A Voice, Any Voice
- Details
- Category: The Voice of the World
- Published on Monday, 09 January 2012 15:11
- Written by Sam Justice
- Hits: 92
The Voice of the World is a column about world building: how to set your scene and mood, and make sure that your reader will follow. World building is all about setting, voice and setting are intimately tied together. The setting will affect the nature of the voice, and the voice will effect how the reader experiences the world that you've created.
Think about how different people see the same thing. I'll give you an easy example; the current campaign for the upcoming US Presidential election. How do you feel in regards to the Republican candidates? How about the incumbent? What about the supporters of either side, how do you see them? Take a minute to consider this, and try to see how it is that you see this part of our world. I'll be here when you finish.
Done? Good, now take a different point of view. Whichever side of the issue you're on, try now to think about how someone on the opposite side sees all of this, and how they would feel about someone with your point of view. This one might take a little longer to get your mind around, but try. I’m not going anywhere, so take your time.
Harder, isn't it? Now you’d looked at our world from two different points of view, one of which you are very familiar. If you were to write the same story centering around the election twice, once with each point of view, the voice that described the events to the reader would change, drastically in some cases. This will shift the opinion and experience of the reader.
Now, because reading isn't writing, I want you to try this. Choose your own situation, issue, or topic - anything that can have more than one point of view about it - and make up two characters with very different opinions. Give them entirely different life styles. It doesn't matter how they got to be where they are, through choice or circumstance. Think about their background, and give them a detailed history. Now, tell a short scene, five or six hundred words should be enough (and you’ll have your 500 for the day), centered around your topic with one of your created characters as the point of view. Then, write the same story from the other character’s point of view. How are they different? How are they the same? What do the two points of view reveal to you, the author, of the setting you've created?