What Took Me So Long to Start Writing?

 

 

    Jane Edmonds is a Stage 3 student at the 

Open College of the Arts, studying poetry and prose. 

At this moment, she is writing a memoir of her life, as she

travelled around the world as both a child and a young woman.

At Stage Three, she is reaching the culmination of her degree pathway and will soon graduate with honours.  Although she's in her eighties, she's an energetic student with plenty of ideas and a great sense of humour, and her output is worthy of someone a quarter of her age. I asked her why she 'left it quite late' to study something she is clearly so passionate about, and this is what she explained to me:

'I’m shy about telling people I’m doing a creative writing degree, because at 85 it seems either ridiculous or a boast about my mental ability. The responses when I do own up are variable:

‘Good on you!’

‘Really?’ with a slight frown.

Jane in Malta

Or a shrug and turning away because ‘what is creative writing and anyway…sorry, not interested.’

But I am interested in writing and still puzzled why I didn’t take myself seriously enough to engage at degree level. What were the barriers, the excuses, I set up for myself? 

I have a notebook sent to me by my grandmother in 1949. I know the date because my name and the date of my eleventh birthday are printed in gold lettering on the leather cover. I’ve never been able to write in it. It has expectations and depressing blue pages with lines. I didn’t write anything other than school essays until, as a young wife and mother who had seen so much of the world and its people, the full force of the life I was living overwhelmed me. By then, it felt to me that there really was no time for writing. 

I did write, though. Poetry, intermittent diaries, notes in unlined notebooks, on the backs of envelopes, margins of newspapers. These are stacked in boxes as a sometimes surprising, sometimes shaming archive. 

It was at this stage of my life I met Val Giamatti, father of a friend. He was Professor of Italian studies at Mount Holyoke University in America. A born teacher, enthusiast for Dante, with an all- embracing warmth of personality. For a year or two I exchanged letters and cards with him. In one card he tells me to ‘write poems, novels for publication as you express yourself so well.’ 

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/directory/departments-offices-centers/classics-and-italian/valentine-giamatti-lecture-and-dante-collection

I also sent poems to a librarian friend who wrote an encouraging critique. Although I have kept these responses since the 1970s it is only now that I can believe they saw something in my writing, raw though it was, that was worth nurturing.

Reading has always been my greatest pleasure. At first anything to hand, then after the classics, discovery of T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, the American novelists - Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Raymond Chandler helped me become more discriminating. In my hubristic youth I decided I didn’t need academics to tell me what was worthwhile literature. I still don’t. But I wasn’t able to analyse what makes effective writing, which I have been learning the past few years with the Open College of the Arts (OCA).

In the early days of the Open University my father suggested taking one of their courses. Apart from being averse to anything he thought might be good for me, I still had reservations about academia and a deep-rooted objection to exams as I think of them as a test of memory. The continuous assessment of OCA suits my style of learning and is probably more rigorous.The need to earn a living as a nurse took over from family cares and even when I retired I took up art and creative sewing, until finally I was attracted to OCA through a random brochure in the post. 

All of the above makes me the arch procrastinator. Not for me the daily excuse of cleaning the house or going shopping. No - I have allowed a disbelief in myself to make me content to fiddle at the edges, until it is almost too late to call myself a writer. Even when I started with OCA I didn’t intend to do more than one or two units for interest, though as a ‘why not’ I signed up for the degree.  It was the third unit of Level 1 Creative Arts Today, that finally grabbed me. Exploring what I thought about very modern visual art, close reading of the first two paragraphs of Graham Greene’s The Quiet American and the positive tutor 
feedback gave me a buzz. I became hungry for more brain food. 

Poetry at level 2 continued to take me into new worlds of writing and experimenting and just enjoying playing with words. Now, writing a memoir is another genre to explore. 

Within the creative writing community at OCA, more visible since the pandemic, I feel at ease as a student; have left behind the reasons for not writing. I enjoy the collaborative aspect of a peer group whose writing I respect and whose comments come from the same level of struggle and gain. 

