Voice

1. Voice What is voice and why is it important to our books (and all of our writing)?

2. Voice is…… • the personality of the writing. • how the writing “sounds.” Voice can be conveyed by…… • word choice • phrase / idiom choice • literary devices • details (what is the focus, what is left out) • point of view

3. The voice of your piece should appeal to your intended audience! • What details would they find important or interesting? • What words would most appeal or be most easily understood by them? • How personal/ intimate should the writing be? • Why are your writing this for them?

4. Examples of voice (from The Princess Bride “What are we going to do about you, Billy?” “I don’t know, Miss Roginski.” “How could you have failed this reading test? I’ve heard you use every word with my own ears.” “I’m sorry, Miss Roginski. I must not have been thinking.” “You’re always thinking, Billy. You just weren’t thinking about the reading test.” I could only nod. “What was it this time?” “I don’t know. I can’t remember.” “Was it Stanley Hack again?” (Stan Hack was the Cubs’ third baseman for these and many other years. I saw him play once from a bleacher seat, and even at that distance he had the sweetest smile I had ever seen and to this day I swear he smiled at me several times. I just worshipped him. He could also hit a ton.) “BronkoNagurski. He’s a football. A great football player, and the paper last night said he might come back and play for the Bears again. He retired when I was little but if he came back and I could get someone to take me to a game, I could see him play and maybe if whoever took me also knew him, I could meet him after and maybe if he was hungry, I might let him have a sandwich I might have brought with me. I was trying to figure out what kind of sandwich BronkoNagurski might would like.” She just sagged at her desk. “You’ve got a wonderful imagination, Billy.” I don’t know what I said. Probably “thank you” or something. “I can’t harness it, though,” she went on. “Why is that?” “I think it’s that probably I need glasses and I don’t read because the words are so fuzzy. That would explain why I’m all the time squinting. Maybe if I went to an eye doctor who could give me glasses, I’d be the best reader in class and you wouldn’t have to keep me after school so much.” She just pointed behind her. “Get to work cleaning the blackboards, Billy.” “Yes, ma’am.” I was the best at cleaning blackboards. “Do they look fuzzy?” Miss Roginski said after a while/ “Oh, no, I just made that up.” I never squinted either. But she just seemed so whipped about it. She always did. This had been going on for three years now.

5. Another example of voice from Infinite Jest. I am seated in an office, surrounded by heads and bodies. My posture is consciously congruent to the shape of my hard chair. This is a cold room in University Administration, wood-walled, Remington-hung, double-windowed against the November heat, insulated from Administrative sounds by the reception area outside, at which Uncle Charles, Mr. deLint and I were lately received. I am in here. Three faces have resolved into place above summer-weight sportcoats and half-windsors across a polished pine conference table shiny with spidered light of an Arizona noon. These are the three Deans- of Admissions, Academic Affairs and Athletic Affairs. I do not know which face belongs to whom.

6. Now, It’s your turn! Read the story on the next slide. In a minute, I’ll give you a slip with an intended audience and a speaker. Your job is to briefly retell this story with either that audience in mind or as that speaker. You will be turning this story in, so please use a complete, clean piece of paper. Remember: • Think about your word choice. • Think about what details are important to your reader or speaker. • Think of what types of phrases or sayings might work best. • Think of what point of view should be taken about this story.

7. Rewrite this story (briefly) A little girl decided to visit her sick grandmother. Since her grandmother lived in the forest, and the little girl did not, she had to travel for almost two hours alone in the forest. She encountered a talking wolf while she traveled who encouraged her to pick some flowers for her grandmother. While she was picking flowers, the wolf went to the grandmother’s house and swallowed her whole. He then dressed in the grandmother’s clothing and waited for the little girl to arrive. When the little girl did arrive, the wolf, after briefly pretending to be the grandmother, swallowed the little girl whole. Fortunately for the little girl and her grandmother, a lumberjack happened to be passing by the house when she was eaten and witnessed the event. After the wolf fell asleep, the lumberjack cut open the wolf’s abdomen and released the little girl and her grandmother. They all decided to punish the wolf by filling his abdomen with rocks, sewing it up and watching him try to run away. (This is the original Grimm’s Brother version of the story.)