'For fiction to work, the reader needs to feel the presence of a live and sweating human being behind each sentence, a governing sensibility, a certain way of inhabiting the world.' 'Your goal should be to communicate with the reader the same way they would when telling a story to a good friend.' The book ends with some quotes/excerpts from authors, agents and editors discussing why voice is so critical. You can use the same technique to create the roles you play on the page.' 'Successful actors make marvelous use of their own individualities in creating the roles they play on the screen. For instance, some of the techniques discussed come from actors, and are adapted for writers: In addition to the exercises, it includes discussion of good voice-building techniques. The book is well organized and breaks down voice into some of its components: tone, rhythm, and imagery. Or pick four words that you associate with the scene and free-associate three more words for each of these (word clustering).' Here's an example of one of the exercises: 'A great way to warm-up your voice is to pick the character and tone you want and write a letter to your best friend using it, no longer than a page. Yes - research! Okay, I admit, I've only done a few so far, and they took me a lot longer than I thought they would, but the result was well worth it. easy), but most take quite a bit of thought, imagination, and research. Some of the exercises are short and fun (e.g.

So that quote runs the danger of making it sound like great writing is really easy, but that's where all the great exercises in this book will set you straight. You may not be able to articulate it as well as some professors, but you don’t have to. 'If you’ve read rabidly all your life, believe it or not, you know as much as just about anybody in the writing game. After you've read the writing books that point out all the errors you made when you were starting out, and then you've read the writing books that make you feel like you'll never 'get there' with your writing, this book is a refreshing boost to your confidence.

Hooked by Les Edgerton