Nowadays if I’m roaming round unanchored because I haven’t got a book to read, I think ‘I’ll start writing myself. It’s just as absorbing.'

Thank you, Jane, and I'm sure we all wish you the very best of luck for graduation.

An Interview with Author Ali Bacon

I met Ali Bacon when she joined Bristol Women's Writers and began her her first contemporary novel, A Kettle of Fish, set in Scotland. She followed this with In the Blink of an Eye which reimagines the life of an early Edinburgh photographer and was listed in the ASLS best Scottish books of 2018. Her writing is still strongly influenced by her Scottish roots and Linen Press has just shaped up The Absent Heart. I interviewed her about her continued success and her ability to keep writing over many years.

What is your forthcoming novel about?
The Absent Heart is about Robert Louis Stevenson’s relationship with his muse Frances Sitwell. 

Could you outline the story for us, without giving anything away? 

Frances Sitwell is relying on faithful but diffident Sidney Colvin to help her escape an abusive marriage when she meets the young Robert Louis Stevenson. Colvin becomes his mentor while she allows Louis to pour out his heart to her in letters. When Stevenson dies and those letters come to light, she is accused by Colvin of having been his friend’s mistress as well as his muse. As her ill-fated attempts at discretion come back to haunt her, she risks losing her reputation, her forthcoming marriage and her long-standing friendship with Stevenson’s wife.

That sounds absorbing and compelling! 

Yes, the book unpicks a complex Victorian love triangle while exploring themes of love, desire, romance and bromance. 

This is your second novel with Linen Press and both have included historic detail. What drives you to write novels about real people who had some fame in their time?

First of all, I had no real intention to write historical fiction which I thought would be way too hard (research research!) but while writing my very first (contemporary) novel A Kettle of Fish, I stumbled across the story of early photographers Hill and Adamson. I found their story, especially that of David Octavius Hill, utterly compelling and wanted to bring it to a wider audience. I even considered non-fiction, but as a novelist at heart, a novel is what I had to write. In the end, In the Blink of an Eye was a big challenge but also highly satisfying, so I thought I should have another go!

What made you choose your current heroine?

Our family always had a sentimental attachment to Robert Louis Stevenson (one of my ancestors knew him) and when I heard a radio drama in which he played a part, I considered him as a subject, but of course there is very little about him that hasn’t been explored, and I preferred to write what is in effect an ‘untold story’ about one of those thousands of women whom history has neglected up to now. Frances (Fanny) Sitwell appears in every R.L.S. biography but is mostly dismissed as a brief episode in his early life. In fact, they remained in touch, and in my eyes their early encounter reverberated throughout their lives and their other relationships. As the victim of an abusive marriage, Frances Sitwell is also a fascinating subject in terms of how she negotiated the difficulties and restrictions imposed by Victorian society. 

How have your Scottish roots influenced your writing?

Although I look back on my childhood with great happiness, when I first started writing (in the early 2000s) I didn’t see this as a particular source of inspiration.  It was only after a holiday to my home county of Fife that I realised my deep attachment to the places I frequented as a child and decided I should celebrate them in A Kettle of Fish. It was a happy coincidence that the characters in In the Blink of an Eye also had strong connections to Fife, albeit in a different age. It was a delight to revisit (mentally and physically!) my home town of Dunfermline and also St Andrews, where I spent four wonderful years. I think my instinct was also to convey not just the places but the voices I recalled from my youth. The Absent Heart, apart from the character of RLS himself, is actually my least Scottish novel so far!  However, it probably helped that I have a personal connection (through my sister) to the location in Suffolk where R.L.S. and Fanny Sitwell first met.

Frances Sitwell

What’s your favourite part of the writing process?

If I’m honest, apart from brief periods of the first draft when I feel I am in the zone, I really enjoy editing – taking those rough sentences and smoothing them out, removing the cliches or sloppy bits of writing ( we all do it!) and cutting out needless verbiage.  I firmly believe that however good the story, this process makes a massive difference to the end product. The reader won’t be consciously aware, but getting small things right is what makes reading a pleasure.  

