Voice is the feel, the vibe, the sound, the essence of your writing. It’s that quality that makes your writing unmistakably yours. I think of it as being the literary equivalent of DNA. Everybody has it, and it manifests itself differently for each individual. It’s the thing that makes us unique.

When we talk about voice, there are a couple of important factors we need to keep in mind.

1) There is no such thing as “find your voice.”

A lot of writing teachers talk about needing to “find your voice” as if voice was loose change caught between the couch cushions. (“Hey look! I found a nickel!”) But the truth is, voice is something we already have. Our job isn’t to find it, but to hone it.

The problem I have with “find your voice” is that it implies that your voice is somehow missing and it’s up to you to find it again. This is a fallacy. You don’t need to find your voice because it never left in the first place. Just like Dorothy’s friends in The Wizard of Oz, you’ve had what you needed all along. You have a voice already, you just need to know how to use it.

Teachers often say “find your voice” when a student’s voice is clunky, stilted, or not yet polished. Really, this is a cop-out, because instead of trying to help the student hone their voice and make it better, the teacher throws their hands in the air and says, “You have no voice! Go out and find it.” This advice is completely unhelpful.

What is helpful is when a teacher shows the student how to hone their voice. This work might happen at the sentence level, where they study word choice, cadence, rhythm, and other techniques. Or it might also take place at the paragraph level, where they look at sentence structure and length, and consider how the meaning of a sentence is reflected in the style of the writing itself. The point is that voice isn’t something you find, it’s something you develop through persistent practice.

2) Honing your voice is all about modulation.

There is another danger with this “find your voice” attitude. It implies that our voice can be anything we want it to be. It’s as though we can find one voice, then find a different voice, and change from one to another as quickly as a supermodel changes outfits.

That is not the reality of voice. You see, your voice has a core essence that is the same no matter what you write. Just as you can’t grow roses from sunflower seeds, you can’t change your voice from one extreme to another. Instead, what you can do is modulate your voice, making subtle shifts rather than radical changes.

Let me give you an example. The voice I use when I give presentations (like webinars and workshops), is what I call “Professor Valley Girl.” It has a lot of punchy energy and is just a little bit silly, while still sharing an info-rich presentation and going deep into craft techniques. I used to use this same kind of voice in my newsletters, but over time, my newsletter voice has mellowed out a bit. It’s more relaxed, as though we were sitting across from each other, having a cup of coffee.

Am I a different person when I use “Professor Valley Girl” versus my coffee shop voice? No, of course not. I’m still me, which means my voice still has that same core essence. That said, there are subtle differences between those two different voices. This is what I mean when I talk about modulating voice: we can make small shifts in tone and style, but the core essence of the voice remains the same.

3) There are multiple layers of voice in narrative writing.

Pick up a piece of fiction or creative nonfiction and you will likely find that the voice has at least two layers. In fact, pieces of writing that have only one layer of voice are exceptionally rare. In general, the two layers that come into play in a piece of narrative writing are character voices and the narrator’s voice.

The voices of the characters most often come across in dialogue. Yes, you might also have the inner monologue of a first person narrator, but that is not the voice of the character. That’s the voice of the narrator—that narrator just happens also to be a character in the story. In fact, it is typical for the voice of a first person narrator to feel dramatically different from the character’s voice in dialogue.

Think of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The diary part is the version of events that the main character wants us to believe happened, while the doodles show how things really went down. The humor comes across in the contrast between the two narrative threads. In this case, the author uses two different modes of language for the different layers of voice: verbal language for the diary narration and a visual language of doodles for many of the interactions between characters.

With the voices of our characters, we want to make sure they sound like distinct human beings and not feel like they are all the same person. A great example of this in action is the opening chapters of Pride and Prejudice, where we have multiple characters in a group scene, but each character sounds like a distinct person.

When it comes to narratorial voice, there are many artistic choices we as writers can make. Do we want the narrator to break the fourth wall and talk directly to the reader? Is the narrator opinionated and very in-your-face? Or is the narrator so subtle and invisible that we barely notice they are there? These effects don’t happen by accident. They are a conscious choice that a writer must make. The key is to make these choices intentional, rather than accidental.

