A good ear for music, and writing ...
I sometimes ask my piano students what parts of the body we use to play the piano. Their answers begin with the obvious one (fingers, hands) and then move on to feet (for pedals) and eyes (for reading music). One student said heart (emotions, soul), an answer I loved.
I wait for them to think of the answer that's so important to their playing, and I may give a clue, but eventually we reach that "ah, yes" moment. Of course, we use our ears to play.
If we rephrase the question, and ask what music listeners use to experience the music, the answer is obvious (no, not iPod, although that often appears to be another body part). We listen with our ears. We develop "an ear for music."
Now ask writers the same question. What parts of the body do we use to write? The ear should be somewhere on your list. We view the world with our eyes, hear it with our ears, and feel it in our hearts. These are skills that everyone develops over time: an eye for (fill in the blank) and an ear for voices and sounds. Writers are often advised to "write from the heart." "Get in touch with your emotions," we are told. It takes time, maybe a lifetime, but it's a big part of what makes us human.
Barbara Tuchman said that "An essential element for good writing is a good ear: one must listen to the sound of one's prose." As with music, a writer's listening skills develop over time. It's an ongoing experience, as we develop an ear for prose. Writers write. Writers also read, and reading is where the ear is sharpened. Readers who love to read, but never write more than a thank-you card or e-mail, can tell you the same thing.
Listening to the sound of one's prose helps us in the search for our unique voice. Laura Backes said, "With a voice, a book becomes more than words on a page; it becomes a story. The writer's voice breathes life into a book and gives it a soul."
Last year I led a fiction writers workshop on voice. Here are ten tips I gave at that time.
1. A fiction writer is a teller of stories. The voice of the storyteller is at the heart of the story.
2. A writer’s voice evolves over time. It takes years of living and writing to develop your voice, although as with evolution there can be sudden leaps and mutations.
3. How you view the world shapes your voice as a writer. Two writers can relate the same plot in wildly different ways.
4. At different times, and in different stories, you will view the world in different ways. As a result, your voice will vary. Variety is a good thing.
5. Voice is more than the writer’s voice. We hear a narrator’s voice, and the voice of characters.
6. Writers control the voices in their stories. You make the big decisions about voice, beginning with your choice of narrator and continuing with the voices of characters. Is your narrator a character in the story? And if so, which character?
7. These three voices interact and often overlap—writer, narrator, and character. Often the third-person narrator is the writer’s voice. A character may share the writer’s voice. You may put more of your heart and soul, and voice, into one of your characters.
8. Read your story aloud, to a real or imaginary listener. Listen to your voice.
9. Listen to the voices of people in your world—friends and strangers. They won’t suspect that they are auditioning to be the voices of characters in your stories. They may even land the starring role of narrator.
10. Listen to the voices in good books and movies. Also listen to the voices in bad books and movies, although you are not obligated to sit through all of the bad ones.
