Kristal Lee

Blogging today at New Kids on the Writer's Block. I'm discussing the rhetorical device, anadiplosis.
(Reposted)

One way a writer defines and distinguishes her voice is through the use of rhetorical devices. Rhetorical devices can make your voice sing. There, I've already used one of the devices. Can you guess what it is?

I'll reveal it in a moment. First, I want to explain what rhetorical devices are.  Rhetorical devices are techniques the author uses to convey emotion, heighten tension, emphasize a point. The goal of rhetorical devices is to connect with the reader. To evoke an emotional response so that they connect to the character, to the story.

There are multitudes of rhetorical devices. During the next few weeks, I'll be discussing my favorites. I do suggest that if you aren't familiar with rhetorical devices to grab a book or two on the subject and take Margie Lawson's Deep Editing workshop.

So, let's look at my opening sentences:

One way a writer defines and distinguishes her voice is through the use of rhetorical devices. Rhetorical devices can make your voice sing.

Notice how I ended the first sentence and began the next with "rhetorical devices." I did this for emphasis. To catch your attention. To make the words buzz in your head so that you would remember them. I hope it worked.

This technique is called anadiplosis (an-uh-dih-PLO-sis), the repetition of the last word or phrase in a sentence to begin the next.

Using anadiplosis can empower your writing. Make it memorable. Make it stand out from the slush pile.

Cherry Adair, NY Times bestseller, uses anadiplosis in her best seller, Black Magic.

"The Archon paid him. Paid him ridiculously well. But he'd be ley hunting if he were doing it for free."

She could've wrote: The Archon paid him to ley hunt, but he would've done it for free.

See how use of anadiplosis made her sentence more powerful, more evocative.

Now you try. Take a paragraph of your current WIP that needs a little ummph and empower it with anadiplosis. Share it in the comments. If you've naturally used anadiplosis in your current WIP, show us too.

Happy Writing!
~kristal lee

Over the last few weeks, I’ve blogged at New Kids on the Writer’s Block as Kaelee Morgan on the topic of writer’s voice. Mostly, because I wanted to understand what it is, if I had one, and how to develop it. I’ve learned that #1, we all have a voice, and #2, we have to learn what it is before we can develop and refine it. Like a songster’s voice, a writer’s voice begins with the raw basics and is refined through practice. How refined that voice becomes depends on the practice. Only perfect practice produces a perfect result.

As writers, we MUST learn the craft of writing in order for our practice to be spot on. Our writer’s voice becomes more defined once we’ve mastered how to use writing tools and we begin to shape and use those instruments according to our natural style.

Writer’s voice is as individualistic as we are. A familiar reader should be able to pick up anything we’ve written and identify it with us. Voice is that distinctive.

Don’t believe me? Pick up a book written round robin with several authors. When reading the book, you get a clear sense of when the author has switched. The sentence structure is slightly different, the word choice, even the tone. There is distinction in voice.

I began pondering this uniqueness, the individuality, and imminent recognizability. Not only in voice, but who I am as an author.

When I decided to pursue a professional writing career, I made the choice to use a pen name, Kaelee Morgan. It wasn’t a hard decision. Looking back, it was easier than it should’ve been. Almost without thought, really.

I told family members and friends that I was using a pseudonym, they all asked why. I glibly answered, because I have a day job in the public arena with a large and politically “hot” agency. Self-protection, self-preservation I deemed it.

I hit the bulls-eye with the self-protection, self-preservation bit. But not because of the crap about the day job.

Looking back at my much younger years, I remember writing, writing, writing, and signing my work as Anonymous. Not because I was embarrassed by what I wrote, but because I was embarrassed to be complimented. I wrote a short story in school that my teacher raved about, to everyone. Before long, my story was the talk of the school. In a good way, but the attention was a tad overwhelming. Overwhelming because there’s a vulnerability in writing out your heart and everyone scrutinizing it.

A pen name provides a layer of protection. Some authors choose pen names out of reasonable necessity. Or perhaps because they write in different genres or for different publishers.