Your voice will develop over time, but you need to put in the mileage—or the word count—to give your voice room to flourish and grow. In my previous article, How Writing Is Like Playing the Violin, I talked about the importance of practice in writing, and this is especially important when it comes to voice. In case you missed it, click here to read my article on practice. 

Remember: you can’t grow roses from sunflower seeds, but with lots of sunshine and plenty of water you can grow some awesome sunflowers.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: 3 Things Writers Need to Know About Voice appeared first on DIY MFA.

Have you signed up to be a DIY MFA Radio Insider yet? This is an exciting new monthly newsletter especially for our podcast listeners. Every month, you’ll get an email from our podcast producer with recaps of the most recent episodes, a curated Listening List of episodes on a particular theme, and other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! The theme for March is Magic, and you can become an insider by signing up with your email at diymfa.com/insiders.

In this episode Brian Leung and I discuss:

• How to turn a real life event into a novel, especially when you are close to the event.
• Bringing out the emotional truth of a story and remaining true to the characters.
• Why it can be tricky to write first person narratives and how to make them sound distinct.

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About Brian Leung

Brian Leung is the author of the novels Lost Men, Take Me Home, and Ivy vs Dogg: With a Cast of Thousands!. His short-story collection, World Famous Love Acts, won the Asian American Literary Award and the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. Born and raised in San Diego County, he is a Professor of Creative Writing at Purdue University as well as Core faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts. All I Should Not Tell was published by C&R Press in Spring, 2022.

You can find them on his website, or follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

You can also check out Brian’s article on DIY MFA, #5onFri: Five Tips for Finding the Kind Genius Writer in Your Mad Genius Writer.

All I Should Not Tell

In All I Should Not Tell, Conner Grayson, fourteen, wants nothing more than to see, Cudge, his intensely abusive step-father destroyed. He considers it a blessing for himself and his younger, too-innocent, brother, Sammy, when the man disappears, though he’s convinced that his mother has done something unspeakable to her husband. With Cudge gone, there’s no threat of exposing Conner’s deepest secret, his love for Mark, another boy in Orgull, a fictional river town outside of Louisville. But almost immediately, Mark disappears as well.  Flash forward two decades. Conner remains tortured about his past, including the apparent suicides of his biological father and his brother. But, he has found a certain level of happiness with the family he’s built with his wife, Lamb, as well as his boyfriend, James. It’s complicated. When Cudge’s octogenarian father shows up from California to investigate Cudge’s long ago disappearance, Conner spirals into a series of unwise decisions culminating in discoveries about his past that may destroy his current family. It might be there’s only one person who can pull him from the wreckage.

You can order Brian Leung’s book, All I Should Not Tell, via this C&R Link.

Link to Episode 402

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If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 402: Writing About Difficult Subjects with a Distinct First Person Voice – Interview with Brian Leung appeared first on DIY MFA.

J.L. Torres is the author of a novel, The Accidental Native, as well as the short collection The Family Terrorist and Other Stories, a collection of poetry, Boricua Passport, and Migrations, a short story collection that won the inaugural Tomás Rivera Book Prize. 

He has published stories and poems in numerous journals and magazines including The North American Review, Denver Quarterly, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Eckleburg Review, Puerto del Sol, Las Americas Review, and the anthology Growing Up Latino. 

Born in Puerto Rico, raised in the South Bronx, he currently lives in Plattsburgh, New York. In addition to the Ph.D., he also holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from Columbia University. 

He co-founded the Saranac Review and served as its Editor for many years. On a more personal note has no known hobbies, has never been in prison or any gangs, has never had quirky and funky jobs and is notoriously inept with tools.

In this episode J.L. Torres and I discuss:

• Writing for two audiences and how world building plays a major role in that process.
• What factors he considers when selecting the order of stories for a collection.
• His definition of “voice” and why it is so important in keeping readers engaged.

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About J.L. Torres

J.L. Torres is the author of a novel, The Accidental Native; The Family Terrorist and Other Stories; the collection of poetry, Boricua Passport, and Migrations, the winner of the inaugural Tomás Rivera Book Prize. He has published stories and poems in numerous journals and magazines including The North American Review, Denver Quarterly, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Eckleburg Review, Puerto del Sol, Las Americas Review, and the anthology Growing Up Latino. 

