We crave stories that create a distinct effect in the mind of the reader. The vehicle for such stories is voice, that quality of prose that makes each story feel like an experience more than fiction.

The voice of a story emerges from discrete considerations and decisions about diction, sentence length/variation, paragraph construction, story structure, point of view, and attitude. Find the right combination and a story can go from drab to dynamite. So how do we find the best voice for each of our stories? How do we forge it on the page?

In Right Voice for the Right Story, we’ll examine elements of voice that, when wielded together, can make our story more compelling than if we drafted in our usual ways. To do so, we will focus on

-Subject Matter: Discover the subject matter you really care about and build from a place of deep interest to make your voice emerge. Explore and discuss the work and ideas of Joyce Carol Oates, Joe Lansdale, Jane Yolen and other masters of voice, then employ their theories on voice and subject matter to create scenes that mine your knowledge and obsessions and craft them into narrative in your own voice.

-Emotion: Learn how to use a “controlling emotion” to inform your prose and narrative choices, especially describing the world of the story or character to the reader, and keep the story moving towards its best ending. We’ll study the ideas and work of Lucius Shepard, Gary Braunbeck, and Steve Tem to help us choose the best tone, point of view, and character to tell a particular story. We’ll then create the compelling voice of the narrator or point of view character and write scenes that have characters engage the world with emotional depth that might otherwise be lost.

-Form: Traditional narrative is useful, but some stories get stuck in its structure. You can sometimes harness the best voice for the story by utilizing unconventional form. We’ll study the work of Lance Olsen, Kate Zambreno, and Kathy Acker, as well as theories and ideas from theater and the dramatic arts to open up possibilities for voice that can only come from less conventional forms.

Right Voice for the Right Story will provide the tools and tactics you need to make stories whose voices sing above their range and echo in the mind of the reader long after the story is read.

The course is intended for writers of fantastic fiction, an umbrella term encompassing fantasy, science fiction, horror, magical realism, and anything in between. Fiction writers who focus on other genres could also profit from this class and would be welcome. The course will cover issues relevant in middle grade, young adult, and adult fiction.

It will be most valuable for intermediate writers.

Students must be ready to hear about the weaknesses in their writing and to work to strengthen them. Students must also be ready to give feedback to their classmates that is both truthful and helpful.

Our goal as a class is to provide a supportive yet challenging environment that will help students improve their writing.

Each student will have a private meeting with Jay.