Notice I didn't say YOUR voice? There's a reason for that. I'll explain in a sec.
I had a problem recently. I'm finishing up books 2 and 3 in my series and well, I got stumped!
It took me about a week of severe angst, occasional compulsive eating, being ratty to my sainted husband and feeling depressed until I solved the problem.
Let's not call it by its name: you know something...block?! There are reasons for 'something...block,' and the sooner the writer discovers what in the hell went wrong, the better.
It was 'the voice ' that dun dood it! Oh sure. Here I was, writing an entire journal in the VOICE of my mad, bad and lethal to know demonic, Eco (two books worth) when I switched back for some chapters in my heroine's voice.
Instead of flowing narrative spoken by a deeply sensitive woman, I got anal retentive sentences, stiff-kneed prose and it freaked me out!
I did. As Inspector Clousseau would say: "The case was solv-ed!"
Voice is crucial. Get that the slightest bit wrong and you are in deep effluence.
Your characters are real. They exist in your mind, but you've given them life. Let them breathe. Listen to what they say. Their voice is different than yours because THEY are not you!
And by the way, this never happened to me before. I've written for a lot of anthologies, I am writing my second and third book and it never happened, so never say never.
If it ever does happen. Listen to me right now say: ABOVE ALL ELSE I PROMISE I WILL LISTEN TO THE VOICE!
Elementry, my dear Watson!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you got that straightened out. Nasty Eco made you crazy, that's all (blame it on him, of course)!
So true that the voice of the character has to shine through, and you have to find it when it gets lost. So glad you were able to get this figured out, hon! (^;
it was so obvious but it never clicked.
ReplyDeletei just assumed i could switch back easily into the other character's voice but i couldn't. i had to think about her and think about what made her tick and everything.
sometimes what's obvious isn't obvious when you're in the midst of it.
i just found it so maddening!
at least i figured it out.
thanks, Lorelei!
thank you so much for this!!! I've been stuck with "something block" for months now, and I think you just gave me the answer to my problems! thank you!!
ReplyDeleteyou are welcome!
ReplyDeletei so happy. 'Something' block is a terrifying thing, but it's not the monster we think it is!
It always has a reason to pop up! finding out what that reason is conquers it!
Yay! please come back and tell me how you get on.