Tag: voice

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The Picky Pen

Considering Word Choice

Previously, we talked about the need to vary sentence structure to keep your writing from sounding repetitive. In that article, I compared it to word choice. This month, we are going to discuss how to avoid sounding like you are a writer with a limited vocabulary. Go on, break out those words you learned in English class! I remember filling out the numerous pages of activities in those vocabulary books we had in high school, but to be honest, the thesaurus was really my best friend in college. These days, finding replacement words is as easy as highlighting, right-clicking, and going to the built-in thesaurus in Microsoft Word.

There is more to word choice than just not sounding repetitive, though. Choosing the right word depends on several factors.

Questions to ask yourself when considering word choice:

1.    Who is your audience?

The words you choose should be appropriate for the intended audience. If your writing is informational, you are probably aiming at a specific audience; therefore, you will most likely be using technical jargon that those readers will already be familiar with. On the other hand, if you are aiming at the masses, you will use more commonly known words. Your choice of words is obviously going to be quite different if you are writing a piece such as a textbook than it would if you were writing a children’s picture book.

2.    Are your words specific enough for the reader to develop a clear picture?

Be descriptive. This can range from using a specific word to communicate meaning to using figurative language to make your writing more relatable to the reader.

Here are some examples to get you started.

·       Verbs

If you consistently use the word “said” when writing your dialogue, it begins to sound bland. Changing “said” to “squawked,” “bellowed,” or “sighed” lets the reader “hear” the tone being used, as well as envision the speaker’s body language. With a well-chosen verb, you may not even need an adverb, as it provides a visual description without it.

·       Subjects

The same subject in every sentence, such as a character, referring to an author, or using the same pronoun can quickly bore a reader. To keep the reader’s attention, you may want to use a transition phrase or place the dependent clause at the beginning of the sentence.

·       Similes and Metaphors

Use similes and metaphors to engage the senses when describing a scene. This allows the reader to activate prior experiences in order to understand what you are trying to convey. Experiences help the reader to create a vivid image, smell, feeling, or other sense in their mind.

·       Details

I am sure you are probably familiar with the phrase “It’s all in the details.” Well, that is exactly what we are talking about here. Those details are extremely important if you expect to have engaged readers that will return to your writing again and again. The reader does not want to know that the main character ate a hamburger. Instead, the reader wants to be able to visualize tasting that hamburger himself. It is not enough to say that you are standing in front of a mountain. Many people have never seen a mountain, so you need to paint a picture for that reader with sights and smells that they may already be familiar with.

3.    Is your passage too wordy?

I know, you are probably thinking that I just told you in the last section to be descriptive. Obviously, being descriptive often involves using lots of words, but not always. Sometimes, it is just best to be direct. This partially depends on your audience. If you are trying to inform readers who do not have prior knowledge of a subject, you may want to provide more specificity. On the other hand, you might not want to provide so much as to confuse the reader or make them lose interest. If you are writing to a group that is already well-informed on the subject, it may be best to be direct but use more technical jargon. There is a delicate balance to writing that can sometimes be difficult to navigate.

4.    Do your words fit the style and tone of your piece?

The tone of your writing serves to illustrate your emotional position, or feeling, regarding the subject you are writing about. Your word choice, the punctuation you use, and even sentence structure within your piece all convey what we call tone.

The two main types of tone are formal and informal.

·       Formal

Formal writing is typically used for academic purposes or other professional works. This tone is considered informational, or nonfiction. In this type of work, the writing is straightforward and full of facts. Sentences are grammatically correct, including no use of contractions.

·       Informal

Informal writing often sounds conversational and sometimes contains dialogue. Contractions can be used and the writer conveys more emotion.

Beyond being formal or informal, the tone of your writing can be just about any feeling there is.

Examples: angry, excited, friendly, worried, curious, humorous, cold

What tone do you think this piece has?

Word choice can be very difficult. Even if you are not sure which word to use during your initial version, you can (and should) edit and change words when you are done to make the piece flow well. Cut needless words so that your piece does not appear too wordy. Every word kept should express precisely what you want to communicate and should be needed in order to tell a part of the story.

Heather Malone

Heather Malone writes children’s books that focus mainly on Montessori education, special education, and nonfiction. She also dabbles in fiction. Her nonfiction book, Montessori from A to Z, was published in 2023, and her blog on homeschooling students with disabilities using the Montessori method can be viewed at spedmontessorisolutions.com. Her passion is education, which is evidenced by spending over twenty-five years in the field before leaving the classroom to now provide technical assistance to school districts. She lives with her husband and son in Ohio and enjoys traveling to new places in her free time.

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Guest Posts

The Absent Author

Guest posts

“You’ve drawn back,” that familiar voice whispered to my heart. I tried to shrug off the nudge. I knew I needed to be transparent with my readers, but it made me uncomfortable, as if naked in a crowd.

One night at writers group, I showed up with several miscellaneous pieces to share. An unfinished article lay at the bottom of the pile. I felt unqualified to write it because I still wrestled with the subject—forgiveness. I certainly didn’t want to read it to my writers group. It scared me to share any of my writing, let alone something that made me vulnerable. So, I read the pieces that cost little and allowed me to keep a safe emotional distance.