I chose a pen name out of fear. Not fear of rejection, but fear of recognition. Kinda backward thinking, I know. Especially considering that I’m not a shy person, nor do I have a problem with self-confidence. I do, however, like privacy.

While studying voice, I dug through the Hope chest to rediscover short stories, creative writing assignments, poems, and research papers from my past. And there I found my voice. Raw and in need of refinement, but definitely my voice.

Somehow, over time, I lost some of what makes me, me, in writing. Maybe this had something to do with me opting for a pen name, maybe not. Most likely not. But, the lesson learned in studying voice is that I just gotta be me.

Shakespeare wrote “a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.” I suppose that’s true, but would that flower be as endearing to the masses if called a bloody thorn stalk? Somehow, I don’t think so. The essence of the flower is constant, but our perception of it changes.

After meditating on this for quite some time, I decided that come what may, I want to be known as me. I don’t need an alter identity to shield from the public eye of my day job or from family or friends. In reality, I was only hiding from me. So, I’m foregoing the pen name, Kaelee Morgan.

I’ve changed everything over to the real me, Kristal Lee. No layer of protection now. No cushion to hide behind. Nothing but the simple, direct, often quirky, me.

I’d love to hear from those who’ve chosen to use a pen name, or two. Why did you decide to use a pseudonym? If you use more than one name, do you notice a change in your voice, or does it remain consistent?
~Kristal Lee

**Reposted from NKotWB

Blogging at New Kids on the Writer’s Block as Kaelee Morgan– on Voice and Sensibility.
(Reposted)
 
“Voice, at its most basic level, is the sensibility with which an author writes. It’s a perspective, an outlook on the world, a personality and style that is recognizable even out of context.” ~ Nathan Bransford

   Writing craft guru Dwight Swain writes “each of us experiences and responds to life differently, in a manner uniquely and individually his own. As a writer, your task is to bring this heart-bound feeling to the surface in your reader: to make it well and swell and surge and churn.” (page 7, Techniques of the Selling Writer).

So, how do we make it well and swell and surge and chum?  With our voice.

First, there’s the matter of style. Choices a writer makes with words, sentence structure, figurative language, and how emotion or conflict is layered.

Personality should also be present on the page.  For me, personality is reflected in the tone, setting, and theme.

Originality is a must. As I mentioned in a previous post, To Thine Own Voice Be True. Be yourself. Write what comes natural. Write what you know. Don’t be an imitation. Only Nora can be Nora. Aspire to be You.

Enrapture and provoke. I call this the Calgon, Take Me Away syndrome. Whisk the reader away from their every day life. Help them experience your character’s world as if they were there, in the middle of the story. As a participant, not a bystander.

Be consistent and in control. Know your characters. Know their story. Weave a tale that only you can tell. And tell it fresh. Tell it with power. Tell it with confidence.

In my endeavor to define my own voice, I’ve started to understand that it isn’t something you study like grammar and vocabulary. It’s recognized through practice, the same way a vocalist discovers, develops, and strengthens their range by singing and experimenting. So a writer must write and explore. Figure out what feels natural. What doesn’t. Write, write, write. And then write some more. Read what you wrote when you first began writing and compare it to your current work in progress. You will begin to see and hear your writer’s voice.

Rachelle Gardner explains in her blog that finding your voice “is a process of peeling away the layers of your false self, your trying-to-be-something-you're-not self, your copycat self, your trying-to-sound-a-certain-way self, your spent-my-life-watching-television self. It's like going to psychotherapy, delving deep and allowing the real you to emerge, only in this case you want it to find its way on to the page.”

So, tell me.  Have you peeled away the layers to discover your  true voice? What have you learned in the process that makes your voice unique?

Blogging at New Kids on the Writer’s Block today as Kaelee Morgan: To Thine Own Voice Be True -
(Reposted)

I like post-it notes. Whenever I come across a phrase or a quote that I find enlightening or inspirational, I write it down on those tiny colored pads and stick them on my desk. On my bulletin board. On the bathroom mirror. On the refrigerator door, etc. into ad infinitum.

