This week: Relationship of Voice and Subject Matter Edited by: Joy  
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“When well told, a story captured the subtle movement of change. If a novel was a map of a country, a story was the bright silver pin that marked the crossroads.”
― Ann Patchett
“Writing is not about the voices in your head, but the voices that make the great leap to the page.”
― J.H. Glaze
“It doesn't really matter who said it - it's so obviously true. Bevore you can write anything, you have to notice something.”
― John Irving
“Perhaps what matters is not the human pain or joy at all but, rather, the play of shadow and light on a live body, the harmony of trifles assembled...in a unique and inimitable way.”
― Vladimir Nabokov
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about the connection between the author's voice and the subject of his fiction.
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
Please, note that there are no rules in writing, but there are methods that work for most of us most of the time.
The ideas and suggestions in my articles and editorials have to do with those methods. You are always free to find your own way and alter the methods to your liking.
Note: In the editorial, I refer to third person singular as he, to also mean the female gender, because I don't like to use they or he/she. |
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Usually, when we think of voice in fiction, we think of the way the writer addresses his readers, the way he picks a point of view, the way he uses the language as to word choices, sentence formation, etc. This, in fact, is the author’s narrative voice.
Another way of saying this is, if we are passionate about what we are writing and we are saying exactly what we mean through good language skills, we probably have a good voice.
Yet, there is another important factor in using the narrative voice. It has to do with the interaction of the subject matter and the voice. Subject matter decides how we will create the way we are telling a certain story. In other words, subject matter adds perspective to the narrative voice and changes the tone as to being authoritative or pompous or funny or chatty or warm or a combination of different qualities. Consequently, this change decides how effectively a reader gets immersed into our stories.
For example, let’s take Anton Chekhov who believed that “the aim of fiction is absolute and honest truth.” Chekhov had a very distinct voice, but even so, we can see the different nuances in his voice that changes according to the subject and the nature of the story.
His short story, Gusev, begins with three characters, two soldiers and a sailor, playing cards. The story is about isolated people who cannot communicate with one another. To show this isolation, aside from the conversations between individuals, Chekhov uses descriptive words and personification with a sad tone.
“Pavel Ivanevich was silent, as though he had not heard.
And again a stillness followed….The wind frolicked with the rigging, the screw throbbed, the waves lashed, the hammocks creaked but the ear had long ago become accustomed to these sounds, and it seemed that everything around was asleep and silent. It was dreary.”
The voice in the Three Sisters differs a bit, however still belonging to the same author. In the play, the sisters Olga, Masha, and Irina waste their lives away in a Russian provincial town and dream about returning to Moscow, but they are disappointed when their brother marries an ill-bred woman who squanders their wealth.
From Act I:
“In two or three hundred years life on earth will be unimaginably beautiful, astounding. Man needs such a life and if it hasn’t yet appeared, he should begin to anticipate it, wait for it, dream about it, prepare for it. To achieve this, he has to see and know more than did his grandfather and father.”
Still, in Chekhov’s story, In the Ravine, the voice slightly alters, again. The story is about Ukleevo, a town in Russia, and how people in it change by the end of the story.
From Chapter 3:
"Grigory Petrovitch, let us weep, let us weep with joy!" he said in a thin voice, and then at once burst out laughing in a loud bass guffaw. "Ho-ho-ho! This is a fine daughter-in-law for you too! Everything is in its place in her; all runs smoothly, no creaking, the mechanism works well, lots of screws in it."
Now, let’s look at a different author, Charles Dickens. In this excerpt, the author talks to the readers as if waiting for a response.
From the Christmas Carol:
“Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the city of London, even including—which is a bold word—the corporation, aldermen, and livery. Let it also be borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Marley, since his last mention of his seven-years' dead partner that afternoon. And then let any man explain to me, if he can, how it happened that Scrooge, having his key in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without its undergoing any intermediate process of change—not a knocker, but Marley's face.”
Can you spot how much loftier Dickens’ voice now gets here in A Tale of Two Cities?
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
It is, therefore, a good idea to think about the connection between the voice and the subject matter even before we begin writing the first sentence.
