This Easy Intensive on Developing Your Author's and Character's Voices was originally created as a webinar promoting the Craft and Business of Writing Children's Picture Books.
Kelly and I (Mira) spent many hours preparing the materials and my assistant and I spent many more editing it down to make it as clean, concise, and accessible as possible. We're delighted that you registered for it at the incredibly low price that we are currently offering it for and hope that you get a tremendous amount of benefit from it. Along with the video, we also have some additional resources for creating both your writer's and character's voices.
Kelly and I (Mira) spent many hours preparing the materials and my assistant and I spent many more editing it down to make it as clean, concise, and accessible as possible. We're delighted that you registered for it at the incredibly low price that we are currently offering it for and hope that you get a tremendous amount of benefit from it. Along with the video, we also have some additional resources for creating both your writer's and character's voices.
Click below to download the transcript of this video.
| mira_and_kelly’s_on_voice_transcript.docx |
The best way to have strong voice for your characters is knowing them well. The following two resources will help with this.
Resource #1 is a character template handout with an example of how I use it followed by a blank copy!
And here's the download:
| character_map_template_blank.pdf |
Resource 2: Interviewing Your Character Worksheet
Here's a different way of getting to know your character so that you can know their voice better. I'm giving you this in MS Word format so that you can easily use it with each of characters whenever you write. Please respect the work that goes into these worksheets and templates and not use them elsewhere without permission.
Here's a different way of getting to know your character so that you can know their voice better. I'm giving you this in MS Word format so that you can easily use it with each of characters whenever you write. Please respect the work that goes into these worksheets and templates and not use them elsewhere without permission.
| interview_with_your_main_character_for_finding_their_voice.docx |
Resource 3: Active vs Passive Voice
Editors hate passive voice so learning how to use active voice is important. For example, "The building was hit by a car," is passive. "The car hit the building," is active. A passive sentence is when something is done to something else. An active sentence has agency where the subject acts upon the object (here the car hits the building). Here’s a question, can you tell which one is which? The pepper pushed the salt versus the salt was pushed by the pepper. The word “was” often appears in passive sentences, so this can be a clue. Here's an excellent resource for learning more about passive versus active voice http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/active-voice-versus-passive-voice.aspx We also have a great section on it in Miranda Paul's Get Your Grammar Groove course, which I highly recommend right here! http://www.childrensbookacademy.com/get-your-grammar-groove.html
However, sometimes passive voice can be helpful… if you have a passive character who's a bit of a victim and everything happens to them rather than by them, if you’re writing about some who is dead and want to emphasize this, or if you want to be purposefully vague, e.g., “mistakes were made.”
Resource 4: Verbs
Your verbs also make a huge difference in how lively and dramatic your story reads. Here's a great resource on action verbs including when it's good to use passive voice - http://www.creativejuicesbooks.com/action-verbs.html
And here's a great list of action verbs http://supereasystorytelling.com/vibrant_verbs_list.html
And finally Many Yates has an epic Vivid Verbs Thesaurus on her Teachers Pay Teachers site, super cheap right here https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vivid-Verbs-Thesaurus-924658
Resource 5: Bye for Now and Becoming an Eavesdropper
I think that pretty much everything else is covered in the video. The big thing is to play with both your own voice in how you use language and put sentences together and your character's voices not only in how they speak but also in their actions throughout the story being consistent with how they speak and the kinds of language that they use as well as what kinds of physical mannerisms they might have while they speak. I want to encourage you to start being an eavesdropper with a notebook and whenever you hear anyone say anything that could be great for a character to say, write it down. If you don't have kids volunteer at a school and mine those puppies for what they say, how they say it, and the kinds of expressions they have when they say it. All without being creepy. Have fun and "ta ta for now". :)
Editors hate passive voice so learning how to use active voice is important. For example, "The building was hit by a car," is passive. "The car hit the building," is active. A passive sentence is when something is done to something else. An active sentence has agency where the subject acts upon the object (here the car hits the building). Here’s a question, can you tell which one is which? The pepper pushed the salt versus the salt was pushed by the pepper. The word “was” often appears in passive sentences, so this can be a clue. Here's an excellent resource for learning more about passive versus active voice http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/active-voice-versus-passive-voice.aspx We also have a great section on it in Miranda Paul's Get Your Grammar Groove course, which I highly recommend right here! http://www.childrensbookacademy.com/get-your-grammar-groove.html
However, sometimes passive voice can be helpful… if you have a passive character who's a bit of a victim and everything happens to them rather than by them, if you’re writing about some who is dead and want to emphasize this, or if you want to be purposefully vague, e.g., “mistakes were made.”
Resource 4: Verbs
Your verbs also make a huge difference in how lively and dramatic your story reads. Here's a great resource on action verbs including when it's good to use passive voice - http://www.creativejuicesbooks.com/action-verbs.html
And here's a great list of action verbs http://supereasystorytelling.com/vibrant_verbs_list.html
And finally Many Yates has an epic Vivid Verbs Thesaurus on her Teachers Pay Teachers site, super cheap right here https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vivid-Verbs-Thesaurus-924658
Resource 5: Bye for Now and Becoming an Eavesdropper
I think that pretty much everything else is covered in the video. The big thing is to play with both your own voice in how you use language and put sentences together and your character's voices not only in how they speak but also in their actions throughout the story being consistent with how they speak and the kinds of language that they use as well as what kinds of physical mannerisms they might have while they speak. I want to encourage you to start being an eavesdropper with a notebook and whenever you hear anyone say anything that could be great for a character to say, write it down. If you don't have kids volunteer at a school and mine those puppies for what they say, how they say it, and the kinds of expressions they have when they say it. All without being creepy. Have fun and "ta ta for now". :)
