It was triple the fun at The Writing Barn on Saturday, September 14th when award winning authors, Kathi Appelt, Uma Krishnaswami, and Susan Fletcher joined us for a morning series of lectures and exercises on voice and character.
As each author was celebrating a new release, the triple threat team kicked off the event with a rousing readers’ theater. Together, the three visiting authors performed select scenes from The Problem with Being Slightly Heroic, Falcon in the Glass, and The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp. Not only was this an entertaining way to start the day, it showcased an engagement activity that any author can do at school visits or bookstores.
Kathi Appelt was the first to the podium. (And a big congrats to Kathi, as The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp has just been named to the 2013 National Book Awards long list.) Kathi’s talk, titled: The Landscape Speaks: How Voice Arises from Setting was an investigation into how strongly our characters, their voices, and their worlds, are tied to the places in which their stories take place. Showing images of various landscapes: the sea, Time Square, the mountains and more Kathi asked each writer to consider the sounds of these settings. She asked us to imagine what each setting evoked using sensory details—and not just sight—but touch; textures, sounds; what our characters would hear, how they would respond to the colors, the temperatures.
One writer responded that Kathi’s comment, “Consider the sound of the landscape, the aural shape of your story,” was a key opening for her in examining her work-in-progress. Another attendee said, “I had never really thought about the necessity of putting in the sounds of a landscape before. I do it when I’m writing, but I think after Kathi’s talk, I’ll be more thoughtful about which words and sounds I choose.” And two of my favorite Appeltisms (How about that for a new craft word?) were, “Hard thinking is a saboteur” and after our five-minute exercise where most of us produced a page, 250 or more of words, was Kathi’s time management advice, “Five minutes a day and you can write a novel draft.”
Next, Uma Krishnamswami presented her talk, He Said, She Said: So What? Voice in Dialogue. Uma opened with talking about the human brain and how we are hard wired to recreate what we read, whether it be dialogue, description, setting, etc. No wonder when we read Harry Potter scenes set in the grand hall we’re all hungry for roast and bread pudding and Bertie Bots candies. One of the key elements that Uma said is as important in dialogue on the page, as it is in real life, is creating the experience of being really listened to. She asked how and when we felt listened to and as we shared sensory details from our own experiences, she said, “Being human in the presence of another human is really listening.” Later, Uma urged us to write not from the character’s head but the heart.
Uma had us, for our exercise, write a bit of dialogue, where one of our characters was keeping a secret from the other. Then she had us write the same scene, where the character was trying to keep hidden what he/she emotionally felt in the moment. In a feedback survey, one writer shared, “Uma’s exercise was enlightening. She gave me a lot to chew on with trying to write a scene over with layered interaction.”
Uma shared a quote with us from Ursula La Guin’s, essay, What Makes a Story:
“…writing, whatever its medium, is made of words, and words are bodily, made with the body and the breath, received by the body, felt with the body, and the rhythms of words are bodily rhythms.”
This comes from my haphazard notes on face theory:
Outside Face: if this is all you show, not going deep enough.
Inside Face: private face, to whom we are intimate, what are the circumstances of what my char will show this face to and why?
Pure face: Self-reflective face only “you” the character will see, admitting to secrets or flaws, hidden—known only be self. Revelation whose face can be dictated by viewpoint.
Unknown Face: The face you don’t know you have until life tests you. Viewpoint dictates to what point the reader is aware of it.
One writer said, “I had never thought about a character having four faces, and applying the emotional layer to the ‘secret’ scene was illuminating. “
It’s the lasting impact of these ah-ha moments that makes attending classes and lectures a must. One writer said of this lasting impact, “I really thought about her (Uma’s) question ‘How does it feel when someone really listens to you’ and what that meant to me as a writer.” And another writer shared, “I know I will be able to utilize the idea about the four faces to deepen my characters. It felt very validating and educational.”
And, last but not least, we closed the afternoon with Susan Fletcher’s wit and wisdom in her talk, Listening to Mrs. Roosevelt and (Other Ghostly Voices), which was all about being receptive and remaining open to the mysteries of voice. In a funny opening anecdote that mentioned séances, Susan deadpanned, “That’s right. I am the lunatic fringe.” But the audience of writers at The Writing Barn, thought she was anything but. One writer shared via event feedback, “I love how Susan was humble about voice, its mysteries, and how she encouraged us to take it when it comes as a gift. She reminds me that writing is noble, voice is grace to us, magic.”
But amid the mysteries of voice, Susan gave us practical tips on calling it forward. She invited us to listen, daydream and mull, take ourselves on artist dates, free write, listen to music and most of all trust. The exercise Susan led the group in was to interview our characters for ten minutes to one piece of music and then another, with very distinct moods to the musical compositions. One writer shared, “I’d never tried this. I thought it wouldn’t work but it provided a breakthrough in the way I think about my characters’ inner lives! So good.” And another said, “Listening to music really helped me realize something new about my character, she’s far angrier than I thought she was!”
After a brief Q&A, where the presenters were asked to sum up voice, and which Uma did in one wordK “muscle” the Triple Threat: Voice and Character event ended with writers clutching the presenters new hardcover releases, autographed for themselves or loved ones, and heading back to their writing desks armed with the insights and advice of these three phenomenal writers.
When asked via survey if the attending writers felt more inspired, less inspired, more capable/less capable after the morning of lectures one writer wrote: “The presenters were encouraging and kind, and I just want to write, write, write!”
Me, too!
Writing Barn Raves from Triple Threat Attendees:
“The Writing Barn is the sort of place inspiration doesn’t just strike—it hangs out for days, soaking into the wood, settling into the sofa cushions, waiting for writers to pull up a chair.” Nikki Loftin, Sinister Sweetness of Spendid Academy and Nightingale’s Nest (forthcoming.)
“The Writing Barn offers classes and community for talented, giving and caring writers. Hemingway had Paris. We have The Writing Barn. And believe me, magic happens there.” Sue Cleveland
“The speakers are consistently qualified and well-respected, and I’ve taken valuable things away each time.” Kayla Olson
Additional Event Pictures
