I HAVE been thinking about the rich and varied pieces that you all brought in as examples of admired voices; the voices that continue to play in your heads. Often when I'm just beginning to work on a piece -- particularly if I'm delving into something I know will be difficult to navigate, something long, complex or most likely will be controversial -- one of the first things I want to establish is tone. I realize that pause, is part of my process of centering myself to find my "voice" and consequently, the appropriate tone of the story. I often do this by first grabbing for writers I love and admire whose voices convey both authority and lyricism. Mine?: James Baldwin, Leonard Michaels, Joan Didion, Albert Camus -- for starters. There is something about the way the words move on the page that put me in a what I call my "writers trance" -- when I can hear myself, my voice.
I've been reading a book called The Writer's Voice, by essayist and journalist,A. Alvarez that is a brief meditation on "voice" and how it differs from style. I thought I'd share a piece of what I'm reading here.
"By comparing writing and psychoanalysis, I'm implying that finding your own voice as a writer is in some ways like the tricky business of becoming an adult. For a writer, it's also a basic instinct like a bird marking its territory, though not straightforward or so musical. So how do you do it? First, you do what all young people do: you try on different personalities for size and you fall in love. Young writers, in fact, are a peculiarly promiscuous lot . . . . First the writer's voice dazzles you and you read everything you can lay your hands on. If that doesn't cure you, the sickness goes critical and you become obsessed with the beloved's whole take on life: what he did, where he went, even the kind of people he slept with. You don't want to be like him, you want to be him. In retrospect, infatuation is as embarrassing as promiscuity, but for the writer it is a necessary part of the weary process of growing up."
My question to you, class: Who are the writers that you've fallen "in love with," the voices you've found yourselves mimicking in your own writing as you've worked to find your voice? To find the right "mood" for your piece? Do you still do it? How does it help you get started? Leave comments below.
L.G.
vonnegut. when i encountered that voice in 7th grade, so full of humor and cynicism and wry observations, i realized what voice was and what i wanted mine to sound like. the cadences, the leitmotifs, i wanted that. i wrote a very long piece in 8th grade in vonnegut's style -- encouraged by my english teacher, though cautioned against using foul language -- and continued to think that if i kept at it, one day, i could produce something truly vonnegut-worthy.
ReplyDeleteit was years beyond high school, beyond college even, when i realized that in the same way that character determines plot, viewpoint determines voice. if hitler (to pick the most obvious) had written MEIN KAMPF in vonnegut's style i would not have been drawn to the style because in the end it was vonnegut's vision of the world that clicked with me; i merely assumed it was the narrative style because they were both unique to my experience at the time and confused one with the other.
i did not initially appreciate steinbeck in school, but only after years of my own writing did i recognize, again, a voice and a viewpoint i could relate to. every couple of years i pick up OF MICE AND MEN and marvel at the economy of what it accomplishes, but it's stienbeck's humanity that i respond to.
it is the voice of the outsiders looking in (or perhaps insiders pointing out the naked emperor) whose voices attract. i've gone on infatuation jags with writers like terry southern, richard braughtigan, jamaica kincaid, peter handke, francesa lia block, daniel pinkwater, and e.e. cummings. each of these love affairs has left a bit of residue on me, my writing, my voice. it is the accumulation of these affairs that molds the way i put words together.
As an English major this is an embarrassing topic to discuss, but sitting down to read a book is incredibly difficult (for me)! Two weeks ago I finished reading The Great Gatsby; this was the first time completing a pleasure read since middle school. In school and while perusing the internet I have found brilliant pieces, either chapters, articles, or excerpts, but have yet to pursue the author's work further.
ReplyDeleteIn my studies, Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass jumps to the forefront of my mind, but I cannot recount any specific passages, only that his writing was beautiful ... and then I had to write a paper for an ethics class.
Distractibility and a fast paced life are laughable excuses for such limited exploration, but I genuinely hope to broaden my literary repertoire. In another class this semester we are reading The Kiss by Kathryn Harrison; it's incredibly powerful. Someone read an excerpt from this during class and every page reads in a similar poetic fashion; it's beautiful, artful, and convincing on every level.
William Faulkner is often quoted: “Read, read, read. Read everything - trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out the window.”
I suppose it's not bad advice.
That Faulkner quote reminds of a favorite Kurt Vonnegut quote. When asked which books kids should read, he tossed back: "Any damn book!"
ReplyDeleteThe idea was just to get them reading and more important into the habit and flow of the experience.
I find it easier to typify the kind of writer I strive to be rather than looking to a pre existing author for inspiration. When I think of voice, I think of my inner emotions aspiring to be felt on paper as much as they are experienced within. On that note, I believe my voice resonates in an eloquent and descriptive persona. Not to say that I can't look to literature for inspiration, I just find that personal experiences and observations can sometimes lead to remarkable writing.
ReplyDeleteSometimes when I read my writing, I think I sound like an annoying, young, emotional teenager. Hopefully through trials and tribulations of different writing topics, my voice will still possess the young emotional woman side but maybe incorporate more maturity and retrospection.
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@Chelsea: I know what you mean. Particularly when I was in college, the when I sat down to write (free-write) the idea for me was to in some way figure out how to convey an experience, scene, moment, view, emotion -- what have you -- precisely that way it might have felt to have been there. What it looked like, smelled like etc. There was something about the challenge of that. I would work and work until I felt I had in some way done whatever it was I'd witnessed justice. I'd get caught up in the cadence of the sentences, the flow of the scenes. It was a process. Meticulous. It forced me to be very quiet and listen. I hadn't thought about that in years. And I do believe that that -- that refining that personal prism is part of the journey toward voice. Thanks for shaking that memory free for me.
ReplyDeleteThis has always been a difficult question for me. I feel like I have always been able to read and relate to a wide variety of writing by many different authors. It really depends on the piece of writing at hand and if I can personally find my own understanding with it. With that said however, two of my favorite books are "The Outsiders" by SE Hinton and "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. While these are both fictional writings, I find myself returning to them constantly for insight as well as pleasure. What made me "fall in love" with these authors through their works is their ability to cover such difficult transgressions that everyone faces in a understandable manner. I feel as if they are speaking directly to me through the thoughts and actions of the characters they have created. While I may not be experiencing the same problems presenting in the writing, I still feel like I can apply the insight in my own life. This is an example of something I wish to incorporate in my own writing: being able to reach out to my audience and make them feel like I am speaking to them directly. If my writing can hit close to home for a reader than I feel like it would be a job well done.
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