I always positioned myself at the table so I could see our leader.

While we shared our work, I watched the nuances of his expressions to get a real feel for his responses. I noted how he measured his words when he commented. As everyone stated what they liked about what I’d read, Jack leaned back, silent, in his chair.

“Jack, you’re awfully quiet.”

“I want to hear Rachael. I want to see Rachael on the page. I want to hear your voice.”

“They’re all me,” I said. But Jack stared stone-faced. “You just want to see me bleed, don’t you?”

“Yeah, you’re right. I do.”

So much for being incognito. All eyes fixed on us. I sighed and pulled the unfinished piece from beneath the pile of papers and read what would become my article entitled Forgive to my writers group.

“There you are,” Jack said. “There’s Rachael.”

A hush fell on the room. Though this took place at a public library, it felt like church.

I finished my article on forgiveness and posted it on my blog. A few days later, I received a message from a young man I’d never met who was attending a Bible conference put on by one of our churches across the country.

“Thanks for this post,” he said. “It’s exactly what I needed to hear. A huge weight lifted off me tonight. I was struggling all week to hear from God concerning a troublesome situation. There have been powerful sermons all week that were very applicable to my life, but I needed clear direction from God. Your blog post on forgiveness cut to the heart of the matter. I haven’t been able to leave any of the services with peace, but now I can. Thanks.”

Sometimes I fall short of the tall order of vulnerability in my writing, but I’m no longer resistant. My new writing mentor, Cec Murphey, appears determined to draw me into the startling light, and that’s a good thing. “Where’s Rachael in this piece?” he says. Yes, a bared soul can touch hearts in ways polished prose and hard facts alone cannot.

Oh, how rich the reward when we truly give of ourselves to serve others.

Rachael M. Colby has a heart for reconciliation and a passion to uplift those who serve in tough places. She writes to connect cultures’ questions with Christianity’s answers, inspire faith, and motivate.

Rachael’s work has appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul, the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference Blog, online publications, compilation books, and the Oak Ridger newspaper.

This Jamaican-born multi-genre award-winning writer, wife, and mom resides in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She runs on chocolate and a lotta “Help me, Jesus.”

Categories
Writing for YA

How to Write the Opening Scene: Infusing Emotional Connection From Page One

I had a conversation recently with one of my writing friends. She wanted to talk about how to infuse an opening scene with emotional connection.

“Here’s the most important truism about storytelling: readers don’t care what’s happening unless we care who it’s happening to.”

Tiffany Yates Martin, Intuitive Editing: A Creative and Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing

I never want a reader to think, “So what?“ I want them to feel connected to my main character and to be invested in the story’s outcome.

How to do that? First things first. Make the main character relatable, sympathetic, and/or interesting. This is easier said than done!

An author may have to try several different approaches before hitting on the one that works for a particular story. Sometimes I’ve kept the first draft version. Other novels or stories require more rewrites and edits of first pages.

Go Deep

Dive deep into your protagonist’s head, using strong, authentic voice. This can be a tricky concept to understand and master. The reader needs to know what the character is going through, thinking, and feeling, in an immersive way. Readers read to experience the story.

Creating an immersive experience and writing in deep point of view requires a whole set of skills, many of which you probably already have. Don’t try so hard that the prose becomes awkward and unwieldy. Give yourself the freedom to express the characters’ inner and outer life, but try to avoid writing in a way that distances the reader from those experiences.

How to write in deep point of view could take pages of discussion. Gather information from multiple, respected sources when researching how to improve in this area and remember to use what serves your story best.

Set it Up

Provide enough background and scene setting, so that the reader will care, but not so much they become frustrated or bogged down.

One of my story openings did well in contests, but beta reader feedback on the novel as a whole made it obvious I needed more background information early on. My readers couldn’t stay involved in the story and became frustrated with information gaps. The character entered the stage during a dramatic moment and while this was initially intriguing, by chapter four or five the story wasn’t working as well as it could.

I’d started the story in the wrong place.

A snappy opening is useless unless it serves the story.

The same is true for too much backstory, which can stop a story in its tracks and cause readers to lose interest.

Strive for Clarity

Make sure what’s in your head makes it onto the page. Part of my issue turned out to be over editing. Important information got left out of the revised version. (Or sometimes I never included it!)

Another pitfall could be that key information is present, but conveyed in a vague way.

Voice

Ahh, the elusive voice. Writing in deep point of view can help develop a character’s voice, but voice is a combination of things.

Try freewriting, character interviews, or listen to snatches of conversation to capture an authentic voice. I’ve found that the most authentic voice happens when I least expect it, so I keep notebooks handy and scribble down lines of my characters’ internal dialogue whenever they strike me. You can try out first person, third person, past or present tense. Find what works best for your character.

Create a Mood

Use the setting to create a mood that resonates with the reader. You don’t have to be a poet to create a mood with beautiful writing. Try for specific, vivid word choices.

