2.2: Your Voice

your voice

Find a tone\(^{33}\) of voice for your writing. Your voice is what makes your writing unique and will set you apart from other writers. Use your own life experiences and language to help shape the way you write so readers can experience how you tell a story. Your voice will depend on what point of view you’re using. 

• Examples of tone include sarcastic, enthusiastic, indifferent, mysterious, wry, somber, acerbic, smug, pessimistic, and so on.

• The tone can also be formal or informal. Your writing’s voice can be shaped by what point of view you’ve written your work. For example, you may be able to use more slang or informal language if you’re writing in the first person.

 

holes in diversity

Once one figures out their voice – in an academic setting or not – they can start to understand the necessity of employing that voice to tell their story. This book wants to encourage ALL humans to write, whether the writing is published or unpublished. One should note, however, that some stories are not as prominent in the “literature industry” and that makes them all the more valued to be told. Here are some examples:

• People of color, especially women of color

  • Examples: Roxane Gay, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker

• First Nations / First Peoples / Indigenous Peoples

  • Example: Louise Erdrich\(^{34}\)

• Immigrants / Refugees / Migrants

  • Examples: Junot Díaz, Bharati Mukherjee, Jamaica Kincaid

• Humans who are LGBTQIA or pansexual or asexual

  • Examples: David Sedaris, Augusten Burroughs, James Baldwin

• Humans with disabilities

  • Example: Octavia E. Butler

• Humans of size, a.k.a humans who are fat

  • Examples: Aubrey Gordan, Jess Baker

In particular, these types of stories seem to be missing from literature:

• Stories where one’s skin color isn’t the guiding factor of the plot

• Stories where the fact that characters are lesbians, or gay, or bisexual, or transgender or queer or intersex or asexual isn’t the main topic of discussion

  • Example: the TV show, Schitt’s Creek

• Stories about people with disabilities where the disability isn’t the character’s main “problem”

• Stories about fat people where intentional weight loss isn’t in the plot at all

questions / activities.

 

<Students might be assigned – as part of the final project? – to create questions and activities for chapters that do not contain those pieces quite yet.>

 

---

\(^{33}\)Wikihow contributors. "How to Write Science Fiction." Wikihow. 29 May 2019. Web. 22 June 2019. http://www.wikihow.com/Write-Science-Fiction. Text available under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

\(^{34}\)She has ties to the Wahpeton, ND area!