Least favourite?
I do struggle with getting the plot in shape – or structural editing as it’s usually known. As a ‘pantser’  I write without a lot of detailed planning, so I always have to rewrite and restructure. You could call it reverse engineering! I don’t mind the rewriting, just the anguished moments in which I have to work out what the final shape is going to be. 

Tell us more about Linen Press, and when is publication day? 

Linen Press is a small indie publisher for quality fiction ‘by women, for women’. Since the demise of Virago I believe they are the only exclusively female publisher. I met director Lynn Michel some years ago and was absolutely delighted when she accepted In the Blink of an Eye especially as Avril Joy, one of my favourite writers, (check her out!)  is on their list. It was a single book deal so her accepting The Absent Heart was not a foregone conclusion. In fact Lynn did ask for some tweaks and changes of emphasis with which I was happy to comply as I trust her publisher’s instinct. Now we are down to our favourite task of close editing in which small changes are suggested and discussed. See above! We’re working towards publication in the early spring and I’m already exploring people, places and events who might help promote it. 

You've won short story prizes in the past, are you working on these now?

I have a historical short story in the forthcoming Linen Press anthology Skeins.

Anything longer in the pipeline?

I have an idea for a novel set in the 1970s, but so far it’s just an idea!

How can people keep in touch with you? 

I’m on Facebook, Twitter (@AliBacon) and Instagram (@alibwriter) but for sneak previews of the book and bonus material, readers can sign up to my Absent Heart newsletter which will run up to publication day and beyond. There’s a link on my website https://alibacon.com or use this one http://eepurl.com/iTCrNc

Don’t forget Ali’s other books are also available.

In the Blink of an Eye (ebook or paperback) from Linen Press Books. https://www.linen-press.com/shop/in-the-blink-of-an-eye/

or Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blink-Eye-Ali-Bacon/dp/0993599729

A Kettle of Fish, (Kindle or paperback) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kettle-Fish-Ali-Bacon/dp/1781768625/.(Both are also available from WOB)

Read about Ali here; https://www.linen-press.com/authors/ali-bacon/

Thank you so much Ali Bacon and huge good luck with your new book!

Your Writing Voice–Part Two–Character Personas

     And what if she should die? She won't die. People don't die in childbirth nowadays. That was what all husbands thought. Yes, but what if she should die? She won't die. She's just having a bad time. The initial labor is usually protracted. She's only having a bad time. Afterward we'd say what a bad time and Catherine would say it wasn't really so bad. But what if she should die? She can't die. Yes, but what if she should die? She can't, I tell you. Don't be a fool. It's just a bad time. It's just nature giving her hell. It's only the first labor, which is almost always protracted. Yes, but what if she should die? She can't die. Why would she die? What reason is there for her to die? There's just a child that has to be born, the by-product of good nights in Milan. It makes trouble and is born and then you look after it and get fond of it maybe. But what if she should die? She won't die. But what if she should die? She won't. She's all right. But what if she should die? She can't die. But what if she should die? Hey, what about that? What if she should die?   

       The doctor came into the room

      "How does it go, doctor?" 

       "It doesn't go," he said.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

                                Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms pg 342

Writing in the persona of a fictional character – the character telling the story – is a technique that will be of tremendous benefit within your life writing. But, because ‘voice’ is so closely related to pouring your thoughts into your writing, you’ll find that your voice will be at its most confident when you write in that very personal voice. So how do you create a new voice, for a new character, without forcing your own voice to sound false, or abandoning it altogether?

Creative fiction requires the skill of creating empathetic characters you’ll write about. Being able to describe the emotions, the physical reactions and the thought patterns that occur during various situations you've experienced will stand you in good stead when you start a new character voice.

The voice (and style, and tone) of your writing will almost automatically change once you're 'into' your new character's persona. But how to get under their skin? Here are a few ideas to help this, followed by some exercise that will consolidate your progress in creating a voice for a character.