Make a Statement

Start with a strong statement about a universal truth. These are statements that resonate deeply with readers because we recognize them as a fact. Or at least, we recognize that as far as the character is concerned it is a fact in their story world.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

I Need a Hero

Readers still not connecting with the protagonist? Have your character do something heroic. This doesn’t have to be an earth shattering, out of the ordinary event. If your character shows a small kindness, it will make them more likable. Consider the book Save the Cat. Until that book came out, I didn’t realize how many characters I’d read about in novels had saved a cat or a dog. It works! Revealing the complexity of a character can help readers connect more.

Readers come to your novel intending to enjoy the book. They want to be entertained and to escape into another world. Make them care about your character. Keep them oriented and grounded. Immerse the reader in the story world. Provide enough detail so that the reader is experiencing the story, give them a character that is interesting, make them care, and provide enough clarity so they are never lost and left confused. Make sure what’s in your head is on the page.

If you do these things, readers will stick around to see what happens next.

Donna Jo Stone writes YA contemporary novels about tough issues but always ends the stories with a note of hope. She blogs at donnajostone.com.

Categories
Mastering Middle Grade

Marching to Their Own Drum – Writing at a Pace Middle Grade Readers Love

Middle grade books are set apart from other genres by a few things. We’ve talked about these in other posts – content and voice are two important distinctives. Today I want to talk about pace. How do we pace our story in a way that connects with middle grade readers and keeps them turning pages?

Pace is the way in which your story’s elements unfold. It affects the mood of your story, the tension within your story, and sets expectations for what the reader can expect as they turn each page.

Speeding up the pace can signal humor, danger, or conflict. Slowing down the pace can signal a character’s internal growth or show us more about the character’s world. Both of these are important, because like adults, kids need variety to keep them reading.

Let’s talk about some “gas pedal” techniques to accelerate pace:

Dialogue Bursts

This is about using a short dialogue exchange and action tags to create urgency and drop important information. Example:

“Hear that?” Jack froze.

“What?” Mary stuffed the map in her pocket and grabbed another armful of jewelry from the trunk.

“Exactly. It’s too quiet.”

“You’re paranoid. Come on.”

“They’re on to us.” Jack clutched his flashlight.

“Are you gonna help me or not?” Mary tossed him an empty backpack. “Get moving.”

Cliffhangers

Create uncertainty and tension by ending a chapter with something that makes them wonder what could happen next.

Short Sentences

When you’re building tension, try shortening the sentence length. Shorten it again. It works.

Now, let’s look at ways to ‘pump the brakes.\

Internal responses

When you need to slow things down, even if only for a moment, show readers your character’s internal life. This could be as simple as a sentence or two in which the main character has an emotional reaction to their situation. It could also be a paragraph of them reflecting on a choice they made or thinking though their next action.

Description

Nobody wants to read purple prose, middle grade readers included. But that doesn’t mean your main character can’t describe anything. If your MC has a unique way of viewing the world (and they should), they probably also have a unique way of describing their world and the actions within it.

Flashbacks

Memories are a great way to add breathing room to your pace. A little backstory can serve as color and context, and it can also be a useful way to weave in clues about an event yet to come.

A few words about any kind of pace adjustment-

  1. Make sure that whatever you do moves the story forward. If you add a flashback scene, make sure it adds important information that’s relevant to a character’s motive or conflict.
  2. Read it out loud. If you can, ask a middle grade reader to read it too.
  3. Read more middle grade books to see other approaches.

Like anything else in writing, pace is a tool in a writer’s toolbox that gets more powerful each time you practice. What are some of your favorite pacing techniques? Let us know in the comments below, and happy writing!

When Kelli McKinney and her family aren’t exploring national parks, she can be found on the sidelines at her son’s tennis tournaments, brewing a cup of cinnamon spice tea, or chucking a toy across the backyard for her English Mastiff to chase.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and her graduate degree in radio/tv/film from the University of North Texas. She enjoyed an eclectic-yet-fulfilling fifteen-year career in corporate marketing before wandering off on her own to be a freelance copywriter.

Now, she is a part-time copywriter, full-time mom, and a children’s author. She lives in Texas but a huge piece of her heart belongs to Oklahoma. Her debut novel, JEFF PENNANT’S FIELD GUIDE TO RAISING HAPPY PARENTS is forthcoming in late 2022 with Chicken Scratch Books.

Kelli loves to hear from readers and writers. She can be reached through her website at www.kellmckinney.com or on Instagram @klmckinneywrites .

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Guest Posts

Reader, I…? Writing in the First Person

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), the character Atticus Finch says, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.” As authors, this is what we do when we choose to write in the first person. We come as close as we ever can to experiencing the world from a perspective that’s not our own. Writing fiction in the first person then is a leap of empathy and imagination, but the challenges this point of view (POV) poses are technical, as well as psychological. 