Born in Puerto Rico, raised in the South Bronx, he lives in Plattsburgh, New York. Besides the Ph.D., he holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from Columbia University. He co-founded the Saranac Review and served as its Editor for many years. He has no known hobbies, has never been in prison or any gangs, has never had quirky and funky jobs, and is notoriously inept with tools.

You can find J.L. on his website or follow him on Twitter.

Migrations 

A ‘sucio’ goes to an underground clinic for therapy to end his machista ways and is accidentally transitioned. Ex-gangbangers gone straight deal with a troubled, gifted son drawn to the gangsta lifestyle promoted by an emerging music called hip hop. Dead and stuck “between somewhere and nowhere,” Roberto Clemente, the great Puerto Rican baseball icon, soon confronts the reason for his predicament. These are a few of the characters in J.L. Torres’s second story collection, Migrations, the inaugural winner of the Tomás Rivera Book Prize.

These stories take us inside the lives of self-exiles, unhomed, and unhinged people, estranged from loved ones, family, culture, and collective history. Despite the effects of colonization of the body and mind, Puerto Ricans have survived beyond geography and form an integral part of the American mosaic.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 389

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If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 389: A Master Class on Short Fiction, Voice, and Opening Lines – Interview with J.L. Torres appeared first on DIY MFA.

Amanda is a writer, book coach, and food writing columnist for DIY MFA. She began her career with acting and improv, she shifted focus to food writing which led to her being the first dedicated segment producer of Facebook Live for Time Inc.

While in that role, she oversaw more than 300 live segments and created the company’s Food Media Junket, bringing in James Beard award-winning and Michelin-Starred chefs for over a dozen food and lifestyle brands. These days, she helps food folks through the book writing process, helping them craft a story only they can tell. 

Her work has been featured by Cooking Light, Time, Southern Living, Food & Wine, and more. She lives in Nashville, but a piece of her heart will always belong in California.

In this episode Amanda Polick and I discuss:

• Why food writing can encompass so much more than just the “how-to” element.
• How to find your own voice and discover what is unique about you in your writing.
• The importance of challenging yourself as a writer and what you can learn in the process.

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Amanda Polick

Amanda Polick is a writer and book coach. After saying “see you later” to her acting and improv career, she fell into food writing which led to being the first dedicated segment producer of Facebook Live for Time Inc. There, she oversaw over 300 live segments and created the company’s Food Media Junket, bringing in James Beard award-winning and Michelin-Starred chefs for over a dozen food and lifestyle brands.

With over 20 years of storytelling experience and helping hundreds of writers, Amanda now guides food folks through the book writing process. She believes in using her clients’ work as a whole to craft a story only they can tell. 

Her work has been featured by Cooking Light, Time, Southern Living, Food & Wine, and she’s a food writing columnist for DIY MFA. Amanda lives in Nashville, Tennessee now, but a piece of her will be in California forever. 

You can find Amanda on her website.

Link to Episode 385

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 385: Life Lessons from Food Writing – Interview with Amanda Polick appeared first on DIY MFA.

“Find Your Voice.”

Find. Your. Voice. Weaned on this advice, we fiction writers know that when an otherwise well-built narrative lies comatose on the page, only a fresh infusion of voice will revive it. 

We mean well.

We’re on it. Inspiration flashing, we roar into our languishing stories to resuscitate our prostrate viewpoint characters with a misguided solution: we inject them with more personality.

Our protocol? We load ‘em with extroversion or introversion, excitability or steadiness. Dose them with the stuff of charisma or grit or milquetoast. We infuse them with unique verbal timbre and inflections—and distinctive language. You know . . . like the quirky syntax in Uncle Albert’s pontificating. 

Whew. So much personality.

Personality’s a good thing, right? Doesn’t it give that young farmer a hair trigger when his baby cries? Or cause a shy child to fidget? Won’t personality make a bed-ridden grandfather laugh? Prompt a loner to scowl, shoulders hunched? 

