"Dear Diary" - Finding My Voice

I'm still relatively young in my writing life. Just under two years now of serious writing. I've written several novel drafts, but nothing is quite right yet. There is an online contest where mentor writers accept submissions and choose one they would like to work with before submitting to agents. So many of the mentors mentioned a strong voice as a necessary element. I didn't really understand what they meant.

I did some searching about voice. The Seekerville blog has a good list of posts addressing voice (http://seekerville.blogspot.com/search/label/Voice). Several of the posts related writing voice to singing voice. Voice is personal. Billie Holliday sounds different than Etta James. Writers write with different vocabulary and rhythm. Their style is personal.


So what does this mean for me? Looking at my writing, it was too generic, too robotic. No life. No personality. I had a brainstorm. I needed to write like I was writing in my diary. Unfiltered and honest. But the voice needs to belong to my characters. Thus is born the character diary. Below is my first attempt. This is the diary of Aria from my novel "Uncrushed." These diary entries have her reflecting on the action that occurs in the first few chapters. Maybe I will go in and take some of this language to put in the novel itself. Enjoy!


Personal Property of Aria Mitchell
Do Not Read!


December 2

Dear Diary,

Today was the Christmas Parade. It was frickin cold outside! It was all worth it though, because I got to see Noah. He looked soooo good in his pea coat, hat, and scarf. Stupid pretty girls were hanging on him though. I wish I were pretty like them. Maddie caught me being all huffy about the whole thing, so I fessed up that I still liked him. She said he was out of my league! That is so not true. We’re like old family friends—sorta. Too bad Dor and Chris are in college now or they’d all be hanging out in our basement all the time still. Did I mention Jessica was her normal witch self? She even threw a hand warmer at me. She’s lucky it didn’t hurt or I would have…well, nothing probably, but still.

  

December 4

Dear Diary,

Tomorrow is the reading of our poems in English. I’ve practiced a hundred times, but I still don’t want to get up in front of the class. I hate everyone’s eyes staring at me. In theater, the audience sits in darkness. I forget there’s even an audience there. Besides, it’s mostly parents and grandmas who will clap at anything. But in class, those kids don’t forget if you screw up. You’re marked as a failure for the rest of high school.



December 5

Dear Diary,

I survived the English presentation, though I was shaking the whole time. Mrs. Bennett looked happy with it. Zed complimented me after. So did George. Zed’s poem was so funny! It wasn’t quite a sonnet and he rhymed words like school-o when he couldn’t think of something else. Everyone laughed. I didn’t get laughs, which I guess is a good thing since my poem wasn’t funny. I don’t know how he can be so funny all the time. I’m glad he’s my friend.

So English was fine, but then the worst happened. Ms. Swain gave us a project to do in pairs and put me with the witch!!!! Jessica complained to the whole class that she got stuck with me. I was so hoping to be with Noah. It would have been like eighth grade when we had a project together. He would have been so wonderful to work with. But no, I got the troll. She forced me to meet in the library after school to get a head start on the work. Of course Noah showed up (yay) and I was totally distracted so Jessica got mad and yelled at me in front of him. But he touched my hand when we grabbed for the same book so it was all worth it.



December 6

Dear Diary,

More working with the witch today, but I got to sit next to Noah again while we worked which was nice. He heard me humming my song and complimented me on my voice. Yeah right. I have a horrible voice. Anyhoo, he walked with me after class and told me to keep practicing singing because he thought I could be good. Eek!!! I wish Mr. Wagoner thought I was a good singer. Noah is a good singer.


Comments

  1. Vicente L RuizAugust 21, 2017 at 11:40 AM

    Arriving late to this. An interesting resource about voice, I'll save it. I hadn't consciously thought about it, but I do try changing my style (is that my voice?) when I write, but since I only seem to be able to write flash fiction, it's easier from story to story. For what is worth, Neil Gaiman says you start by mimicking the voices of the writers you know, searching for your own voice. And of course, then you keep writing and writing until you're happy with it (which is never?).

    About the diary, I think it's great, and it adds an extra dimension to your book. I've always liked this kind of extra detail, even if it stays hidden afterwards, or when it's released with the deluxe edition or something. In any case, if you feel it helps you, I'd say go with it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lara D. ElliottAugust 21, 2017 at 4:23 PM

      After writing this, I found this post by James Scott Bell: https://killzoneblog.com/2015/10/the-secret-power-of-voice.html.
      I also bought his book (not very expensive and not very long). It is a must read if you're trying to develop voice!

      The diary has been fun to write and helpful for my chapters. I'm definitely going to keep doing it!

      Delete

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