Some writers experiment with POV, trying out omniscient third, close third, and first, before settling on a narrative approach for their book. But when writing my debut novel, Bronte’s Mistress, I was never in any doubt as to whose voice the story needed to be told in. Not only was my book a response to one of the most famous first-person novels ever written, Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 Jane Eyre (“reader, I married him”), but my protagonist, Lydia Robinson, was a woman who’s been vilified through history as being responsible for the Bronte family’s demise. What would she say if she could tell her side of the story? I wondered. And, equally importantly, How would she say it?

Writing Lydia forced me to enter a world (1840s England) in which, even wealthy, women had few choices. She doesn’t own property, she’s never voted, she has no access to divorce. And it also made me confront the technicalities of writing first person prose, a few of which I’ll share with you today.

Placing your narrator in time

You’ve decided you’ll be writing in the first person, but this is just one of a series of hard choices. Now that you have the who, it’s time to think about the when. Will your first person narrator be telling the story from a point in the future? Will they know the story’s destination from the very first line? Think of Charles Dickens’s titular character David Copperfield (1850) or Nick Carraway in F. Scott Fitzerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925).

Choosing a retrospective viewpoint has the potential to make your story more didactic. It’s easier for a character to draw conclusions or moralize with the benefit of hindsight. And there are other advantages. For example, if your character is going to undergo a significant transformation, the older protagonist can excuse, explain or apologize for the behavior of their younger self, maintaining reader sympathy. This makes this choice popular for writers of bildungsroman. 

On the other hand, a retrospective first person can distance us from the character in the moment, alienating us from the action, and even intruding on scenes with overly expositional commentary. A retrospective first person can slacken the tension too. A first person character is already unlikely to die, but the existence of an older narrator pretty much precludes this possibility. If you write historical fiction like me, you might also have to pinpoint an exact year from which your protagonist is speaking, giving you a second time period to research and understand.

In Bronte’s Mistress, although the book is in the past tense, Lydia Robinson tells her story as if she’s in the moment and living through the events of the novel vs. relating the events years later. For me, this decision made sense as I wanted readers to feel viscerally with Lydia as she enters into an illicit and dangerous affair. However, I did occasionally miss the tools a retrospective first provides, like giving me the option to foreshadow more overtly.

Experiencing your story through their senses

Writing first person means your story can only contain what the protagonist knows, but this advice goes beyond questions of plot. 

Seeing the world through the narrator’s eyes means describing each new setting through the lens of what they would observe—and in the order in which they would notice every detail. Your characters’ senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch) become readers’ only points of access to the world around them. This isn’t a movie where you can start with an establishing shot before zooming in on the face of the character we’re following!

This means you have to be careful that your descriptions seem to fit within your character’s realm of experience. Can your narrator really detail different types of weapons? (Maybe yes, maybe no.) Can they see another character’s expression from so far away?

Watching your metaphors

Linked to this, is the difficulty of handling imagery (for instance, simile and metaphor), when writing in first person.

As with your descriptions, your images need to ring true to the character whose perspective you’re writing from. Would they know these words and think these thoughts? Crucially too, is this an appropriate moment for them to be thinking poetically? Or are you sacrificing believability because you’ve fallen in love with a sentence, phrase or image? If your character starts thinking in too many similes, they may seem distracted from the task at hand.

People have their favorite images and points of comparison, and these are dependent on their interests. Tapping into this can be a great way to establish your character’s personality, but you may also run the risk of making your imagery repetitive. In Bronte’s Mistress, for instance, my character Lydia is a good musician, so she often uses musical metaphors. This was a helpful guide for me, as music gave me a lot of scope to play, without the imagery I employed ever feeling out of place in her narration.

Offering other perspectives

Finally, one of the toughest parts of writing first person fiction is the danger for overidentification between the writer and the protagonist. How can you show that you disagree with your character’s views or actions, if you’re writing from their perspective?

Here, other characters’ voices (e.g. through dialogue) are crucial. Include others’ views to cast doubt on your protagonist’s conclusions or to hint that they might be unreliable. There is also potential to use irony in the same way, having “what happens next” totally contradicting what the first person narrator has thought/said previously.

In Bronte’s Mistress, I had another device to help me do this. I inserted letters addressed to Lydia at various points in my narrative, allowing me to showcase viewpoints that were in opposition to hers, and, of course, play around with additional first person voices!

I hope some of these tips have been helpful to those of you writing fiction in the first person. Writing using the “I” may seem straightforward, but when the going gets tough, remember that what you’re attempting is truly extraordinary. You’re stepping out of your own skin and into someone else’s. What could be more miraculous?

Finola Austin, also known as the Secret Victorianist on her award-winning blog, is an England-born, Northern Ireland-raised, Brooklyn-based historical novelist and lover of the nineteenth century. She has two degrees from the University of Oxford, including a Master’s in Victorian literature. Brontë’s Mistress is her first novel and is available for purchase now. By day, Finola works in digital advertising. Find her online at www.finolaaustin.com, or connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

Categories
Mastering Middle Grade

Write Like a Kid

When your critique partners tell you (more than once) your middle grade fiction sounds too adult, how do you fix it?

That depends on what kind of problem it is. If it’s the content that’s too adult, I talk about that in another post.

