Macy's Voice Revelations

Recently, five of the six of us at AotP finished Barbara Samuel’s voice class. The experience was worth every penny I spent and every minute I committed to the class. I wish it could go on for another six weeks. Perhaps in the future, Barbara will create Voice Revisited or Voice 202. If she does, I want to be part of the inaugural class.

Why was this experience worth so much to me?

I learned more than I ever dreamed I would about my voice.

Voice is such an elusive thing. It’s hard to define, yet it’s what almost every editor and agent want most – a strong, new, different, unique, or fresh voice.

Barbara says, “Your voice is a deep-level chord that is largely unchangeable, made up of the cultural, intellectual, and emotional landscape of your life.”

That’s pretty heady stuff, especially if you aren’t too keen on some of your emotional landscape. Know what I mean?

Anyway, the plan is for AotP to spend some blog time discussing our revelations about voice in general and voice in specific.

This week’s topic is revelations about our own voices. Voice is highly personal, so no judgments here, just sharing.

Macy’s voice revelation #1:
Barbara astutely identified my biggest revelation. She said, “What I do see is a sense of the particular, a sense of things being a certain way and you relating to them as they are or should be. The proper way to make a margarita. Specific questions triggered by music. Putting things down in a way that is particular to you. It isn't all fussy or even really orderly. Just precise. Just so.” Barbara made this comment in regards to my list of 25 things I love. At first I translated “just so” as anal. But it isn’t. I chuckle about it now. Yesterday, I was thinking about a shade of red to which I’ve become particularly attracted. I was thinking of how I’d describe it in my head and realized that I was working pretty hard at it. I wanted it to be just right – that one particular shade of red which is deeper and richer and more poetic than the others. It’s a blue red – deep, rich, oxygenated, royal. See. Just so.

Macy’s voice revelation #2:
I evoke mood. I went back to look at all the times someone said I evoke mood and finally gave up counting them. It’s true. I evoke mood. Mood is very important to me. It’s almost a sense. Perhaps mood could be added to my primary senses. How do I evoke it? With subtle clues rather than slow pages of description. I evoke it with withered leaves carried on a gust of wind. With candle flames flickering on the window sills of a darkened room. With the slow slither of a brown snake past a massive oak door open to the Gregorian chants coming from inside weathered rock walls. Mood. Subtle. Emotional. Atmospheric.

Macy’s voice revelation #3:
My final voice revelation for today (not my final one, period) is about POV. I wrote 2 pieces in first person. I don’t normally write in first person. I didn’t realize I’d written in first person until I was finished. However, it was easy. Seamless. One was a fantasy piece about nomadic woman with a dark secret. The other was about a woman grieving. Many readers thought the one about that grieving woman was me. It wasn’t – at least not in that sense. Barbara said I might find a lot of power experimenting in first person because there was so much power for me in what I wrote. And, funny, I’ve been thinking about a new story, and it’s unraveling for me in first person. Hmmm…

These are big revelations. They may seem insignificant, but each profoundly alters my perception of me as a writer – in wonderful ways.

What revelations do you have about your voice?

macy