Examine your character so far, and ask, are they vibrant and vital? Real people have a vital  'life force' around them that is clearly missing, say in a mannikin. If your character is still flat on the page, their voice will be too. Think about:

• the sort of personality they have; extrovert? quiet? cynical? kind?
• Their physicality. Not so much what they look like; they can't be accountable for that! But what do they do with their looks? How do they walk (swagger, stumble?). How do they stand, sit, speak, address strangers?
• What about work? Are they good with others or better on their own?
• Also consider age, class, locality  religion or philosophy, job or profession. 
• In the exercises below, you'll write about their emotions. Think about how they deal with emotional issues: swiftly, reactively? Positively, fearfully? Head in the sand?
• When the heat is on (and in most stories, it should be on), how does your character react, especially in dialogue? Are they silent? Mad? Respond calmly? Flair up quickly then calm down? Apologise first? Hold the space? Be offended
• Think about––but not too many of these; don't over do this––if they swear or use slang, jargon, catchphrases or dialogue tics? 

Once you have some kind of idea of your characters’ personality and the emotions that lie beneath, and combined that with how you write in your voice when it's your emotions you're writing about, the best way to show a character's persona will come more naturally. Because you're not just describing what someone does or what they say, you're showing the reader how they're doing things, how they're saying things––the person they are inside. 

Make notes about all this, to help fill that notebook you bought just to work on this new main character. Once you've done that, move on to the exercises below. These will 'oil the machine' that will help you create a new character persona and their voice. Remember that when talking characters and particularly protagonists,  "voice" means "personality."  You've already started to create the personality of your main character. That's the foundation skill of writing fiction––creating characters that feel like real people––vital people with personalities.

When I first started writing my series about Sabbie Dare, a therapist living in Bridgwater, I spent a long time thinking about all the things I speak of above, and doing the exercises I offer below. Slowly over the course of the first draft, I began to know her well. Here is how I open her voice in the first Shaman Mystery.

I didn’t know it, but Cliff Houghton was already in police custody when I woke with a dreadful sensation at the back of a dry throat. It was too early on Saturday morning and I had the hangover to prove it.

Ivan was curled into his own hollow, back towards me, head deep in the pillow. I wrapped my body around him like peel round fruit. It had been a deliciously late night and I was too heavy-eyed to prevent the warm waves pulling me down.

'You’ll dream, Sabbie, girl, you know you will,' I warned myself. 'You always dream of horrid things when you slip back into sleep.'

I dreamt of the snarl of canine teeth, the fast flapping of wings, of being dragged, face down, through mud.

When I woke again, a cold but determined dawn was edging its way through closed curtains. 

                                    In the Moors, Nina Milton

Exercise: Analyse 'voice'

Take a piece of your writing – something already written around the character you're creating, for example. Stand up and read it aloud. Think about the following questions:

 • What’s the shape of the read?

• How does it roll off your tongue?

• Is there variety in the sentence lengths and structures, to make the voice interesting?

• What’s the tone of the voice?

Is it commanding? Questioning? Decorative? Humorous? Hyperbolic? Confusing? Clear? Do these tones reflect the character?

• Does its mood change during the piece? Does the mood reflect the character's mood?

• Has the voice entered the characterisation? If so, was that deliberate on your part? Has this improved the piece or confused matters?

• How well-rounded does the reading feel?

Experiment as much as you like. Create several experimental rewrites to help shape this new voice, which is springing out of your voice, like a new baby plant. Keep asking those questions.

Exercise: An emotional experience

Think back to a moment when you experienced one of the extreme emotions: the first flush of love, chilling fear, acute embarrassment, overwhelming joy, grinding hatred, unreasonable jealousy, pure pleasure, crippling indecision or total exhaustion.

You might choose to recall the time that you fell in love with the person sitting behind you in fifth form. What sort of physical symptoms did you experience? Did you experience loss of concentration, daydreaming, dry mouth, knotted stomach, loss of appetite or a constant desire to say the person’s name?