What I want to talk about today is the voice. How do we, adult authors-in-progress, write with a kid’s voice?

We’ve lived a few miles since we were middle grade readers. So it’s impossible to actually write as though we’re kids. Or is it?

Getting the voice right takes time, patience, practice, and a lot of editing. I haven’t fully cracked this code in my own writing, believe me, but I’ve read enough great middle grade voices to know it can be done.

Here’s what I’ve noticed about some of my favorite middle grade voices:

1) They are borne from a well-developed character or characters.

Imagine any of your favorite middle grade stories told by, well, anybody else. For example, could the opening paragraphs of RJ Palacio’s Wonder be as revealing and compelling if it were written from Auggie’s mother’s point of view? For example:

My name is August, by the way. I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse. –Wonder, by RJ Palacio.

Understanding how your characters view themselves, how they think, behave, dream, relate to the world around them, is so important. When you know who they are, you can decide the best words to use to reveal them on the page.

2) They don’t explain the jokes.

Humor is subjective, for sure, but as in real life, if you have to explain the joke, you’re probably telling it wrong. Doreen Cronin employs a delightfully dry humor to acquaint us with the main characters in her early middle grade book The Trouble With Chickens: A J.J. Tully Story, and in the process establishes a fabulously strong voice.

Her name was Millicent. I called her Moosh, just because it was easier to say and it seemed to annoy her. She had two little puffy chicks with her. She called them Little Boo and Peep. I called them Dirt and Sugar, for no particular reason.

If Doreen had added a few sentences that explained why calling the chickens by the wrong name was funny, would it have been as funny? More importantly, would we have learned as much about the character of our narrator, J.J. Tully?

3) They don’t underestimate the reader.

Middle grade readers are dependent upon adults for their well-being, so they seek stories in which the protagonist child is self-sufficient enough to solve their own problems with minimal adult help. In Sharon Draper’s middle grade story Out of My Mind, not only is the protagonist a child, she has cerebral palsy, confined to a wheelchair, and is unable to speak. Through use of voice, Draper skillfully crafts a complete, complex character whose coming of age tale is both triumphant and heartbreaking.

Everybody uses words to express themselves. Except me. And I bet most people don’t realize the real power of words. But I do. Thoughts need words. Words need a voice. I love the smell of my mother’s hair after she washes it. I love the feel of the scratchy stubble on my father’s face before he shaves. But I’ve never been able to tell them.

Draper’s unflinching look at the inner life and challenges of a differently-abled child doesn’t talk down to the reader in any way. She starts from a place that assumes readers are capable of empathy and connection.

These are just a few things I’ve learned from reading and writing middle grade, and I know I have miles to go. What are some techniques you’ve noticed in other middle grade authors’ work? Let me know in the comments.

Kell McKinney earned a B.A. in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and an M.S. in documentary studies from the University of North Texas. She’s a part-time copywriter, double-time mom and wife, and spends every free minute writing and/or hunting for her car keys. Connect with her on Twitter @Kell_McK or kellmckinney.com.

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A Lighter Look at the Writer's Life

Hey, you! Can you hear me?

lighter look at a writer's life

The other day in my Interpersonal Communication class, we talked about “acoustic space,” which is the distance your voice carries in a given situation. It was a lively discussion, and I came to a realization.

My acoustic space is the length of the Atlantic Seaboard. My voice is loud and proud, and people tell me my laugh is distinctive (What are they talking about, anyway? LOLOLOL). All the time, friends say, “I knew you were in the store because I heard you!” What can I say? My voice is loud! No getting around it.

I have learned to live with my booming voice and laugh, but I hope my writing voice is just as unique. In my experience, I try to write like I sound. That may be oversimplification, but it works for me.

I approach my writing voice as if I were sitting down with you over a cup of coffee (or lemonade, since I gave up caffeine awhile back). Most of the time I write humor, and, as already mentioned, I love to laugh. So, as in conversation, I am going to break out every witticism, every cliché, every funny thing I can think of to make you laugh as I try to inspire you. I’m wacky that way.

That’s my style, and I’ll stick to it as long as the Lord allows. My type of writing would not work for everyone or in every situation. Imagine if I tried to write a suspense novel. It’s funny to think about, but I believe it would be DISASTROUS if I actually attempted such a work. Not my style, not my voice. I’ll leave the suspense to authors like Ted Dekker and Brandilyn Collins, who have honed and developed their unique voices in that genre (And who probably make a lot more money from writing than I do—on second thought, maybe I should try . . .).

All in all, writing voice is about letting your personality shine on the page or on the screen. It’s quite unusual that I am such an extrovert who is also called to write, but blame God for that—He often uses the foolish to confound the wise. In person, I’m ALL CAPS AND EXCLAMATION POINTS!! I try to pull that back in my writing, but I still want to make you smile.

So grab a cup of coffee or lemonade or even water and get ready to smile for a while. Be warned: you may need earplugs if we’re together in person.

