Finding your Writing Voice–Part One: A Craft of Creative Writing

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. 

Get the Soundtrack of your Novel in Your Head

“All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music” 

Walter Pater’s said that. It’s a famous quote of his, more famous than he is. When I first heard it, I checked him out, to find he was a nineteenth-century art critic and literary theorist who was born in the East End of London.

Some think that this quote is bunkum, and that art doesn’t move towards being music, but the idea resonates with me. Why else would Leonard Cohen have moved his writing sideways from prose and poetry to lyrics (oh! the money, maybe…).  Music often enhances reading; I played Bob Marley all the time when I was consumed by A Brief History of Seven Killings 

When I write, I’m always aware that certain scenes make a sort of music in my head. My characters, right from before I had anything published, always listened to music, often (this is possibly why these stories weren't published!) for long, closely-described scenes.

Then I read the critically acclaimed Teddy Wayne, and heard about how he created a ‘soundtrack’ to his most recent novel Loner, an unsettling story of obsessive desire. In his article, Wayne says…A great deal of pop songs are also about romantic obsession and loneliness (often in the same breath), and many ostensible love songs, when you examine the lyrics, are really avowals of stalker-like pursuit or thoughts of the object of desire; the British seem to have a particular fondness for this kind of ballad. 

Wayne chose ten tracks that informed his portrayal of his protagonist. I’m writing book four of the Shaman Mysteries, Flood Gate, and I'm doing the same thing. My chosen tracks each represent a character, and I’m finding wonderful inspiration from listening to these songs. Follow the links to hear the music.

In order of appearance:

Larry Waish is a small-time poultry farmer who recently lost all his hens in one of the many floods that plague the Somerset Levels. What he’s discovered, is that his neighbour is to blame for his loss, and he’s hopping mad. Larry really loves Country and Western and plays The Eagles Heartache Tonight  a lot, while he’s trying to cope with what happened between him and Jack Spicer at Harper’s Coombe 

Jack Spicer, who’s real name is John, farms 200 acres of Somerset land, as his family has for generations. He's recently lost his daughter, and is helping bring up her daughter, baby Olivia. He knows he's been driven to do wrong, and t’s tormenting him. He's a bit of a classical buff, and listening to the slightly sinister tones of Shostakovich’s first piano concerto helped me build his character. By the end of chapter one, Jack is dead.

Sabbie Dare is a young shamanic practitioner and therapist who knows it is her destiny to be of service to people on the very edge of life. The victims of evil…the perpetrators of it.  Sabbie’s mad about Pet Shop Boys and pagan music which can vary from folksy to rocking, and includes groups like Incubus Sucubus, Dahm the Bard and The Dolmen 

Kelly King was 28 when she threw herself off the Clifton Suspension Bridge. She’d never really recovered from her life in The Willows, a local authority children’s home where Kelly, Sabbie and Debs Hitchings all lived when they were children. Kelly was depressed, directionless, and addicted to chocolate cookies. In her last days, she plugged into the music of her childhood, such as Pink’s There you go.

Debs Hitchings is a beautician who wanders from boyfriend to boyfriend and job to job. Debs turned up at the very end of In the Moors, (Book One) where she cuts Sabbie’s tortured hair, and has a small part in Unraveled Visions. In this book Debs, and the story of her past, takes centre stage. She’s known for cracking out Beyoncés Crazy in Love 

at the top of her voice as her heels skittered across nighttime pavements.

https://www.milesdavis.com

Quentin Lachapelle is a thirty-five year old photographer with a nice studio, a pretty wife, and a flourishing career. He meets Sabbie and Debs at Kelly King's funeral, where he offers to take some glamour shots of Debs, although he finds Sabbie’s dark skin tones and angled face interesting. There is more to Quentin that meets the eye…or the lens of his cameras. Quentin is a Miles Davis fan, of course. 

DI Reynard Buckely. Fans of the Shaman Mysteries will be delighted to hear that and Rey and Sabbie are still an item. In fact, things hot up between them considerably! Rey made his musical preferences clear in In the Moors, so there’s only one group I could play, and that’s the Stones. 

Fenella Waish is Larry’s sister. Now in her forties, but still living in their childhood home, Fen seeks help from Sabbie for longterm Ornithophobia, her paralysing fear of birds which prevents her going anywhere near Larry’s poultry shed. Fenella loves her laptop, which is her window on the world. Scared to be Lonely might bring tears to her eyes, but she plays it again and again.

