- Joined
- Dec 7, 2009
- Messages
- 4,734
Narrative Voice is a storytelling element I’ve focused on a lot this year. What is it? Does it just happen or can it be controlled? If it’s controllable, how? What techniques can we use?
Some background: I’m trying to develop a new narrative voice for myself. The voice I’ve used for 20 years is not objectively nor subjectively bad or wrong. Simply, my stories are often slow paced, with meandering conversations and long descriptions. What I want to develop is a more concise voice, one that focuses each scene on one or two primary story elements, be it advancing the plot, developing characterization for one character, exploring the magic system or tech or this one location in the story. Of course, the scene can do more than just those one or two things—and, perhaps, should—but that focus is what I’m going for.
In short, the difference between my old and new voices are an after dinner stroll where you stop and smell the roses and admire lawn ornaments and take pictures of them VS a lunch hour walk to the store near work where you buy lunch, take it to the nearby park to eat, then return to work in time to clock in again.
Enjoying the sights and sounds are possible with both types of walks (voices), but in different ways and not to the same extent.
Further, I decided my voice needed to change for two reasons: lately, I’ve enjoyed reading books with this more focused voice and, second, I’m trying to write a fast-er paced adventure story which my old voice is far too slow paced for. And despite my purposeful writing in a different/new voice, I find myself slipping into the old.
Should I be asking about Pacing? Even I think it’s starting to sound like that’s my real question. Yet, while they’re related, they are also distinct.
What are your thoughts on Narrative Voice? How do you control it? How do you keep yourself from falling into old habits when you’re trying to do something different and new? Is it something that can only be done in later drafts?
Honestly, I’ve never been one for “messy first drafts” and “just get the story down on paper!” It’s good advice, but it’s not helpful or, indeed, useful to each and every writer. I’m one of them. I know. *Shudder. Yes, my first drafts are messy compared to the final draft. But that doesn’t mean I let them be messy while I write them. So, what have you done, if anything, in your first drafts concerning your narrative voice?
For an example of my two voices, here is a link to a thread in our Stories sub-forum with the first scene in my summer novella written in each voice (~1,500 words total).
Some background: I’m trying to develop a new narrative voice for myself. The voice I’ve used for 20 years is not objectively nor subjectively bad or wrong. Simply, my stories are often slow paced, with meandering conversations and long descriptions. What I want to develop is a more concise voice, one that focuses each scene on one or two primary story elements, be it advancing the plot, developing characterization for one character, exploring the magic system or tech or this one location in the story. Of course, the scene can do more than just those one or two things—and, perhaps, should—but that focus is what I’m going for.
In short, the difference between my old and new voices are an after dinner stroll where you stop and smell the roses and admire lawn ornaments and take pictures of them VS a lunch hour walk to the store near work where you buy lunch, take it to the nearby park to eat, then return to work in time to clock in again.
Enjoying the sights and sounds are possible with both types of walks (voices), but in different ways and not to the same extent.
Further, I decided my voice needed to change for two reasons: lately, I’ve enjoyed reading books with this more focused voice and, second, I’m trying to write a fast-er paced adventure story which my old voice is far too slow paced for. And despite my purposeful writing in a different/new voice, I find myself slipping into the old.
Should I be asking about Pacing? Even I think it’s starting to sound like that’s my real question. Yet, while they’re related, they are also distinct.
What are your thoughts on Narrative Voice? How do you control it? How do you keep yourself from falling into old habits when you’re trying to do something different and new? Is it something that can only be done in later drafts?
Honestly, I’ve never been one for “messy first drafts” and “just get the story down on paper!” It’s good advice, but it’s not helpful or, indeed, useful to each and every writer. I’m one of them. I know. *Shudder. Yes, my first drafts are messy compared to the final draft. But that doesn’t mean I let them be messy while I write them. So, what have you done, if anything, in your first drafts concerning your narrative voice?
For an example of my two voices, here is a link to a thread in our Stories sub-forum with the first scene in my summer novella written in each voice (~1,500 words total).
