Writers! How we love to sit at the keyboard and create…and whether our genre is poetry, essays, a novel or nonfiction, VOICE is a major aspect of what we create.
Interesting vocabulary; the length and composition of our sentences; how we use descriptive language– adjectives, adverbs, flowing sentence structure, all contribute to writing style. And that, Dear Fellow Writers, becomes VOICE. Donald Maass, literary agent, writing instructor, and the guru in my life, states the following:
Like it or not, the narrative voice in your novel (or sub in story, article, essay) exists in time. Or, more precisely, in an era. Your narrative voice cannot help but pick up words, expressions, issues and attitudes that reflect both the times of the story and the times in which you live.
Writing something historical? Maass states: Historical stories can be marred by anachronisms, but then again, the object of historical stories is not necessarily to perfectly reflect the dress, manners, speech and thinking of people of the time. If that were true, there would be no historical romances featuring hunky dukes. (Seriously, name one actual duke who would look like that, shirtless. Just one.)
Maass stresses that as we write, our minds create sentences using the vernacular we are familiar with in our modern age. He then asks how we can avoid creating fiction that feels dated. Are there aspects of your story that will cause future readers to role their eyes?
AND: what makes a story timeless, despite being written in a particular time? Is it possible to erase from your article or your fiction the clues to manners, morals and mindset of your own times so that (your work) lasts for centuries without requiring footnotes? (Wow! That would be a dream come true.)
Maass then asks if we writers can create a VOICE, create sentences that will be read and understood a hundred years from now. He stresses something we should all be aware of: being TRUE to our characters, giving them their own lives, so that they are not copies of our own. But he then adds, if you describe your heroine’s hair style, a future reader might find it laughable.
So how do we create a work-around? How do we create fiction, stories that will stand the test of time? ANSWER: focus on the STORY ITSELF. Don’t worry about hairstyles. Focus on PLOT, the major points that it makes, the values it presents, the voices that come off the page. Maass lists writers whose work is fresh even today; whose work presents human problems, foibles, the struggles we can all identify with: Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Harper Lee, Zora Neal Hurston, Mary McCarthy… their work coming from times that are not modern, not particularly ours, but whose stories appeal to our humanity…they are about us!
FINAL QUESTIONS: do the narrative voices in these writer’s works sound foreign to us? NO. Because their stories are still about us. That’s the lesson. Maass concludes: What makes fiction timeless is not the trappings of dress, manners, morals, transportation, communication, social issues. It is what is time-transcending and universal about human experience.
THE NARRATOR OF YOUR STORY IS ANCHORED IN TIME….BUT ALSO AN OBSERVER OF THE HUMAN CONDITION.
So write, create. Human nature doesn’t change much. Use your own experience as a tool. Create your characters with all their joys, sorrows and challenges. As Maass assures all writers: if you do this, your future readers will recognize and understand.
P.S I guess there is some strength in my writing, because today Mr. Maass remembered aspects of my story during a discussion on Writer Unboxed. What he wrote to me might also help you, though I have made his comments general, so as to also apply to your work.
Maass: How the heck are we going to care, feel involved? (my scene: a teenager delivering a child, frightened and not emotionally engaged.)
But Ella the RN is…she recognizes what is going on; as a nurse, she understands.
BUT: if you want to make it even stronger, consider what this moment is doing to Ella, how it makes her feel, not just about this newborn baby and the circumstances of the birth, but about herself.
MORE ADVICE: “First pages: emotional involvement must be lasting. But there is also restraint, which leaves room for the reader, and the reader’s involvement…which is what I (Donald Maass) am advocating today.” FINAL COMMENT…his words have always helped me, so fellow writers, I hope they will also help you.
8 Responses
I was getting antsy until I saw this line: ANSWER: focus on the STORY ITSELF.
I nearly lost my writer in classes, academics, and theory. The more I think about how I “should” write, what the pieces are, how they might resonate over hundreds of years, the less story I find in me. Focus on the story, the words. <3
Thanks for posting, Pennie. Like any endeavor, we often have to make our way through the forest to get to the trees.
Hi Pennie, glad my post helped. Keep on going!
Yes, you can always go back in and fix anachronisms. The story’s the thing!
Yes, you can always go back and fix anachronisms and other details. The story ‘s the thing!
Modern tech makes change so easy. But then I sometimes stop and wonder….I liked that character, that scene…I might just use it.
Love Donald Maass. Once saw him speak at a writer’s conference. I guess the best thing we can do as writers is keep writing. The more we write, the better we get.
My husband teases me about Donald Maass, but there were days when he was praising my work and WOW, that made me feel great. He is not as available now, doesn’t give as many classes with your ability to respond. But I will always be grateful for the positive things he said about my work. Thanks for posting.