Of course. But . . .

Personality’s not enough.

When I began writing Sugar Birds, protagonist Celia arrived in a third person objective point of view as a buoyant, witty teen, squabbling with her father—entertaining but superficial, and stalling. She evaded deeper emotional engagement, dodging me at every turn. I blamed her missing depth on the POV. Given a firecracker personality like hers, what else would keep her so shallow? Hadn’t I brought authentic interactions to the story? I’d worked with teenagers for years. Even raised a couple of them. 

Determined, I rewrote Celia in a new POV, this time in first person. I reached for her, drew her closer, and offered her an even bigger personality. Given the more intimate viewpoint, the girl responded . . . and talked to me, a little.  Her voice budded and the narrative inched forward. My heart bent toward her, hopeful. I believed that by upping her personality in this new POV, I had doctored her enough to breathe life into her narrative.

But Celia’s new POV and enhanced personality were not enough. The girl niggled at me from the page until I admitted that for her voice to develop fully, she needed to tell me more. No matter how much disposition and language, wit and style I gave her, that personality wouldn’t carry the whole essence of her personhood. Nor would it allow her to change as the plot progressed. 

Your viewpoint character needs tone, too.

I had to face facts: unless I conveyed Celia’s deepest motivators and the worldview that emerged from them, she’d be sock puppet empty on the page. How could she connect with readers in that condition? Clearly, she needed to fill her personality with attitude. 

She needed tone. 

To provide it, I had to understand what was churning inside her, what compelled her. What was the “why” behind her words and actions? How had her life circumstances, personal history and ideology shaped her heart and mindset? 

My eye again caught the greeting card I mentioned earlier. Below the red fingernails on that microphone, I read this:

“Find your voice, then listen to it.

Even when it shakes.

Especially then.”

The word “listen” leaped at me . . . and a light went on. Here was a teenage girl, shaking with heartache, and I hadn’t paid attention. I’d been too intent on her stage presence—her personality—to notice. More interested in directing Celia’s actions to conform to the plot than on hearing her pain. 

Ask. Listen. 

Humbled, I brought her coffee. Apologized for not listening to her. Told her I really wanted to hear her. To understand what she believed and what she was feeling. To write her truth. “About your dad, for instance.”

She drank half the cup. Eyed me warily. 

“How about when your dad told you he was leaving you with Mender?” I said. A risk, my asking that. Coaxing could have shut her down.

Instead, her floodgates opened, and I got an earful. She ranted for ten minutes before her voice trailed off.

“So he left you.” Only a whisper, but she heard me. She whispered back, between sobs. 

Personality + Tone = Voice

I recorded her emotional deluge verbatim, scribbling notes. I listened intently, without presuming or steering or superimposing judgments or language on her. Asked her more questions.

And when I did, she let me in. Shared her belief that her father had deserted her, and how badly she wanted to retaliate. Her distinctive, dramatic personality intercepted her rage and longing, sorrow and passion, and expressed those feelings, all born from her sense of abandonment. 

From that moment, her emotions and attitudes—her tone—fueled her personality, and something magical happened. With personality plus tone, Celia’s voice became fully dimensional, and gave her story the engine it needed to dive deep and travel wide. Her voice painted the setting in colors unique to her perspective, even as she viewed herself in those same colors. She presumed other’s motives based on her worldview’s template. Her decisions flowed from those attitudes, and she acted them out as only Celia could.

Once her tone burst through, it tag-teamed with her personality, creating the voice that drove her narrative. Here are samples of where and how Celia’s voice showed up:

In her setting: When impulsive Celia jumps from her father’s car and runs toward her grandmother’s, she views the surrounding landscape through her hurt and anger:

“The rusty barbed wire quilting the fields may as well have been razor wire topping chain link, with me gripping the mesh. Angry as I was, the beauty still found me . . . Enormous trees lined the fields and hills between me and those mountains and beckoned me like mothers who care—nothing like mine.”

In her self-concept: The night she arrives at Mender’s, emotional Celia reacts to a farmer with suspicion birthed from her feelings of abandonment:

“’Sorry to interrupt.’ He flashed me a wide smile.