Still, whether or not a writer invests time and energy in developing and thinking about the connection between his subject and the voice is up to the writer. There are several writers who use the same tone, diction, POV, etc., and they may be just as successful, but our fiction will be improved if we pay attention to injecting different nuances in our voice that fit the differences in the subjects we write about.
Until next time! 
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"Welcome to Beijing Today,” said Miss Dian Deng Pao, the show’s pig-faced presenter. She tilted toward the camera in such a way that her ample cleavage must dominate the screen in viewers’ homes and fluttered her heavily mascaraed eyelashes."
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"“Ben,” called Alice to the technician sitting next to her. Ben was gaming on the Facility’s computer. His fleshy arms quivered as he worked his joystick. He was playing War Trolls with Dylan, the other technician. Dylan was skinny; he had straggling black hair which fell across his forehead and a tee shirt which said ‘Welcome to the Apocalypse’."
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I would like for people to read and enjoy my work, that it may bring interesting thoughts and experiences to their minds."
"The most effective way of making fiction writing stand out in a good way is the author’s judicious use of voice, diction and the employment of figures of speech."
"Whenever I begin a short story, I remind myself of two things: to try to get in touch with readers' senses as much as possible by writing something to see, hear, touch, smell, taste, and feel (emotionally), and to try to keep eleven specific points in mind when writing my story in hopes of composing a tightly-written story that sticks in readers' minds. Those eleven points are:"
"Along with setting and plot, character is a fundamental element of storytelling. In visual media such as television and movies, a fantastic setting and interesting plot concept aren't enough to carry an audience if the characters are flat or unbelievable--resulting in poor reviews or a cancellation of future seasons. With novels, the amount of time spent in the writing process can be months or years of an author's life. Taking the time to develop a character development process that works for you is vital to maintaining a long-term project."
"Do you want to know how many times I’ve changed the protagonist’s name? Six. He’s had four first names and three last ones. For the moment, he’s Jack Swanson. No, that doesn’t sound quite right. Let’s make it Jack Watson. Okay, that’s seven times. He’s been married, single, divorced, and widowed in different versions. And I’m still not sure which is right for him."
"Finding success by writing in multiple genres is a matter of commitment. Whether that's commitment to maintaining different personas for each pseudonym you use for each different genre, or commitment to cross-promoting and making sure your audience is aware of and willing to try your work in other arenas all published under the same name, it's a lot harder to keep multiple plates spinning instead of just one..."
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 This Issue's Tip: Just something that I found interesting. Here is a paragraph from Neurobiology of Language, from Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.
“We found that being immersed into a story and liking it is closely connected and that first-person stories are generally liked better. These stories make readers feel more transported into the story world and more likely to experience mental imagery during reading. Interestingly, our measure of nervous system activity showed an opposite pattern: readers were more aroused when reading stories in third person perspective. This study shows that small stylistic differences in how a story is narrated can affect how we experience literature.”
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Feedback for "Writing the Most Powerful Scene"
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Quick-Quill 
This was powerful. I'm writing a book in 100 days. 80k similar to the Nano but if I finish I get $100. A good goal and I'm ready to do it. Your NL is one I'm printing and posting on my writing station. It will be a challenge since it covers Thanksgiving and Christmas YIPES
Thank you.
It seems you are going to be very busy, but with our craft, being busy is the most wonderful thing we can hope for.
Wishing you the best with your project.
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Jim Hall 
Thus far, I have not specifically planned a major or climax scene. Somehow that seems wrong (for me).
I do, as in writing any scene, I try to make sure that it advances the story line. As I write my stories, each scene builds upon the last until it reaches a natural climactic scene.
I am sure that carefully crafting the major scene as a separate process is a viable method and perhaps may even be preferred, but I don't think that it would work for me.
Thanks for the article. It was, indeed, interesting and thought provoking.
Jim
Hi, Jim,
I agree that scenes build upon one another until the climax scene; however, a big scene can be but need not be the climax scene.
The big scene is the scene that stays in the reader's mind, the one that moves him deeply. For sure, this may also depend on the personal experiences of a reader, but without being melodramatic, a big scene can make a strong impression, whether it is the climax or not.
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Drama: November 14, 2018 Issue [#9201]
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