Feb 12, 2010

Wannabe Writers #3

Wannabe Writers is a group for all of you out there who are un-published like me. I wanted to start a place where us future young-adult authors can come together to ask those writing questions, share our stories, and get feedback. Here's how it works: (click here)

Where I am in the writing process: Chugging through my 2nd ever manuscript. (The first sits on my shelf messy and forgotten--I look at it as practice.) Also, toying around with a weird new idea.

My current problem(s): This is an on-going issue of mine... I'm working through the process of find this mythical creature they call voice. Example. A while back my mom read my blog and some of my book. She kept going on and on about how much she liked my blog. (Meanwhile, I’m like NO! You’re supposed to like my book better!) She said she liked my blog so much because there was so much of me in it. Meaning, when she read it she knew without a doubt I wrote it. She didn’t get that same feeling from my book. So now when I write I try to write as freely in my manuscript as I do in my blog. But that's not as easy as it sounds. A critique partner once told me sometimes I write and it sound like I'm trying to be a writer and other times I write and I sound real. I think those "real" parts in my writing is what voice is.

My question(s) this week: Voice? Also, how do I make my other characters sound different? I write in 1st person and that voice belongs to my main character. But the problem is that all the other characters are starting to sound just like her. Obviously, I try to make each secondary character have a different personality, likes, dislikes, special phrases they often use, etc. But I still feel like I'm writting a story with 20 different me's here. What do I do to seperate them?

13 comments:

sarah darlington said...

I forgot to say...I'm posting early this week, again. I'm still suck and bored indoors from all the snow. Anyway. Next week I'll likely post Saturday morning.

Melissa (i swim for oceans) said...

I think voice is the one strength I might actually have - or so the agents I queried said. I write a lot like I would talk, so it's more of a natural flow, and I think that's fun for the reader. That said, I have all my downfalls in tense, plot holes, lack of focus...blah blah blah haha :)

sarah darlington said...

NO that's really good. That's what I was saying. I'm trying to write more freely like that. But it's hard to do and in an organized way, I guess.

Summer Frey said...

More than anything, I think finding your voice comes through practice.

As far as giving all characters different voices, I try to think about how all the people I know talk in different ways--what kind of vocabulary do they have? Do they have a lot of speech fillers (um, yeah, you know)? Do they talk in long sentences, short sentences? Do they stay on topic well, or do they get distracted easily?

Again, practice...practice... Short stories are a good method for this...

Good luck, and don't worry about it too much!

Swimmer said...

I can't post my blog till tommarow but I just did this so I wont forget. Anyway I will post tommorow(spell check?) night.

Anonymous said...

Love Summer's questions and agree. Practice is the key with anything. I've got Melissa's issue with the tense. Not sure why that is, but I do.

sarah darlington said...

http://efuse.com/Design/wa-voice.html

This is a pretty good article on Voice I found this morning.

Unknown said...

Love your blog!!! Found it at Kristin Rae's blog... whom I love!!!

The beach pictures are fantastic!!!

Swimmer said...

Ok so I just put up my post come check it out!!

Swimmer said...

Ok so I just put up my post come check it out!!

Bookish in a Box said...

I try to describe things like I talk and explain what I would consider important. It's a little off-kilter from other people, which I think makes it distinctly me. Voice is a hard thing to pin down, and I have a problem with consistency too.

Jillian said...

I just discovered your blog and this meme, and now I just participated for the first time. What a great meme :)

Jillian said...

Oh gosh, clearly I wasn't paying attention as I put the link on the wrong topic. I will post it up on the right one though. Sorry!