Tara Yorkman. Before she died, Kelly was fruitlessly searching for her friend Tara, who lived at The Willows from when she was little. Kelly, in need of someone to care for, always looked out for Tara, until she was a teenager. Then she disappeared. When Kelly’s spirit comes to Sabbie in a dream, she feels indebted to continue the quest for the missing girl. I listen to Taylor Swift and other noughties music to get in touch with Tara.

Victor Doyle is a successful Bristol business man, a builder of local housing. Now 55, he's loaded, charming and still handsome in a chiselled way, although he’s put on a bit of weight. In the community, he’s a well-loved philanthropist, but underneath, the man is pure, unadulterated evil. I think he’d be rivitted by Pretty Women from Sweeny Todd.

If you're writing a novel, or a series of short stories, try finding and playing the soundtrack that perfectly accompanies the story and the characters. It can make a tremendous difference to the outcome. 

Seamlessly Blends the Mystical…

An extremely original and engrossing novel - highly recommended…seamlessly blends the mystical with the realities of every-day life

Thank you, Indie Shaman for you marvellous review of the third in the Shaman Mystery Series.

Beneath the Tor is a compelling and well-paced mystery which contains recognisable and authentic diverse characters…an absorbing and intriguing murder mystery.

I was so delighted when June Kent, editor of the Indie Shaman Magazine review my latest novel, because I love that magazine! Every issue is packed with articles on spirituality and shamanism, laid out in a colourful and well-balanced way, with regulars, such as Plant lore, a poem, Community News and always contributions from the elders of the shaman world. Book reviews are a regular in the mag, and I was proud – honoured – to be among them.

Almost as important, I can buy Indie Shaman as a hold-in-the-hand magazine. I spend enough time on that computer – I like to flop down in comfort to read…especially when the mag says lovely things about my writing…

Set in the West Country, Beneath the Tor is the 3rd of author Nina Milton's  Shaman Mystery series in which therapeutic shaman Sabbie Dare uses her shamanic skills to solve murder mysteries. 

I write my crime thrillers for all readers, but as Sabbie Dare, my central character in the series, is a  shamanic practitioner by trade, the opinion of those who live a shamanic way of life is crucial to me. I aim to make my books, and my heroine, authentic, and so I was quite relieved when the review reinforced this, saying how the book…features many of the issues that affect contemporary shamanism including the serious as well as the amusing (one of my favourite phrases is from a potential workshop participant stating, "I'm already a shaman. I've done all the courses.")  The book also contains excellent descriptions of Sabbie's shamanic journeys and of her work with her guide, an otter called Trendle.

By the way, if you're reading this, and wondering what a shamanic journey is, and how a person's
guide can be an otter with a name, then dip over to my explanatory Page in this Blog; British Shamanism

Writing a review for good fiction…the editor's review continues…is difficult due to the tendency to get absorbed in the story, carrying the book with you everywhere, staying up late 'just finish this bit'…and totally forgetting about the review…And this was certainly the case with Beneath the Tor!

I'm full of gratitude for this endorsement from Indie Shaman, but also dead chuffed that June Kent couldn't put my book down!

If you'd like to read a bit of Beneath the Tor, you can do so. By clicking here, you will find yourself on my Amazon "Look Inside" Page where you can click on the cover of the book.

Meanwhile, have a look at Indie Shaman. It's not just for people with rattles and eye fringes, but for anyone interested in living ethically according to shamanic principles. The 48-page full-colour magazine can be ordered via snail mail or, for a mere £10 (UK) per year, downloaded as a PDF.

Thanks again, Indie Shaman!

The Chimes by Anna Smaill

I could tell The Chimes was written by a poet, as soon as I opened it and started reading – long before I discovered Anna Smaill has also had a book of poetry published. The language here is lyrical, with the introduction of words that add to its strangeness, the narrative necessarily fragmented and filled with sensory impressions. But it’s perhaps because Smaill is a violinist, that in her first novel, she’s deeply imagined what a world without writing, but full of music, might be like. 