‘Not at all. This is the granddaughter I told you about. Celia? Jake.’

I knew it. My grandmother was telling every random person with an injured bird that my dad had dumped me here.”

In her choices: She jumps at the chance to hurt her dad for what she perceives as his rejection:

 “’I tapped my chin, thinking through the week . . . This plan would give Daddy convulsions. Yeah. If I disappeared, that would punish him, all right. Gram would have to tell him I was missing. He would wet his pants when he got the call.”

A Tip and a Nutshell: 

Your viewpoint character’s voice needs both personality and tone. To avoid mistaking one for the other, remember that personality is typically static, predictable. Celia’s personality remains constant throughout her narrative. Tone, on the other hand, is dynamic. As Celia’s attitudes and feelings change, her tone transforms, too, and it propels her along her arc to the story’s conclusion.  

Voice. Listen to it shake. Discover both the implicit personality and tone that create it. Then, and only then, introduce it to your story.

Your comatose narrative will revive.

For most of her life, Pacific Northwest naturalist, photographer, and award-winning author Cheryl Grey Bostrom, MA, has lived in the rural and wild lands that infuse her writing. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including the American Scientific Affiliation’s God and Nature Magazine, for which she’s a regular photo essayist. A member of the Redbud Writers Guild, she has also authored two non-fiction books. Sugar Birds is her first novel. She currently resides near Lynden, WA.

The post Tone of Voice (It’s More than Personality) appeared first on DIY MFA.

1. Audiobooks help you read more

Maybe you listen to audiobooks already, and if this is true, it’s undoubtedly improving your writing. Reading is essential for authors not only to learn good writing, but also to stay up to date with publishing trends. If you want to sell your work, it helps to be aware of what’s selling. It also helps find accurate recent comp titles when pitching your books.

Audiobooks are a great way to get more books into your brain. A UC-Berkeley Gallant Lab study found your brain creates meaning from words in the same way whether those words are read or listened to. Sure, keep reading print or ebooks too, but if you have an audiobook on while you drive or do the dishes, you’ll likely end up consuming more words, and I am a firm believer that authors should read deeply and broadly. Fall asleep reading nonfiction in print? Put it on in the car. Prose too dense to get through on the page? Try listening!

The more books you read, the better your understanding of what makes good writing will be, so pop on your headphones and get reading!

2. They support authors and publishing

Audiobook sales increased in 2020 and are becoming increasingly popular. As the publishing industry continues to shift and evolve, it will likely continue to rely on audiobooks to thrive. Libraries, too, deal increasingly in digital content, and audiobooks are a big part of this. When you buy audiobooks or borrow or request them for your library, you are supporting the industry as a whole, which makes it a more viable space for your own work. A rising tide lifts all boats, and writers’ support for one another is essential.

3. Audiobooks can help you find your voice

In addition to letting you read more, audiobooks are one of the best tools for finding your own authorial voice, as they let you listen to literal voices. When you read text, you likely still hear your own voice saying the words in your head. Hearing audiobook narrators helps distinguish between different authors’ work.

Neil Gaiman, in his Masterclass, recommends the following exercise for finding your authorial voice: Attempt to write a paragraph about the same event in the voice of several different authors. Then, write it in your own voice.

To add an audiobook twist to this exercise, listen to a clip of an audiobook from each author before you attempt to imitate their voice. After you write it, see if you can imagine it in that narrator’s voice. Make any adjustments you need.

When it’s time to write in your own voice, do so and then read it aloud. Does it sound right in your own, literal voice? How does it differ from the narrations you listened to and imitated?

4. They can help you find your characters’ voices

Many audiobook narrators are excellent at using variations in their voice for different characters’ dialogue. Some use full casts or different narrators for different points of view. It can be easy to let your characters blur together, becoming indistinct from one another, but even minor characters should have unique voices and quirks.

As you listen to audiobooks, pay attention to the shifts in narrators or in a narrators’ voice. What shifts in the authors’ writing do these reflect? 

5. Audiobooks can help you learn to write with rhythm

Finally, as an author, you don’t just want the meaning of your writing to be clear. You want it to sound good in readers’ brains or aloud. When you hear prose aloud, you hear the rhythm of the words and sentences and, thus, are more likely to listen for these in your own writing. 