Freewrite around 200 words about your experience. 

Now rewrite it, moving into the persona of your character, 

 Exercise: Start a diary

This often help improve a new voice. Allow the character to have a diary they write in.  Perhaps start before the story does, and allow them to examine their normal life, before it drops into the mess you'll create for them. Let them talk about their day, and make sure they tell themselves the little secret things; how they really feel about their Mum; how work is getting them down, how they remember a lost love, even though they're happily married.

Exercise: The Bedroom

Describe a room that is special to the person. An under 18's special room is often their bedroom; a home worker might feel happiest in their office. Someone in jeopardy in their own home might retreat frequently to the attic. Someone who loves to cook is going to make their kitchen their heart-place. For some, it's a specific chair and the little table that stands next to it.

It might not be a room at all; it could be an area of garden, park or someone else's space, that they flee to when all goes wrong. An elderly man's special room might be the garden shed.

Don't forget wild areas; what does your character feel about them?

Once you're in the room, have a poke around. Try to do it when the character isn't there. They won't mind!

Start Writing!

By now, you should be itching to write your story. So go right ahead and enjoy the experience. 

Return to my Trees – a three hundred mile walk through Welsh forests

 Dod yn ôl fy nghoed...

        To return to my trees.

What on earth is that Welsh phrase supposed to mean? Unsurprisingly, knowing the poetic and lyrical nature of the Welsh nation, it doesn't just mean 'nipping into the woods'. It's a phrase used when someone needs to clear their head, to think again.

Matthew Yeomans, a Cardiff author of Rough Guides translates it as 'to return to a balanced state of mind...' 

Something that has been medically proved to occur when we walk in amongst trees; our blood pressure reduces and so does our anxiety levels. We return from our walk feeling de-stressed and ready for life.

the mythic map

Yeoman, who has been a traveller all his writing life, didn't have to travel far geographically to write this fourth book. Having travelled the world, he decided towalk through the ancient and modern forests of Wales, losing himself in their stories––their natural word, their history, mythology and legends, especially those which appear between the covers of the Mabinogion, the ancient tales of Wales. While Yeoman  explored the paths, he also explored the religions, culture, arts and music of Wales, as well as the industrial past and present of his home nation. 

Yeoman started in the Welsh Marches, at Wentwood,striding across the south of the country, to the Black Mountains. Then he worked northwards, past the Devil's Bridge, through Snowdonia and Llangollen and onwards to the north-eastern border,  stopping at Chirk. 

Such a grand idea: linking the forests throughout a modern country, walking those (often unmarked) paths, talking to the local people and learning about the land. 300 miles is a massive journey, and Yeoman is still walking, often with other people who want to encourage us all to walk.

Recently, I walked just a few miles of Yeoman's Mythic Map, over the Bwlch Mountain near Maesteg, walking with my son and my dog. I love walking with others because that's when the most intimate and interesting chats happen, when you're looking ahead at the path and the trees, listening to the brook and the birds, you can open your heart. 

But walking along introduces a new dimension––not only bringing down stress and puts our lives into perspective––it allows me reach the most creative parts of my mind. When I walk alone, my books, stories, characters and settings accompany me and grow clearer and more real as I progress along my route. Many writers walk to invent their stories. Dickens apparently wrote most mornings and walked every afternoon. I think his characters and their scenarios walked with him, ready for their creation by pen the following
morning.

The writer’s greatest fear is the blank page or screen. Being stuck for something to write is terrifying for a writer, and is a major reason why many would-be writers never take the plunge. But most of our writing is done before we even touch the keyboard or pen. For this, we visit a strange place in our heads – our imagination, where we go though a process of deep listening. When you have the chance to attend to the many voices of your self, letting them settle in your head before writing them down, you unlock something that you didn’t previously know was there. Walking alone allows this.

