A fiction writer can improve his or her craft by
studying books like Eats, Shoots & Leaves, taking courses that teach
elements such as plotting and characterization, and hiring an editor. Just as
important as craft is a writer's voice. Unlike craft, voice cannot be taught.
It can only be found.
Agents and publishers agree that the presence of a
distinctive voice is what compels them to accept one manuscript and reject
another that's equally polished. If you ask twenty industry professionals to
define voice, they probably won't agree on one definition. But they will agree
on what voice is not. Literary agent Jim McCarthy comments,
"There's a lot of stuff out there and much of it sounds familiar."
How do you create a manuscript that compels an
industry professional to accept it for publication?
Editor Chris Roerden presented "Showing
Versus Telling: When to Use, and How the Writer's Voice Affects
Publication" during the SkillBuild last Saturday in High Point, NC.
Roerden stressed that before the elusive voice can be found in a piece of
fiction, the writer must do the time developing craft, polishing the mechanics
of the manuscript. For reasons that I cited in my blog entry two days
ago, this means that the odds are against your voice emerging in your first
completed manuscript.
Deal with it. Move on. Write another manuscript,
and another.
Harness the beasts of grammar, punctuation, and
spelling. Figure out how to create page-turner plots and three-dimensional
characters. Then, says Roerden, make sure that each of your characters,
especially your protagonist, has an attitude. This attitude
distinguishes one character from another, reveals their personalities. Finding
attitude in your characters is a crucial step toward finding your voice.
Don't expect to skip the labor of developing craft
and jump straight into voice. It doesn't work that way. Your voice is what you
find while you're on the journey of developing your craft. This means that no one
can guarantee when you'll find your voice. But unless you actually start the
journey and assume the responsibility of improving your craft, you're
guaranteed to not find your voice. If you're wise, you will never stop improving your craft.
To emphasize the importance of attitude, Roerden
provided excerpts from published works. She contrasted them with an unpublished
piece that read very much like Jim McCarthy's familiar "stuff."
Attitude sprang at me from the published excerpts. I discerned no attitude from
the unpublished piece. It was without flavor.
Attitude drenches publishable manuscripts. Attitude
doesn't wait several chapters to manifest, often grabbing readers from the
opening lines. Attitude is present in all genres. In the following examples of
attitude from the opening lines of novels, notice that each conveys a unique
author voice.
- "It was one hell of a night to throw away a
baby." In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming. - "All children, except one, grow up." Peter
Pan by J. M. Barrie. - "When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced
that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party
of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton." The
Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien. - "1801 — I have just returned from a visit to
my landlord — the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with." Wuthering
Heights by Emily Brontë. - "It's hard to be a larva." Nor Crystal
Tears by Alan Dean Foster. - "You don't know about me without you have read
a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no
matter." The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
Each example of an opening line above
delivers on its promise of what the reader can expect in attitude and voice for
the remainder of the work. Attitude and voice require momentum. They permeate a
manuscript. You cannot fake them by concocting a clever, attention-grabber
first sentence. If you haven't developed your craft, you won't be able to
sustain the momentum of that first sentence. Agents and publishers have seen
this "bait and switch" plenty of times.
There's no shortcut to finding your voice. Take the
time to polish your craft. When you're ready, attitude and voice will find you.
Share an example of a memorable attitude and voice
in the opening sentence of a novel you've read.
Good post, Suzanne! I gave this a lot of thought in my (almost completed) fifth Elizabeth Goodweather mystery. The first four were all in 3rd person POV whereas in this one, I decided to let Elizabeth loose in 1rst person. So I began in her voice:
“I should have known Gloria would come up with something like this right before our wedding. It’s just like her. I swear, she’s . . .”
. . . crazy as the proverbial shithouse rat were the words on the tip of my tongue but I bit them back.
ROTFL! That’s priceless, Vicki. If a reader doesn’t get *attitude* off that, they aren’t paying attention. Hmm, maybe 3rd person has been hiding Elizabeth’s kick-*$$ side. I hope the new, 1st-person Elizabeth is wildly successful.
Thanks for sharing. Feel free to post other examples!
An excellent topic. Just as the protagonist must have an attitude, so must the reader. With so many books to choose from, first sentences are important. So I’m in the airport bookshop minutes before the boarding call, and I need a book to pass the time on the flight. I would reject the one that begins, “It was one hell of a night to throw away a baby,” a sentence that seems contrived to catch your attention rather than something someone might actually say. Writing should not be so transparent. I would also reject “When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End …” because an author who uses that much alliteration in the first sentence is trying too hard to be catchy, and as in the first example, it shows. Ditto for “It’s hard to be a larva,” too contrived, not to mention that it seems to be a take-off on Kafka’s Metamorphosis.
Now here is a book I would select, the one that begins, “1801 — I have just returned from a visit to my landlord — the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.” Of course, having Emily Brontë’s name on the cover would also be a factor, but “the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with” makes you want to learn more about him as well as what sort of troubles he will cause the narrator. And the voice is a person about to tell you a good story, not someone trying to hook you with an odd sentence. Bronte’s excellent first sentence in the first person is matched by “All children, except one, grow up,” an excellent start to a third-person telling that holds great promise.
The first sentences of my two books are: “The two best things about being a shopkeeper are that your income isn’t limited to some corporation’s idea of what a salary should be, and you get
to set your own hours,” and “If you’re looking for a hero, you’ve come to the wrong place.” How do they stack up? That is for my readers to say.
Hi Mike, thanks for stopping by. Yeah, those airport bookshop minutes are crucial. Authors “in the racks” only have a few seconds to spark the interest of that potential reader who is listening for the boarding call. Not surprising how quickly titles in the racks are replaced. As you’ve pointed out, personal tastes play a huge role in the selection process. But you still gotta have the attitude.
Thanks for sharing this. I am at a snag in my writing and thinking on this will make the rest of the revisions a little easier.
Hi Marilynne, I’m glad the post was helpful. Where do you think you’re hitting the snag in your ms.?
I’m just a reader who loves books and authors, and your post really hit home. Often I will read the first paragraph to get a “feel” for the writing, and that effects my wish to continue reading. I will be checking out your book; reading is as close to time travel as I get-which is great. Thanks for your post.
Hi Lil, it’s probably a good thing that we can *only* travel through time by immersing ourselves in books of historical or science fiction.
Have you noticed that the craft of many authors improves as their series progress? This trend extends to development of author voice and characters’ attitudes, and how compellingly the authors begin their books. Sometimes if writing in the first book of a series doesn’t appeal to me, I’ll check out a later book and like what I find.
Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope you enjoy my books.