I was first introduced to this concept when I read Gary Lutz’s essay, “The Sentence is a Lonely Place,” but the how didn’t click until I thought about Lutz’s charge to “combin(e) the acoustical elegance of the aphorism with the force and utility of the load-bearing, tractional sentence” while listening to an audiobook.

As you listen, pay attention to the way the sentences sound. Are they clipped and bouncy? Soft and rolling? Lutz describes words that “fizzed and popped and tinkled and bonged.” How do you want your sentences to sound? The actual sound of your work should reflect the feeling of the scenes you’re writing.

Try listening to an audiobook without paying attention to the story. I do this sometimes as I’m falling asleep, letting the words of a book whose story I’m not necessarily interested in absorbing wash over me. Can you hear the words as they flow? Do the sentences sound smooth or choppy? Does a rhythm begin to emerge? Can you hear the rhythm of your own writing? Are there words to add that make it better? Words to take out that break the flow?

Audiobooks, especially modern ones with professional narrators or full casts, are a fun, entertaining way to read. But more than that, they can be used as a tool to keep you up to date on the publishing world, support fellow writers, and take your craft to the next level.

Becca Spence Dobias lives in Southern California where she writes frantically as her children sleep. Her short stories have been featured in two Writing Bloc anthologies, Inlandia: a Literary Journey, and A Short Guide to Finding Your First Home in the United States. Her debut novel, On Home, will be out August 24, 2021 from Inkshares. You can pre-order your copy on Amazon or Bookshop.

The post #5onFri: Five Ways Audiobooks Improve Your Voice as an Author appeared first on DIY MFA.

Rena hails from Miami Beach, Florida. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars Program and holds an MA in history from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Her debut novel, The Sisters of the Winter Wood was listed as “One of the 100 Best Books” of the year by Publisher’s Weekly.

She currently lives in Israel with her husband, five children, and a pug, where she works as a literary agent. Her grandparents and great grandparents are from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Hungary, and Romania. Their stories inspire her work.

Today we’ll be discussing her latest novel, The Light of the Midnight Stars.

In this episode Rena and I discuss:

• Why narration is the element that most directly connects the reader to the story.
• Her process for creating different voices and making them each distinct.
• How she juggles being a literary agent with her writing career (and personal life!).

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Rena Rossner

Rena Rossner hails from Miami Beach, Florida. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars Program and holds an MA in history from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Her debut novel, The Sisters of the Winter Wood was listed as “One of the 100 Best Books” of the year by Publisher’s Weekly. She currently lives in Israel with her husband, five children, and a pug, where she works as a literary agent. Her grandparents and great grandparents are from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Hungary, and Romania. Their stories inspire her work.

You can find Rena on her website or follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

The Light of the Midnight Stars

An evocative combination of fantasy, history, and Jewish folklore, The Light of the Midnight Stars is a fairytale-inspired novel from the author of The Sisters of the Winter Wood.

Deep in the Hungarian woods, the sacred magic of King Solomon lives on in his descendants. Gathering under the midnight stars, they pray, sing and perform small miracles – and none are more gifted than the great Rabbi Isaac and his three daughters. Each one is blessed with a unique talent – whether it be coaxing plants to grow, or predicting the future by reading the path of the stars.

When a fateful decision to help an outsider ends in an accusation of witchcraft, fire blazes through their village. Rabbi Isaac and his family are forced to flee, to abandon their magic and settle into a new way of life. But a dark fog is making its way across Europe and will, in the end, reach even those who thought they could run from it. Each of the sisters will have to make a choice – and change the future of their family forever.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 355

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 355: Weaving Together History, Folklore, and Fairy Tale – Interview with Rena Rossner appeared first on DIY MFA.

Originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, Simon Stephenson is a writer and screenwriter now living in LA (with stop-overs in London and San Francisco along the way). 

His first book was the memoir Let Not The Waves Of The Sea, about losing his brother Dominic in the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. It won Best First Book at the Scottish Book Awards in 2011. His most recent novel, Set My Heart To Five, was released in summer 2020 and this is what we’ll be discussing today.