During weekdays, Carlton Hughes sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher (wah-wah wah-wah-wah) as a community college professor of communication and journalism. On Sundays and Wednesdays, you’ll find him playing games, performing songs with motions, and doing object lessons in his role as a children’s pastor. He and his wife Kathy also attempt to keep up with their two college-age boys, Noah and Ethan.

In his “spare” time, Carlton is a freelance writer who has been published in numerous books, including several recent releases from Worthy Publishing: The Wonders of Nature, So God Made a Dog, Just Breathe, Let the Earth Rejoice, and Everyday Grace for Men. He has been featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul and other publications and is represented by Cyle Young of the Hartline Agency. He contributes regularly to two writing blogs, almostanauthor.com and inspiredprompt.com. He specializes in humorous observations of everyday life, connecting those experiences with spiritual application.

Carlton loves watching classic sitcoms like I Love Lucy, eating way too much chocolate, and rooting for his favorite college and high school basketball teams. He is on the planning committee for Kentucky Christian Writers Conference and a year-round volunteer for Operation Christmas Child.

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Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Your Voice

Last month I mentioned the ultimate goal of every writer, whether experienced or a beginner—we want our audience to take away a particular idea or concept from our writing.

While that may be our reason for writing a particular prose, it is influenced by how we say it. Otherwise known as the elusive author’s voice. Everyone has something to say and a unique way to say it.

It’s part of the art of communication, how we express ourselves to others makes us unique and it is a result of many factors. For the sake of time I want to focus on four factors, particularly the last.

  • Situational: the situation we’re trying to express ourselves in.
  • Developmental/education: our education and how we process information.
  • Environment/culture: the circumstances and our surroundings.
  • Physical/abilities: how we best express ourselves or are able/disabled

Yes, even people with disabilities have a unique voice.

Voice?

I think our actual voices are something we take for granted every day. You never know how important it is until you lose it. After I had my accident, I literally lost my unique voice. When I talked, I spoke in a monotone voice like Forrest Gump. I couldn’t hear it at first, but after listening to my therapist’s recording, it was clear as a whistle, I only had to listen.

Fortunately, I had recorded the greeting on my answering machine. My therapist’s treatment involved listening to that greeting over and over until I got used to my distinct voice characteristics. I would’ve never have known my voice had been lost, if someone hadn’t pointed it out to me.

The same principle applies to an author’s voice. After blogging for a half decade, I never really heard my voice until Christian author DiAnn Mills listened to my writing and shared her thoughts with me.

After years of writing about my struggles of being disabled and single, I had developed a transparent and vulnerable writing voice. It’s ironic; my strength in writing is in knowing my weakness.

At this point, I should confess that there are many other authors and professionals who can explain voice better than I can. I am still new to this, that’s why I write for Almost An Author.

I do know most writers struggle to develop a unique voice and often confuse it with what they think “their” voice is. Other writers know what it’s not:

  1. Your angle.
  2. Your delivery.
  3. Your platform.

Your voice is unique to you and your personality; it develops the more you write. Christian literary agent Rachel Gardner puts it this way, “Your writer’s voice is an expression of YOU on the page.”

When you write, your audience should hear your voice, kind of like the greeting on my answering machine in college.

Hearing?

Each time I write I try to focus on what I am trying to say to my audience and I try to visualize them. I think about how I can best communicate an idea in my own personal way.

It may not be perfect or the most intellectual prose, but it will be my words and hopefully they will hear my voice. Gardner continues:

“It’s a unique conglomeration of your:

After living with a disability for over 20 years, I’ve learned its okay to be different—to be me. I don’t have to be the next Jerry B. Jenkins, C. S. Lewis or Francis Chan. They have their stories to tell and I have my own narratives, ideas and beliefs to share in a way only I can.

The same goes for you. As you write, think about who you are, what you’ve been through and how you feel.

Over time you will find your voice.

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Truamatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Talking Character

Are Your Characters Too Consistent?

Do you always tell the truth?

Do you use the same tone and vocabulary when speaking to your friends and your boss’s boss?

Do you behave consistently, even when you are stressed, tired, or suddenly facing a roomful of  screaming toddlers?

Probably not.

So your fictional characters shouldn’t either.

A fully developed character will act and speak differently based on the situation, the other people in the scene, his mood, or even his changing goals. A writer must be careful, however, to establish a character’s primary voice and modes of behavior before attempting to vary them. Otherwise a reader will likely assume a character who behaves inconsistently is due to author error rather than author intent.

When to allow your character to act inconsistently:

  • When the unexpected behavior or speech develops character. You’ve all seen the tough guy who turns into a marshmallow when interacting with small children—your characters can react in a similar (but less stereotypical) manner to show the reader a different side of their personalities.
  • When it enhances the plot in some way. Perhaps your normally calm character has an irrational fear of snakes. Mention the fact somewhere along the line, and then dump them into a critical situation that includes snakes. Now your runs away instead of confronting her nemesis (plot twist), or else conquers her fear of snakes and earns the reader’s respect.