I've used walking as inspiration for years. It doesn't matter if the surrounds are urban or rural, but naturally it's nicer if there are trees. The most important thing is that I am on my own. When i walk alone, I chatter to my characters, and they chatter back. t. I've walked my way though, scene-building, description, interior monologue and action. I've listen to dialogue develop and worked out my plots. Holding it in your head is the hard part––I've been known to race back on the home stretch, my hands itching for the keyboard––so always take a notebook and pen. 

Kitchen Table Writers has already approached this idea of walking through stories, in this blogpost

On Radio 6, Matthew Yeomans explained how this walk emerged out of the cabin fever of Covid. 'I had to get out…I didn't  know much about trees, but I heard that the Welsh Government had announced a plan to create a national forest of Wales.' 

In his wonderful, inspiring book, he walks to link just some of the woodlands and forests of Wales, seeking an answer to the question; when and how did we humans lose our connection with nature – and how do we find it again? Helpfully, the walk has grown, turning into a book, a mythic map, and a Welsh playlist plus a list of podcasts all of which can be downloaded.

They are matchless,

My trees in winter. 

While I watch telly and eat carbs, 

Put the fire on, the heating up, 

They stand naked to the battle;

Steady for storm, ready for gale. 

Winter trees communicate in semaphore

Black flags against the half-day’s light.

They are gallows for bats,

Rigging for gulls,

Blue cages for robins 

Steeples for stormcocks.

In the cold sun, 

The oaks glow emerald with moss;

Planes strike piebald patterns;

Birch trunks shimmer like a high moon. 

I pull on gloves, hat, scarves,

Brave the cold to watch 

As they wait secure, 

Dreaming sap dreams,

Expectant for spring.                                                 (Trees in Winter by Nina Milton)

Not everyone lives near a forest. But I'm sure you can find some trees to enjoy. So go and enjoy them. Return to them, to clear your head, find a better perspective, solve you problems and, even, perhaps, write a book. You may return to a balanced state of mind. You may even  return to a balanced state of soul.

Finding your Writing Voice–Part One

I was pulled out with forceps

left a gash down my left cheek

four months inside a glass cot

but she came faithful 

from Glasgow to Edinbrough

and peered through the glass

I must have felt somebody willing me

  to survive 

she would not pick another baby

                Jackie Kay, the Adoption Papers 

The voice you speak with is unique and can be used to identify you, rather like fingerprints. The voice you write with should also be unique so that your readers will recognise it and grow to love it. A good  personal voice helps seduce your reader. It allows them to feel a certain familiarity that brings them back to a particular writer time and time again.

Some people say that ‘voice’ on the page can be defined as ‘the author writing as they would converse’. I think a better definition is that ‘voice’ is ‘the author writing as they would think’.  When a writer pours their mind…their thoughts…onto their page, the voice sings out – driven by something that not even the writer fully understands. 

Your writing ‘voice’ is as valid as anyone’s, so long it has sufficient flow to hold a reader’s attention. It does not have to be cultured, or even grammatical...clarity, vision and personality count for a lot more. So, don’t be inhibited by other people’s writing style; you have a great style of your own, which, when left to emerge, is unique to you.

The poet Jackie Kay has written about her earlier life, including Red Dust Road (2010), described in review as a fine antidote to the misery memoir, and The Adoption Papers (1991) She says this of voice: I wrote in three different voices: the birth mother, the adoptive mother, and the daughter. It was interesting when I was writing it, talking about inventing yourself, because the daughter’s voice was, in fact, the most difficult to write. Both the mothers were comparatively easy to find a voice for; the daughter I found more difficult – and this was because she was, in a way, trying to tell the factual story. I realised I found that aspect less imaginative and therefore less easy to create – this was a surprising part of the project.

If you are a writer of fiction, you will also need to find the voice of each of your narrators. This might feel a tall order at first, while you are still developing your own writing voice. In fact, it's imperative that you do find your own voice before anything else. Finding your own writing voice is the foundation stone of all good writing. This blogpost deals with helping you develop your own voice. We will return to look at character voices in Part Two.