She describes a dystopian future, where Britain’s democratic government has been swept away by a catastrophic event called the ‘blasphony', and replaced with an autocratic, musical ruling elite in Oxford, known as the Order. The written word has been replaced with the ‘Carillon’, a vast musical instrument made from palladium, the ‘pale Lady’, a rare metallic element, which sweeps away people’s memory, leaving them with a life that feels the same each and every day. At times, the pitch of ‘the chimes’ causes physical collapse followed by death

Anna Smaill Photo Credit - Natalie Graham

Simon Wythern has inherited a gift from his mother, who died of ‘chimesickness'. Like her, he can see other people’s memories. Now, he's heading for London, his memory bag over his shoulder and a melody in his head that leads him along…

‘You going in to be prentissed?’ 

I shake my head. ‘I’m going in to trade.’ 

He studies my farmclothes and my single roughcloth bag and is tacet awhile. ‘And a ride back?’ he says. ‘You’ll be looking for one, I suppose?’

I meet his look and there’s nothing in my eyes. I don’t need a ride back. I have a name and a song to find, a thread to follow. But it’s not something to share. With my gaze I dare him to ask again, but he turns to the front and hitches the reins. We go forward and the cart’s bumping goes through me…

Simon joins a pact of urchins, run by a boy called Lucien. They mudlark the Thames riverbank and search ‘the under’, the abandoned subterranean city tunnels, for the Lady, which they can trade for food, not knowing that this trade maintains the Carillon which oppresses them.

Simon’s friendship with enigmatic Lucien becomes a beautifully described love affair, as they begin to piece together the memories Simon’s mother left him, with the memories Lucien has of being a gifted musician in the Order. 

Rather like Pullman’s His Dark Materials, every small child in The Chimes learns to play an instrument and finds the meaning of themselves through the music they make. This creates a focus for the novel, a point we can understand about this complex world; 

I pick up my recorder and I start to play, even though I don’t know how to make the voice that is missing. When I have played all my feeling into the first part of the tune, I still don’t know, but by then it is too late and I no longer care, so I just play it. I play it high and reckless and free so that it flies above all the others. I play it with some of the anger I feel and some that I throw in for extra. I play a voice that has never known anything except for luck and beauty…

The Thames from Oxford to London

It took me a little time to get used to Smaill’s use of music as a controlling, menacing force, but I loved the way she used musical terminology in her character’s speech. Above the story, which starts out as an absorbing read, is a wider theme of shared  memory and how important that is for a cohesive society, and the dystopia she creates is very believable.

But as Lucien and Simon travel to Oxford, bent of destroying the Carillon, the plotting thins and loses its connection with the body of the story. When Smaill needed to ‘up’ the dramatic tension, as we reach the climactic end of the book, her plotting doesn’t quite succeed as well and her rich writing style. I can vouch for how hard it is to create a convincing, plausible and yet thrilling end to a story, tying in the loose ends needed to be tied, while yet not knotting them up too tightly or letting them unravel completely, and keeping the reader believing in the tale and its inhabitants. I wished Smaill had spent a few months sorting out what was wrong with her denouement, but it didn’t stop me enjoying the world she’s invented, the language she uses, and the glorious characters who inhabit The Chimes.

@AnnaESmaill

http://www.annasmaill.com/about.html

Rectangular Memories – Mind Mapping for Writers

image by K. Jasven

The concept of mind mapping may have evolved from the mathematical spider diagram, but, not being a mathematician, I wouldn’t know about that. What I do know is that by placing a single concept, in the shape of a word, phrase, or image, in the centre of a piece of paper, and using word representations, associations and memories to expand outwards, answers fall into place.

This technique prevents you from losing those tiny peripheral thoughts that may be the nub of creativity, and encourages new ideas to drop from the muses.

I use a mind map at the start of each new story I write. I’ve also used it to help poems along. I start by drawing a circle in the centre of my paper. Inside it I put an image, phrase or word, something core to my initial idea. Alternatively a random word or image can produce quite amazing results.

This week, I'm guest blogging again for http://weareoca.com and I'm talking about mind mapping because one of my OCA students has recently written an unusual poem, right at the start of her Degree Pathway, in her first assignment. To read the poem and the rest of my blogpost, go to rectangular memories at We are OCA.

…I feel quite privileged that you chose to use my mind maps as an example! : ) Thanks! Kat Jasven, OCA Art Student

Beneath the Tor is out in paperback

Sabbie Dare is a shaman and therapist who works with the otherworld to fight off the dark side of this world…

On Midsummer night on the Glastonbury Tor, Alys Hollingberry suddenly dies. Sabbie Dare is in shock over the news, and when Alys's shamanic guru confesses that she may have unwittingly taken drugs during his ritual, Sabbie's shock turns into horror.