One of my favorite quotes is by Ingrid Bergman, "Be yourself. The world worships the original."

Les Edgerton tackles this sentiment in chapter four of his book, Finding Your Voice: How to put personality in your writing. He states that many writers follow the pack to the detriment of their writing instincts because they've been educationally programmed to do things the proper way. This leads to formal, text-book style writing. It may be technically correct, but doesn't showcase voice. When one reads it aloud, it doesn't feel natural.

If something doesn't feel right in your writing, trust that feeling. Your gut is saying, "Hello! Did you develop a sudden case of writer's laryngitis? Cuz I can't hear your voice no more."

Les suggests reading your work out loud to friends and family and ask them to comment when the "hear" your voice. Once those sections are identified, read them aloud again until you become accustomed to the sound and the rhythm of the words. This will put you in tune with yourself.

He also suggests selecting a writing sample from your WIP and marking out all the adverbs and adjectives. "Adverbs and adjectives are the hockers of your voice." I love that sentence so much I have to type it again. "Adverbs and adjectives are the hockers of your voice." (Yep, that's definitely going on a post-it note for my netbook.)


Once these phlegm balls are cleared from your writing, the true essence of what you wrote will shine through. The pace will be faster and the writing more alive. It's okay to go back and sprinkle a few adjectives into the prose, but sparingly and use stronger adjectives when possible. And ex-nay on the adverbs. "They bring bad karma and are rarely aligned with the planets." --Oh yeah, that's going on a post-it note, too.

The important thing to remember is to be the same person on the page that you are off the page. Don't use words that you wouldn't use naturally when talking to people. Don't adopt a writing style that doesn't mesh with your personality. Learn the rules so you will know when, where, and how to break them. Trust your gut. And above all, to thine own voice be true.

Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do – Blogging (as Kaelee Morgan) on writer’s voice at New Kids on the Writer’s Block – (Reposted)

I can hear Julie Andrews singing in the Sound of Music simply by reading the words do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do. Her voice is as clear and distinctive in my mind as it was to my ears when I heard her sing them. I will never mistake another singer for her.

Why?

Because her voice is unique and very identifiable.

At the mention of her name, I bet you heard her voice in your head too-- if, you've ever heard her sing. If you haven't, you should.

As a writer, I want my manuscripts to be as vivid and memorable as a Julie Andrews performance. I want readers to recognize my voice from the first paragraph. I want it to stand out. I want it to sing to the rafters.

But first, I have to learn what my voice is and isn't.

I pulled out some old contest critiques on my first manuscript to see if others had heard my voice. What a relief that they had. I read comments about "strong voice" and "unique voice".  But what does that mean?

Ambiguous terms, although complimentary and very appreciated, haven't helped me in my quest to discover who I am as writer.

To help me gain a better understanding of  "voice,"  I bought books and dug through past issues of RWR. ( I keep every issue and stack them on the floor in my home office because they contain nuggets of wisdom that I need to dig for from time to time.)

In the July 2008 RWR, Julie Rowe wrote an article entitled "Love Your Voice" and said, "Voice is an extension of who the writer is. [It] is a writer's personality on paper."

Hmmm.  Houston we have a kink in the fuel line.

In life, I have two distinct personalities. My work personality and my non-work personality. The two are very different. Maybe that's why I'm having difficulties defining my writer's voice. In re-reading the old contest critiques, I came across a reviewer's comment that my writing style fluctuated between formal and informal with the suggestion to pick one and stick to it.

In essence she was saying, "Know thy Self."

Julie Andrews had to learn her true singing range in order to become the vocalist everyone recognizes. I need to learn my true writing style in order to become the novelist I want to be.


Over the next few weeks, I'll be researching the different elements of voice and trying to define my own through some writing exercises. So, come "sing" with me in a two minute  practice session in writing outside the box.

Write at least four alternate uses for the following items:

* A popsicle stick

* A bobby pin (hair pin)

* A newspaper

* A dog bone

I'll post mine in the comments later in the day, and no I won't look at yours first. I already have mine written.