Five Points on Voice

I’ve been mulling over Macy's challenge today as I’ve been running errands. Have you ever noticed that Saturday’s seem to fly by at supersonic speed? Mondays on the other hand crawl like my first car – a ’71 Toyota Corolla.

So on to those five points. This voice issue is tough. In considering where I’m coming from, I decided to think about the stories that suck me in. Following Macy's model, I’ll do the 1-5 thing.

1. I like to think too, but about perspectives and choices and what motivates people. I love it when a story moves me to have compassion toward someone who isn’t so loveable. Understanding is huge with me. I liked the movie “Crash” for that reason. It showed the good and bad in all of the characters. None were without virtue and none were without fault. I also like knowing how characters or people arrive at the place I meet them. This doesn’t mean I want to hear everyone’s life story, but knowing about their past helps me to understand them.

2. I don’t usually focus on the weather or time of day in my scenes, at least not when they first come to me, but I do think I like those with a good amount of sunshine. I love rain and sunsets too, which both seem like romantic sorts of settings. I tend to enjoy hopeful stories and usually choose those types for reading and writing. Good must triumph, the heroine must win the hero, love must prevail. I’m not a Pollyanna, but I guess believing that there’s good in the world and that it’s all around me helps me get through the tough stuff.

3. My imagination conjures up both historical and contemporary scenes. Some could be right out of my life, others are complete fantasy. All are more of an adventure than what my day to day life is. And I do seem to dream on epic scales. I’d love to sail the seas seeking the pirate’s treasure, or battle for good in Middle Earth (with my brains though, not the sword), or do something miraculous and wonderful, and ultimately win the love of a great guy who is willing to fight dragons to be with me.

4. If Macy’s characters face challenging decisions and if Alyson’s face death on different levels, I’d have to say mine have to face their fears. Not that theirs don’t have to face fear as well, but overcoming fear has been a huge theme in my life, so I guess it’s only natural that I would project that into my stories. My characters have had to overcome fear of failure, of rejection, of vulnerability, of loss, of trusting, and ultimately fear of fear itself. I sprinkle in other themes too, but this one seems to be the biggest. And they ALWAYS overcome it, although only after the requisite amount of internal struggle and mustering courage that was always in them, but that they didn’t know they had. And despite these fears, these characters are strong individuals. Which leads to the last point.

5. I’m drawn to and tend to write feisty heroines who are wounded in some way, but press forward toward whatever it is they’re after. I especially like reading about these sorts of characters because it motivates me to chase after those things I want in my life. If they can do it, so can I, right? At least that’s the hope. And I’m all about hope.

OK, so maybe my theme is hope too. Overcoming fear and pressing forward with hope. With that in mind, I’m going to squash the fear that I won’t finish my novel before conference and hope that I can pump out an %!&load of pages tomorrow. Hey, a couple of weeks ago I wrote 3.5K in one day, so it’s possible. Of course, it was a very good day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the scene was just there in my head to put to paper. My next scene hasn’t been so crystal in my mind, but it’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow and there are birds at the park. Wish me luck.

Katrina