After receiving sinister, anonymous emails about Alys, her grieving husband Brice approaches Sabbie for help. She turns to the spirit world for guidance but receives only conflicting and enigmatic answers. She tries seeking help from her boyfriend, Detective Inspector Rey Buckley, but he is embroiled in problems of his own. As she starts to piece together the truth about Alys's death, a deranged killer is planning a final killing, and both are closer to Sabbie than she knows.

I'm already in love with Midnight Ink's choice of cover for this book, the classy, monotone photograph of Glastonbury Tor is enigmatic, and yet tells you immediately what's inside. And I'm delighted with the reviews I'm already getting, from professional writers, avid readers and the book magazines:

Praise:

Ronald Hutton and Nina Milton
 at Foyles Bookshop

RONALD HUTTON, AUTHOR OF THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOON, SHAMANS, AND PAGAN BRITAIN"[Milton] has become a mistress of plot-weaving, and above all, she pulls off the trick of setting the totally fantastic amid the totally everyday and making the two fit together with pace and excitement.”—

Chesapeake Reader on Amazon

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

RivettingThis third mystery of the series hits the ground running. I read the book straight through with only some sleep in between. It's not necessary to have read the first two to read this one. Wonderful mix of modern grit and ancient magic.

Publisher's Weekly

At the start of British author Milton’s unsettling third Shaman mystery (after 2014’s Unraveled Visions), a group of 10 people, all “keen to explore shamanism,” climb to the top of Glastonbury Tor to celebrate Midsummer Eve. When Alys Hollingberry, who has been dancing nonstop, suddenly collapses, Sabbie Dare phones emergency services. Another participant says it’s too late (“I saw her spirit go”). On the day of the inquest, Alys’s grieving husband, Brice, receives a strange email (“The Tor needs no sacrifice. The utter waste of blessed life signals doomsday”). It’s signed Morgan le Fay. Since Brice doesn’t want the police involved, he asks Sabbie’s help in identifying Morgan le Fay and figuring out this person’s connection to Alys. Meanwhile, a priest alleges that Alys took drugs during the celebration on the tor that may have led to her death. Milton puts an intriguing New Age spin on the traditional English mystery. 

Sorry, UK readers, you will have to wait an entire month to read my book, if you want to gloriously hold the paperback in your hands that is. But you can pre-order the book from Amazon now.

Beneath the Tor: A Shaman Mystery

 Thank you, Publisher's Weekly, for the great review of my new book!

Nina Milton. Midnight Ink (midnightinkbooks.com), $14.99 trade paper (432p) ISBN 978-0-7387-4382-0

At the start of British author Milton’s unsettling third Shaman mystery (after 2014’s Unraveled Visions), a group of 10 people, all “keen to explore shamanism,” climb to the top of Glastonbury Tor to celebrate Midsummer Eve. When Alys Hollingberry, who has been dancing nonstop, suddenly collapses, Sabbie Dare phones emergency services. Another participant says it’s too late (“I saw her spirit go”). On the day of the inquest, Alys’s grieving husband, Brice, receives a strange email (“The Tor needs no sacrifice. The utter waste of blessed life signals doomsday”). It’s signed Morgan le Fay. Since Brice doesn’t want the police involved, he asks Sabbie’s help in identifying Morgan le Fay and figuring out this person’s connection to Alys. Meanwhile, a priest alleges that Alys took drugs during the celebration on the tor that may have led to her death.

 Milton puts an intriguing New Age spin on the traditional English mystery. 

Beneath the Tor is out in December if you live in the US; if you live in the UK you will have to wait until January 2016. But you can order your copy from Amazon now at the pre-order price.

And if you'd like to hear me read from all three of the trilogy, be at The Cellar Bar next Friday the 30th October at 8pm for Cellar Bards

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7387-4382-0

The Shaman Mysteries Discovers their Bounce!

Writing the Shaman Mysteries by Nina Milton

This week I am on the

 "Discover Your Bounce"

 Website Blog. 

They are featuring 

me as a writer, at the time they

 are also publishing their latest

 book about well-being…

As we’ve launched The Missing Piece in Bouncing Back this week, we asked fellow writer Nina Milton to share with us the inspiration behind her books, “The Shaman Mysteries” in this guest post!

 I am a druid; a pagan path which takes me close to the earth and into the deep recesses of my mind. Shamanic techniques help me in my life – in fact they changed my life...Click to read the full article on The Shaman Mysteries

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