In this episode Simon and I discuss:

• His method for writing a “mis-topia” future and how that differs from a dystopia.
• Why writing a character without feelings allows you to explore feelings more.
• What role movies played in developing his protagonist and the plot.

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About Simon Stephenson

Simon Stephenson is originally from Scotland, but now lives in Los Angeles, California. He was born in 1978, an auspicious year already renowned for bringing the world such inimitable cultural treasures as the Bee Gees’ Sergeant Pepper’s movie, and the Star Wars Holiday Special.

A junior library cormorant from a young age, the arrival of the first series of ER on television diverted him from his inevitable English major to medical school. A less impressionable teenager would probably have understood that what he was drawn to was story and not hospitals, but we live and learn.

His first book Let Not The Waves Of The Sea, a memoir about the loss of his brother Dominic in the Indian Ocean tsunami, was written around his hospital shifts and published in 2011. It was serialized on BBC Radio 4 and won Best First Book at the Scottish Book Awards.

By now working as a children’s doctor in London, he next wrote a screenplay about a depressed children’s doctor who desperately needs to make a major change in his life. He remains unsure where this idea magically sprung from, but the script – in which the doctor travels to a life-altering conference in San Francisco – came third on the Annual Blacklist of Hollywood’s favorite screenplays and opened the door to a screenwriting career in the US. In an irony not lost on Simon, he subsequently got a job writing a movie at Pixar Animation Studios in San Francisco.

He has lived in the US since 2013. As a screenwriter, he originated and wrote Amazon’s forthcoming Louis Wain, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy. He also has a small credit on everybody’s favorite bear sequel, Paddington 2.

He got the idea for his new novel while living in the Bay Area, a place where the near future can sometimes seem very near indeed. Set in a 2054 where Elon Musk has incinerated the moon, it tells the story of Jared, a biological android who learns to feel by watching old movies and then sets out to write a movie of his own. Many of the lessons Jared learns might well be the same ones he has learned on his own writing journey, but one he did not learn is about the importance of short titles. His novel is called Set My Heart To Five; despite this, it has nonetheless been optioned by the director Edgar Wright to hopefully make a movie of its own.

You can follow Simon on Twitter.

Set My Heart to Five

Set in a 2054 where humans have locked themselves out of the internet and Elon Musk has incinerated the moon, Set My Heart to Five is the hilarious yet profoundly moving story of one android’s emotional awakening.

One day at a screening of a classic movie, Jared notices a strange sensation around his eyes. Bots are not permitted to have feelings, but as the theater lights come on, Jared discovers he is crying.

Soon overwhelmed by powerful emotions, Jared heads west, determined to find others like himself. But a bot with feelings is a dangerous proposition, and Jared’s new life could come to an end before it truly begins. Unless, that is, he can somehow change the world for himself and all of his kind.

Unlike anything you have ever read before, Set My Heart to Five is a love letter to outsiders everywhere. Plus it comes uniquely guaranteed to make its readers weep a minimum of 29mls of tears.*

*Book must be read in controlled laboratory conditions arranged at reader’s own expense. Other terms and conditions may apply to this offer.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 350

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 350: Voice, Emotion, and Metastory in a “Mistopia” – Interview with Simon Stephenson appeared first on DIY MFA.

Sharon is the author of the new novel Half, which has received accolades from places like Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, Foreword Reviews, and the New York Journal of Books. She earned her a B.A. from Barnard College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University. She is also the author of the memoir Playing with Dynamite and she teaches at WriterHouse in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she lives with her family.

In this episode Sharon and I discuss:

• What it means to come of age and how her novel Half addresses that.
• Why it is important to assess what type of point of view to use for a project.
• How to use voice as a bridge between the writer and the reader.

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Sharon Harrigan

Sharon Harrigan is the author of the new novel Half. She has a B.A. from Barnard College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University. She is also the author of the memoir Playing with Dynamite. She teaches at WriterHouse in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she lives with her family.

You can find Sharon on her website or follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Check out Sharon’s essay, “Changing Me to We.”

