Just starting a workshop tonight and have already ran into a couple of the writers attending around town this morning. It’s going to be great fun. Kris (aka Kris Nelscott, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Kris Rusch) and I are teaching a workshop on the structure of all the different types of mystery stories, from Cozy to Thriller and everything in the middle. A fun weekend with a bunch of fun writers talking writing. Doesn’t get better.
And then next weekend is a workshop on blurbs and pitches. First time we’ve done that one, so it could be really, really interesting and stressful.(grin)
However, the workshop that is the reason for this post is one in September called Character Voice. It’s an intense week of writing and study on character voice and all the ways it is created. We did this workshop earlier this spring and everyone attending made fantastic progress and say it changed their writing forever.
When your stories are bland and readers can’t tell your characters apart, you need to work on character voice. And it can be taught.
The publishing industry and reader demand is going to character voice as the most important aspect of writing. You want to see if I’m correct, just browse the books in any young adult section. They are all heavy character voice, and those readers will grow up to be adult readers wanting the same thing.
Editors are constantly saying they are looking for voice. Author voice you can’t see and only ruin with too much rewriting. It’s your personal voice. But character voice you can learn, alter from character to character. Good character voice thickens everything about your stories and makes them impossible to put down. It is possible to make your characters come alive and be memorable. There are some techniques that can be learned and practiced. And that’s what the week in September is about. Focused practice and learning how to do character voice.
We have three spots left in September 18-25 workshop. It will be limited to 12 since this is such a focused writing workshop. Kris and I just can’t read and give personal attention to more than that at this level of craft work.
If interested, e-mail me and put workshop in the subject line to avoid the spam filters.
I can’t begin to tell you how much that workshop, that week, will change your writing for the better. But be prepared to work harder on your writing than you ever have before for one week. Those who attended in the spring said it was the most intense workshop we have given outside of the master class.
And for the workshops in 2011, the list is above under the workshops tab.
Cheers
Dean
A good one there, one I may need. Yeah, I know there’s another workshop I need to go to first but at the same time I think character voice is one area I could use some help in. That could be just my inner critic, of course even though I have had a couple of readers say they had problems telling my characters apart when they critiqued a short story of mine.
It’s one area where notes would come in handy so I can remember how various characters are suppose to sound like. And it’s also an area where I could use some help in trying to figure out a Voice. In the main novel I’m working on ( I say main because I had to start another one I may work on in-between stories) the MC has a fiance. How do intelligent, mostly self-assured young woman talk? Not like me I’m sure, not flighty, not like a Valley girl. I’m trying to recall how woman I know talk.
So I believe that workshop is one that is needed and too bad one you can’t do some type of video recording of, at least the main sessions. I know there are reasons why you can’t but it still would be good.
I’m definitely looking forward to both next weekend and to the character voice workshops
I had an awesome time in Feb at the novel and Denise Little ones. See you soon, Dean 
(and hopefully others!)
Now, here’s a question, Dean: Do you know of any books, cds, etc. that go into Character Voice because I sure don’t. I’ve a few times where you get the ‘write the way the character talks’ thing but I pretty much do that all ready. Not saying I’m perfect, just that most of the information out there is pretty skimpy. If you don’t have any suggestions, I understand, I’ll just have to wait until next year.
Steve,
So far haven’t seen much of anything I like or that is helpful in any real way to real professional writers. It’s an area where before writers just said “character voice comes out of your character” and left it at that, or told poor young writers to do more character sketches before they started, the most stupid exercise ever invented to use up writing time.
Of course character voice comes out of character, but in writing, the opposite is the problem. You have a character, how do you code little black and white marks on a page so that readers will get the character voice that you are imagining for the character. That’s where technique and practice and understanding what makes character voice happen beyond trying to imitate phonically some accent. It is very complex and just haven’t seen much on it.
And to be honest, before this last spring, I wasn’t sure I could teach it. But turns out it is very, very teachable. Kris and I spent weeks and weeks and weeks every lunch hour putting that workshop carefully together so that it builds and is understandable. Getting to the end of it and having the writing of the writers attending change so dramatically from the start to the end was amazing and very rewarding.
I have been calling the Character Voice workshop the most important workshop we teach. I am standing by that.
From what I said before I would agree with you about Character Voice workshop being the most important one. And you explained it better than I would too.
But one other workshop I could use is one how to find all the typos, wrong used words, etc.. It seems like the harder I try to find them all, the more mistakes I miss–ugh.
I used to think that Character Voice just meant “how the character talks.” That’s barely the beginning. It was incredibly eye-opening to learn the variety of tools we can use to bring characters to life when we finally learn to experience the world — and share it on the page — through the filter of our characters senses, opinions, and more. I would have to agree with Dean that this was one of the most important craft workshops I’ve had the pleasure of melting my brain through. If you have the chance, this is a must-attend!
Wow, it’s nice to hear you say that thing about character sketches. I hate those, but I have heard it so many times I’ve felt compelled to do them. Then I get bored or the stuff gets scrapped after I start writing anyway.
I *am* an outliner. Because of that, I thought I had to do some character sketching too. All part of the package, right?
Meh. I’m going to stick to my plot outlines and let the character stuff come through in the writing. (Honestly, I wish I could skip the outlining too, but I have way too many plotless, meandering piles of non-story from the many times I’ve tried to write at novel length without one.)