Questions to ask when considering inconsistent behavior

  • What individuals or groups might cause a difference in behavior? For example, your hero is confident around friends and coworkers, but full of self-doubt when facing the boss. Or he’s generally friendly, except with the waitress at the local diner. (And why is that? You’d better tell us before the story is over.)
  • In what situations will the character tell the truth, try to evade the truth, or outright lie? Is he usually honest? Then it might be worthwhile putting him in a situation where he doesn’t want to tell the truth.
  • What groups or individuals bring out the softer side of a person? Alternately, who or what forces a naturally kind person to be insensitive or aggressive?
  • In what situations might my character feel safe enough to open up and risk being vulnerable? (And did they make the right choice, or do they lack judgment in this area?)
  • When will the heroine use formal speech, and when informal? What will cause her to swear if that is not her normal character?
  • What might cause a normally terse character to begin babbling? A chatty character to become non-communicative?
  • Don’t forget actions. In what situations might an energetic character grow lethargic, or a slow and methodical character become rash? Why might a character suddenly desist from an established habit? (Did he skip his third cup of coffee because his mother is visiting, or is there another reason?)

[bctt tweet=”Where and when might your characters act inconsistently? #amwriting #authenticity” username=””]

[bctt tweet=”How can you add depth to your characters through inconsistent behavior? #writing #writetip” username=””]

Categories
Talking Character

Give Your Character Attitude

Dig deep and you’ll find attitude, and when you find attitude, you find voice. ~ James Scott Bell in Voice: The Secret Power of Great Writing.

What kind of attitude does your main character display? Do her words drip with sarcasm? Is his inner monologue colored by his bleak outlook? If your character doesn’t ooze attitude, maybe you need to dig a little deeper.

These simple exercises will help you dig deep and explore your character’s attitude.

One-word lists

Make a list of ten or so words that your character would use to answer questions such as:

  • What are you most afraid of?
  • What keeps you up at night?
  • What are the dreams you are afraid to tell anyone about?
  • What makes your blood boil?
  • What turns you into a puddle of mush?

The more intrusive the questions, the better the results. You are trying to force your characters to reveal their deepest feelings, which will color their attitudes.

Connect the dots

Choose a random word from one of the above lists. Free-write about that word from your character’s POV. After a few minutes, randomly choose another word and connect it to what you’ve been writing. Write for a few minutes and then select another word and connect that to what has come before. Keep going as long as you like. Did you discover any interesting connections that surprised you? Did the combination of words take you down a path you would never have thought of? Did you unearth any gems of attitude that make your character more complex or in-your-face?

Do the unexpected

Imagine your character in a typical setting. Now, imagine they do something destructive, like smash an expensive vase, kick the dog, or set a building on fire. Brainstorm what might motivate the character to do such a thing. Keep digging until you discover something that resonates. How can you tap into this deep well of passion in the pages of your novel?

The autobiography

Imagine your character as an older person, twenty, or perhaps fifty years in the future. Put them in a situation where they are compelled to relate their past to someone. When the character remembers the incidents in your novel, how would he talk about them? What would he mention, and what would he rather not think about? What attitudes and revelations would hindsight have given him? How can this exercise inform his character arc?

Mood music

Choose a piece of music that has a distinct mood (romantic, suspenseful, victorious, jubilant). Instrumental music works best. I suggest pieces from sound tracks—especially from movies you haven’t seen recently. While listening to the music, free-write from the POV of your character. Try a journal entry, or plunk the character into a situation from the story and let them react however they like. The more they ramble about their feelings, the better. Now switch to a different piece of music and try again.

This exercise may be particularly useful if you are struggling to understand their reactions to a specific situation. Identify the emotion of the scene and listen to music that captures that mood. The emotions in the music might pull new emotion from the character.

In conclusion, the more attitude your characters exhibit, the more memorable they will be. A writer should not be a good parent, gently instructing our characters to be on their best behavior. Instead, we should prod our characters into letting their attitudes shine for all to see—rude comments and all.

[bctt tweet=”Does your character ooze attitude? #writer #attitude” username=””]

[bctt tweet=”Dig deep and you’ll find attitude, and when you find attitude, you find voice. James Scott Bell #quote” username=””]

[bctt tweet=”Five simple exercises to explore character attitude. #writetips #amwriting” username=””]

Categories
Talking Character

Developing Your Character’s Voice

I was once in a bus full of high school students when I heard a boy behind me read a single sentence. I immediately recognized the author.

That’s voice.

[bctt tweet=”A strong voice is distinct, memorable, and intriguing. #writetips ” username=””]

It can grab a reader like little else. A few examples:

One day soon they hang me for a rogue. Fair enough. I have earned it a hundred times over, I reckon, and that’s leaving out a lot of acreage. Stephen Lawhead in Scarlet

I am the most tolerant of women, but to join my husband, my son, and my butler in a discussion of our evening in an opium den … was really a bit too much. Elizabeth Peters in The Deeds of the Disturber

When it came to shopping for something that required as much hope and longing as a beautiful dress, I was like a child raised by wolves—or some other, more nervous animal. Rabbits, maybe.   Alyssa Harad in Coming to My Senses

So where does voice come from? The character? The writer?

Some of both, actually.