Exercise: Find your voice

Take a characterless piece of writing to work with. You can write one of your own, or use this example here:

We reached the stile and looked over it. More fields. My legs were tired. The stile was wooden and you had to climb up then down. There was mud on the other side, and cows. I said, 'Let's go back the way we came.'

Such a faceless account gives you scope to reimagine the scene. We've probably all had an experience fairly like this one. Whether you work with this scene, or one you've created, you start by thinking about the dull, lifeless components (a walk, a view, a conversation, a challenge). Allow these to become images and words inside your mind. In other words you… pour your mind…yourr thoughts…onto the page, and let your voice sing out.

Breaking down your writing and divesting it of any individual voice will enable you to see what happens when you introduce your writing personality from scratch. Spend some time now looking at the the difference between the first, dull draft and the second, infused with your voice.  What do these reveal about the way your mind works?  Is there a certain tone of voice, a detectable style? Did you go for the challenges (for instance, did you focus on getting through the mud, or facing the cows)? Did you concentrate on adding description? Did you focus on dialogue, getting the 'we' chatting?' Was your goal to inspire a reader, make them smile, make them understand, give them reading pleasure? 

Try to analyse the changes you made. 

The reader over your shoulder

Now’s the time to think more deeply about those ‘influential personas’ that continue to speak internally and accompany the writer. (In fact they accompany everyone, but they’re of most use to writers.)

Robert Graves, author of I Claudius, with his researcher, Alan Hodge, took this idea and ran with. At the start of the 2nd WW, they produced a handbook for writers called The Reader Over Your Shoulder. They began with, “…whenever anyone sits down to write he should imagine a crowd of his prospective readers…looking over his shoulder.” They outlined forty-one principles for writing, devoted to clarity, and grace of expression. 

Robert Graves’s desk in his home in Majorca, where he lived from 1929 until his death.

 Photo: © Emily Benet

Mikhail Bakhtin, the Russian philosopher and literary theorist, talked about the personas we all internalise as we move from childhood into adulthood – the people we respect, whose own voices remain in our minds. These begin with the authority and love we experience from parents, teachers and older or wiser friends. But they widen as we progress to include other significant influences – your priest, your boss, your financial advisor, a particular politician, even your driving instructor. Their voices may be reassuring, awe-inspiring or heart-warming, but we have these people in our heads and often address our thoughts towards them, creating imagined discourses.

You might feel this phenomenon would get in the way of developing your own voice but, rather than fighting it, allow yourself to address these invisible listeners––or rather, one chosen listener––as you write, as well as think. Using a relevant influence as the reader over your shoulder may encourage aspects of your own voice to grow.

 Exercise: Who is over your shoulder?

Take your time over this exercise and work on it in stages:

First, identify just one influential persona who may have an authoritative significance for you. Try not to go for writers; choose someone who influenced your life in the past. Choose a presence that you feel really comfortable with.

Take some time to create a list of the ways in which this voice has influenced (and maybe still influences) your thoughts. What messages come out of any imagined conversations or discourses with this person? Try to isolate the consequences – practical or emotional – that they have on your life.

You may discover that the original persona has developed into someone slightly different over the years they’ve been inside your head, to become a semi-imaginary figure.

Write a series of imaginative sketches that involves discussions between you and this other person. If you like, you can give both of you new names to shift the perspective slightly away from yourself. Imagine both of you taking a walk where you 

comfortably chat (if you like, think of the Socratic dialogues).

In your sketches, allow yourself to gain the upper hand in any disagreements. After all, it’s your writing. Even if this persona is actually your old professor, you’re allowed to win the argument!

Let two voices emerge – yours and the voice of the person who will be 'reading over your shoulder'. Read through your work, analysing the two voices and pondering on your own writer’s voice.

Rework the sketches as much as you like, to enhance the discussions or put new points across, to add some action, description or introspection. Feel free to repeat the exercise, especially if you find it helps reinforce your own emerging voice.

Keep practising! Develop your voice through the two exercises above and by writing copiously in the voice that is emerging. Part Two will be with you in a couple of weeks.