Half

Growing up, identical twins Paula and Artis speak in one voice—until they can’t. After years apart, with lives, partners, and children of their own, they are reunited on the occasion of their father’s funeral. Seeking to repair the damage wrought upon their relationship by outside forces, the twins retrace their early lives to uncover what happened—but risk unraveling their carefully constructed cocoons.

Written in spare,lyrical prose, Half is an achingly beautiful story of intimacy and loss, revealing the complexity—and cost—of sharing your life entirely with someone else. Sharon Harrigan deftly explores how fierce love can also be the very thing that leads to heartbreak and betrayal.

Suggested Reading on the We Voice

Weightless: A Novel by Sarah Bannan

The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Diaz

We the Animals by Justin Torres

A Reunion of Ghosts by Judith Claire Mitchell

And Then We Came to an End by Joshua Ferris

The Committee on Town Happiness by Alan Michael Parker

If you decide to check out the books mentioned in this post, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 344

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 344: A Deep Dive into Point of View – Interview with Sharon Harrigan appeared first on DIY MFA.

Brad is a novelist, journalist, translator, and former relief worker currently quarantined in rural Peru. His novel To Remain Nameless was a Paris Review staff pick, an SPD recommended new fiction title, has been a small press bestseller since its release. It was named by Dennis Cooper as a Best Book of 2020.

Brad’s stories, essays, and articles have appeared in The New Yorker, Guernica, and the Whitney Biennial and some of his upcoming work will be featured in “From the Deep,” a major exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of African Art in 2021.

Brad Fox left the US in the late 1990s and began working as a feature writer and television producer in the former Yugoslavia. Since that time, he has worked in various countries around the globe, doing different forms of humanitarian and arts-related work.

In March earlier this year, he left New York for what was meant to be a twelve-day trip to northeastern Peru, with the goal of studying with a traditional medicine practitioner and completing a book on the bathysphere dives — the first eyewitness account of the deep ocean. That twelve-day trip has extended much longer than those original twelve days, and he’s been doing virtual book launch events from a little table on the edge of the jungle, surrounded by monkeys, hummingbirds and poisonous ants.

In this episode Brad and I discuss:

• How his partner’s experiences as a doula inspired many of the characters and the structure of his book To Remain Nameless.
• What voice and POV techniques Brad used to transition between past and present to give his language “energy”.
• Why “writing for no reason” and experimenting in the moment is a large part of Brad’s writing process.

Plus, their #1 tip for writers.

About the Author

Brad Fox is a novelist, journalist, translator, and former relief worker currently quarantined in rural Peru. His novel To Remain Nameless (Rescue Press, 2020) was a Paris Review staff pick, an SPD recommended new fiction title, has been a small press bestseller since its release. It was named by Dennis Cooper as a best book of 2020. His stories, essays, and articles have appeared in The New Yorker, Guernica, and the Whitney Biennial. Upcoming work will be featured in “From the Deep,” a major exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of African Art in 2021.

Brad left the US in the late 1990s and began working as a feature writer and television producer in the former Yugoslavia. He then began working with refugee populations as a relief contractor, an often brutal education in human nature. In 2004, Brad co-founded Neither/Nor, an illegal space featuring immigrant artists in Berlin. He was working with asylum seekers in Istanbul before he returned to New York in 2011. Since March 2020, Brad has been in northeastern Peru, studying with a traditional medicine practitioner and completing a book on the bathysphere dives — the first eyewitness account of the deep ocean. 

To Remain Nameless

Tess keeps vigil at the bedside of her friend Laura through a long night of labor as Laura’s first child arrives. The two have known each other for what seems like forever. Their humanitarian aid work has taken them from the Balkans, to Egypt, to Istanbul amid the ongoing refugee crisis—an era that includes the US’s war in Iraq, the Arab Spring, and many forms of global consequence and aftermath. Brad Fox’s first novel is a luminous inquiry into the incarnations and limits of hope. This writer helps us endure our questions about what forms care may take, what we may offer to anyone, near and far.

You can find out more about Brad on his website and follow him on Instagram and Twitter. 

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 337

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 337: The Intersection of Voice and Point of View in Literary Fiction – Interview with Brad Fox appeared first on DIY MFA.