sure the voice is heard as clearly as possible throughout my stories.
11 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 11”
Similarly to the author at the beginning of this chapter, I have never really understood what everyone meant when they talked about someone’s voice in stories. I’ve gotten writing advice in the past to copy a few paragraphs or a chapter of an author whose voice I wanted to emulate, but that doesn’t explain what voice is or how to use and develop it. This chapter helped in that regard. I guess I’ve always known the author’s voice without understanding ‘that’s what everyone is talking about!’ The language and tone, the diction and style used to portray the narration of a story; I can remember all these elements in works I’ve previously read. I can see my own voice in what I write. It’s often slightly sarcastic or tinged with understanding for certain characters, with long sentences of thought and short sentences for comedic relief. Usually it’s conversational, as though I were telling my story to a friend, or slightly more formal, like I was speaking to a room of other writers, but I can’t remember it ever being very formal or trying to portray accents/diction that I don’t regularly use. I’m not sure what to do with this realization. Maybe now that I understand it I can begin to experiment with other voices and don’t need to rely so heavily only on my own regular voice.
Prior to reading this chapter, I had a very limited concept of voice. I knew what it looked like dialogue, but I didn’t understand what it looks like in narration, or how to differeniate between the voice of an omniscient narrator versus that of multiple perspectives. This chapter helped define what I need to exemplify in my writing— especially since I write from multiple 3rd person perspectives most of the time. In my current big project, I juggle four perspectives, and I aim, as I continue drafting and then move on to editing it, to utilize the concept of voice to better distinguish my characters from one another.
First off, I have been loving the structure of these chapters. They all start out general and then continuously go more in depth as they move along and then all end up saying at the end that nothing said really matters all that much. In the end of this chapter, in the finding your voice section, it says that you don’t have to specifically pick a voice before writing your pice and stick to it, you can get everything on paper and then reread it and see if you like it or want to change things. I believe the same thing was said with POV as well. I loved the advice given at the end to read the whole thing out loud from start to finish and see how effective your voice is, and take note of where to tweak it and where it actually comes across really natural. If you have a good friend then they could always read it aloud to you also which will help you be able to just focus on how it really sounds instead of what you are trying to make it sound like. I also like the idea it gave with maybe using voice as a writing prompt! That if you don’t have a subject or plot in mind then you can choose someone who has a distinct way of speaking and just talk in that voice and in that headspace and see where it takes you!
Chapter 8 is all about voice. I think voice is a very interesting component in writing. If the voice doesn’t match the story then that disconnect is going to ruin the whole thing. I find it somewhat hard to find the voice of my narrators. Often I just want to write as if I was the one narrating and that usually doesn’t sound right in the story or at the very least it is clunky. I think I often choose for a first-person narrator or a third-person storyteller narrator which can either sound very good or it just sounds like you’re being talked at. I appreciated how this chapter delved into a more informal or conversation voice. I think this style of writing is particularly captivating to me as it is almost like you’re being pulled into the story by the narrator.
As the chapter discussed the various tones and methodologies to giving a story a unique tone. A particular part that drew my attention was the part regarding length of sentences and paragraphs. I had never (in absence of dialogue) considered using one to two sentences for the entirety of a paragraph. I enjoy how it can actually highlight and emphasize a certain phrase or idea. Sentence structure and length was recommended to be variable but to mix up the “rule” in order to create a desired effect. I may find it difficult to wright in way that gives characters or narrators a specific tone that fits the narrative or energy of the story as a whole. I tend to write formally and as such, many of my stories include a more formal form narration. In light of this chapter, I will be reviewing what I have read and try to execute it in practice.
I think that when the writer of this chapter says “voice” he doesn’t just mean the mood or vibe of the story, but how one writes and incorporates their personality into their work. I know for a fact that I’ve always had a very strong writers voice, and that most of the time it actually ends up showing through in essays I’ve written or projects I’ve done. There have been multiple times in high school- and college- where teachers and professors have had to tell me to focus on the project at hand because I go in depth on setting up my own ideals through scenery or metaphors with an emphasis on too much personal detail. This really hindered me back when I was a Bio-Chem major as a freshman, I had no idea how to write without my voice. It’s something I’ve always been confident in, on and off paper.