Three layers of discovering character voice

Layer one—the basics

Consider all you know about your character. His physical description, temperament, background, and demographics can all affect how he speaks. A well-educated or socially elite character will use different vocabulary and grammar than someone from the servant class. A character may be terse or chatty. He may favor colorful metaphors or concrete descriptions. He may use specific words or phrases that provide a hint of dialect, ethnicity, or historical setting.

Layer two—the deeper stuff

Next consider the character’s inner self. Bring together her two-word thumbnail, backstory, wounds, inner issues, and story goals. From this information, identify five or six key emotions that drive the character toward her story goal. Is she determined, bitter, and desperate or melancholy, yearning, and in love?

Layer three—the writer’s connection

Now that you’ve identified the style of a character’s speech and bored down their emotional essence, you need to find a way to connect with this particular character. Her story may be worlds away from anything you have experienced, but that’s OK. In this case, “write what you know” isn’t about having the same experiences, it’s about experiencing the same emotions. Come up with specific incidents in your own past where you experienced each of the emotions you identified in layer two. If you tap into those memories, you will be able to relate deeply to your character as you write.

Putting it together

You might think of layer one as informing the structure of a character’s voice, while layers two and three inform the content and attitude. Experiment with the voice by free-writing in first person, keeping in mind the style attributes of layer one and your emotional memories from of layer three. Push the character to ramble on about his inner fears or his wild dreams until you begin to sense his distinct voice. Don’t be timid. The more passion, the more risk, the stronger the voice. And don’t forget to have fun.

Voice is born from a lot of words and a lot of work — but not just any words or any work will do. You have to bleed a little. You have to shiver a little. You have to love a lot… Holly Lisle

[bctt tweet=”Where does voice come from? The character? The writer? or some of both? #writer” username=””]

[bctt tweet=”You have to bleed a little. You have to shiver a little. You have to love a lot. Holly Lisle #quote #voice” username=””]

Categories
Blogging Basics

What’s Your Blogging Personality?

Develop a consistent blogging personality

Remember the insecure days of adolescence? We changed looks, styles, and personalities as we tried to figure out this important question: Who am I?

Back in the day my hair styles vacillated from straight to curly and from Farrah-Fawcett wings to teased up bangs. Some days I was the outgoing cheerleader and other days the quiet bookworm.

When it comes to blogging, it is important to choose a personality that fits you. Your topics may vary, but readers depend on your persona to remain consistent.

[bctt tweet=”A well-developed blogging personality fosters loyalty from your readers.”]

What’s Your Blogging Personality?

Which one of these personalities best fits your purpose and writing voice?

The Expert

Is your blog tied to expertise you have in a subject? Are you an authority with experience and knowledge to share? Are most of your posts informational? Are people coming to your for answers and information?

The Reporter

The reporter conveys facts and information in a journalistic style. Do you comment on current events? Is your focus to share information about what’s happening?

The Friend

The friend comes along side with a conversational tone. Friendly and empathetic, do you share confidences and build relationships?

The Storyteller

The storyteller master’s the art of story. Posts have a narrative influence and pull the reader into the midst of something happening. Stories are an effective way to entertain, to evoke emotion, illustrate points, teach lessons, inspire changes, and even to sell ideas or products.

The Helper

The helper shares a wealth of practical information and how-to details. Filled with ideas and tips, the helper becomes a go-to source for projects and advice. Generally, the Helper has a friendly, you-can-do-this tone.

The Motivator

The Motivator has the ability to move people to action and change. Motivators build energy and create movement in readers. Flavored with positivism and inspiration, these personalities are popular with blog readers.

The Cheerleader

Cheerleader’s create enthusiasm and build confidence in readers. We’re in this together and You can do it are trademarks of the cheerleader’s influence. Similar to motivators, cheerleaders help readers achieve success and reap practical benefit.

The Marketer

Presenting information and benefits, marketer’s engage audiences with the aim to sell a product or  build an organization. Today’s marketing bloggers cultivate relationships, offer free incentives, and build loyalty in order to effectively convert traffic into sales.

The Analyzer

Similar to the Reporter and the Expert, Analyzers fall more into the informational vein of blogging. Opinions, surveys, reviews, and research are a few of the tools preferred in this style of blogging.

Not sure what your blogging personality is?

New bloggers often try out different personalities and styles before settling into a consistent voice. This is a natural part of the development of a writer. Give yourself time to discover your blogging personality. If you aren’t sure about your blogging persona, ask for feedback from people you trust to give an honest opinion.

Another helpful tip is to evaluate the personality and style of your favorite bloggers. Can you pinpoint a consistent personality? How do they convey personality–through attitude, tone, language, topic, emotion, information? As you learn how other writers show personality, you will learn new ways of sharing your unique voice.

Effective bloggers develop their personality, voice, and style with consistency. A well-developed blogging voice builds trust with readers who have chosen to follow your blog. [bctt tweet=”People read blogs for a variety of reasons, but a strong, consistent personality keeps them coming back.”]

 

What’s your blogging personality? What blogging personalities do you enjoy reading?