The Art of Narrative Craft
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Absolution” (which is the discarded first chapter of The Great Gatsby), and William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning,” each author’s unique narrative ‘voice’ is present in every corner of every page. Their voices are unmistakable. Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby can be seen as a young boy, in the frightening presence of a priest who is on the brink of Continue reading STORIES FOR VOICE AND STYLE
I. Anecdote: write a short narrative of an interesting, amusing, or biographical incident. This should be something from your own life, a brief, humorous episode. Again, this is a writing workshop, so you are striving to achieve a presentation that is entertaining in the ways that stories entertain. II. Personal Narrative: write a short personal narrative: this is a form Continue reading PROMPTS FOR VOICE AND STYLE
Does ‘voice’ mean the voice of the writer or the voice of the character? This is a good question, and one that I hear regularly from students. Each character has a distinct ‘voice,’ or way of speaking, and you want to present your characters, when they speak, in their own voices. However, every author, too, has her/his own “voice,” and Continue reading VI. VOICE AND STYLE