I thought this chapter on voice was pretty interesting. Something I took note of was the section on the difference between style and voice. I’d never thought of these two terms as different things, but it gave me a new perspective on how you can describe an object, location, person, anything with details that reveal both the characteristics of the item/person and the conventions of your writing. I also thought the paragraphs section was interesting. I’ve never really thought of paragraph length as a way to influence the voice of my writing, usually I just let my writing flow into whatever length sections I feel are appropriate. Being cognizant of paragraph length and how that may affect the points I’m trying to get across may be a good way to incorporate more voice into my writing. I really like the exercises in this chapter. I don’t usually do them but reading them and thinking of how I would approach the writing questions they pose is really interesting.
I really liked this chapter because it helped me define the differences between my voice as a writer, the voice of the characters in a story, and the overall voice a story has. In a lot of my personal writing and essays and such I tend to write in a pretty comedic laid back and even sometimes sarcastic tone, because that’s who I am as a person, and it shines through in my writing. But that sort of style doesn’t necessarily work for every character whose POV I show, or of I’m writing in a different field or format for example I couldn’t write humorously in a scientific paper (although I would live to try), it just wouldn’t work with the corresponding tone and subject of that paper. This chapter really helped me to define the differences between these 3 types of voices, and how they sound. I really like how this chapter also reinforced the role voice place in setting the tone of a story, location or character. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they speak and what mannerisms they use, and character voice is a great way to do that in writing, when you can’t physically interact or see the characters.
Before going into this chapter, I thought I had a pretty good idea of “voice” as I have experience writing books that contained several different POV characters and that project gave me a lot of practice in learning how to differentiate between tone, personality, and rhythm from person to person, narrator to narrator. However, after reading chapter 8, I realized there was so much I didn’t know. For one, I never thought much about the different types of voices. I focused mainly on highlighting personality within my characters and didn’t think much about the different types of stylistic choices I could make with these voices. I thoroughly enjoyed the examples used in this chapter, as they really helped me understand the author’s point and the differences between the different styles of voice. My favorite was the example from Joyce’s Ulysses, under the “Other Voices” section of the chapter because it was kind of crazy, hard to follow at times, and functioned/read very much like a mind with thoughts jumping in and an inconsistency to the flow of words. It was very interesting and I felt that although it reads as confusing, it had a nice artistic flow to it. Although, I don’t think I favor that in terms of being a style of voice I would like to use. I usually stick to some sort of informal voice maybe with a mix of a few other elements. I think I sometimes slip into a formal or maybe even the lyrical type of voice. Overall, I think voice is one of my favorite things to play with when it comes to writing a story and I think this chapter just further solidified how much I love this aspect of writing.
This chapter discusses different ways you can show voice in short stories. What I found most interesting and helpful was the section on words. The way you use words in a short story especially if its a characters can really help the reader understand the character and how they would sound and act. It also talks about different syllable styles to use in what situations to make the tone of voice more real. Another section that was helpful to read was sentences. I feel like a story can’t be a story unless the sentences flow together smoothly and are easy to follow and understand. The chapter gives examples of different formatted sentences with different styles to show the differences in story telling. This will defiantly be helpful as I work on my short story.
Chapter 8 was about the voice of the story. Before I read this chapter I also assumed voice was how the characters spoke, and how their words and thoughts conveyed the idea of the story. But after reading this section I’ve come to understand that voice is how the story sounds. I really liked the idea that the voice is how the story sounds in the head of a reader, and how the way the words get translated into the understanding of the overall story. I also liked how there were different examples given about what types of voice can be used, and stories that we have heard this type of voice in before. I think that going forward in my writing career, being able to decipher the type of voice I want present and then continue that idea throughout the story is going to be really important. Like the author of this section said, I really didn’t give voice as much of a thought as I should have. Now with my understanding, I know exactly how to move forward with my writing to make sure the voice is heard as clearly as possible throughout my stories.