LECTURE: Demystifying Voice
Making Voice Practical. 5 videos
DEMYSTIFYING VOICE
Editors buy novels with a distinctive voice. It's the single most important thing they are looking for.
That means you need to understand voice and be able to control the voice of your writing.
If you've been writing for a while, you've heard of the importance of the VOICE of your writing. It's that sort of undefinable quality that makes you stand out. . .
Wait. If a great VOICE makes you stand out, why is it undefinable?
It isn't. It's just that we don't have standard ways of talking about it. But writing teacher Darcy Pattison does talk about it in fascinating ways that make voice a discussion of craft. Traditional wisdom says voice is a matter of who you are deep inside, it's intuitive; in fact, editors have said that you can't teach voice.
"Nonsense," says Pattison. "Of course, you can teach it."
In this 30-minute lecture with powerpoint, she breaks voice into practical craft issues. Lots of examples make the concepts concrete rather than fuzzy. You'll have solid ideas on where to start working on your own voice.
You'll be a step closer to your goal of fans who marvel at your ability to tell a powerful story.
If you want to improve your writing, listen to this lecture and learn how to start consciously choosing to write with a strong voice.
in this class, you'll listen and learn. Sign up now.
FAQ
What will you learn?
You'll learn practical ways to change, manipulate and control the voice of your writing with just these three things. You'll learn that writers only have three things in their toolbox: words, sentences, and passages. How do these basic tools affect voice? Let's talk about it.
Who should take this course?
Writers. It doesn't matter how many years you've been writing, you'll be challenged to think about your craft in new ways.
You've been told, "Your voice is interesting." Or, you've been told, "Your voice is bland."
Isn't this all subjective anyway?
No! There may be a subjective component to voice, but voice is about how a piece of writing makes you feel, how it makes you think. A story might be about a car race, but voice can make that event hysterical or gloomy. I love to talk about how to control your writing. Learning voice is learning control, learning craft, learning how to mightily impact a reader.
Come join me for this look at voice. Sign up now.
Your Instructor
Storyteller, writing teacher, Queen of Revisions, and founder of Mims House (mimshouse.com) publisher, Darcy Pattison has been published in nine languages. Her books, published with Harcourt, Philomel/Penguin, Harpercollins, Arbordale, and Mims House have received recognition for excellence with starred reviews in Kirkus, BCCB and PW. Three nonfiction nature books have been honored as National Science Teacher’s Association Outstanding Science Trade books. The Nantucket Sea Monster: A Fake News Story was named a Junior Library Guild selection for December, 2017. The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman (Harcourt) received an Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children's Literature Honor Book award, and has been published in a Houghton Mifflin textbook. She’s the 2007 recipient of the Arkansas Governor’s Arts Award for Individual Artist for her work in children’s literature.
Writing teacher and award-winning children's book author Darcy Pattison speaks frequently for schools, conferences, and professional development workshops.