Changing voice

Over at Whole Latte Life, Joanne's prompt for the day asked us how we were applying "spring cleaning" to our creative life. This one was pretty easy for me to answer.

For the past several months, I've been working on a mystery novel set in a small, fictional town in the Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest (where else?) The supporting characters were making themselves known to me in vivid detail, but I was having trouble getting in touch with my main character and bringing her to life. It doesn't help that she's an introvert.

I'd started out writing the story in third person, because I wanted to be able to show action that takes place out of sight of the protagonist. It finally dawned on me to try first person instead. Yep! That has made all the difference. So now I'm going back and re-working what I've already written. It's requiring that I restructure the storyline, since I can only show what the main character experiences. It's going to make me stretch as a writer, and likewise will help the story grow organically. I am excited to see what happens.

There's a "real life" parallel to this writerly change of voice. So many seasons of cocooning, gestating, growing, transforming ... and now I am emerging, getting involved in community activities again, and I see that my voice has changed. I am expressing myself differently. Not just in the words I use, but the intent and the energy with which I engage with the world. (And with myself, too, no doubt.)

As a part of this, changes are coming to my blog, as well. As with my mystery novel, I can't wait to see what that's going to look like.  To begin with, I'm still using the Typepad platform, but after 4 1/2 years, I finally decided to purchase the domain name for the title of my blog, "For Shelter, the World".  For those of you who have my blog bookmarked in your browser, make sure to change the URL to http://forsheltertheworld.com/ 

I'll be doing some clean-up work, changing the subscription set-up to reflect the new URL, freshening the links sections, and perhaps re-organizing the blog layout.

Happy Spring to all!

Comments

[Joanne]

I like the idea of using first person to better get to know your introverted protagonist. What a great method to get inside her head! I haven't written any fiction in first person, but would one day like to try. It does seem a good way to stretch as a writer. Best wishes with the changes going on here ... It's a great time of year for new change and growth, right alongside nature's changes.

[Cindy L]

Ah-- spring cleaning on many levels! I am happy to see you're back, and I agree with Joanne. (Isn't it wonderful how her blog inspired you? She's fantastic!) I also like the idea of first person, but then again, I'm an essayist by trade :-)

[Sharon]

Welcome back. It's always interesting when art parallels life...or the other way around.

[Kitty]

Thanks, ladies. :)

[Cindys Coffeehouse]

Kitty, thanks for sharing your writing process about your novel-in-progress. Sometimes, a little change makes all the difference.