Opening Inspiration
I enjoy reading aloud, going back to nightly storybooks with my son and my own childhood. And when I first write a story, I don’t just read the draft to myself inside my head. I speak the words I’ve written out loud.
Here, let yourself be inspired by reading aloud, too, another way to listen to your first-person voice.
Hear Yourself
As many well-known authors and writing teachers advise, storytelling is about more than words on a page. Here’s what science-fiction and fantasy author Ursula K. Le Guin said of the “gorgeous sound of language”:
“We mostly read prose in silence, but many readers have a keen inner ear that hears it…. Narrative writers need to train their mind’s ear to listen to their own prose, to hear as they write.” [1]
Throughout the lessons, you’ll be asked to read aloud what you’ve written. It’s a way to test the sound of your words — and to nurture your first-person voice. You can read your drafts aloud by yourself or with other listeners. You may even want to record yourself reading and add the sound files to your Process Notebook.
Voice is about breath and rhythm, about words flowing through the body. Reading the work of other writers aloud is inspirational, too. You can feel the sounds, pinpoint what you like, and hear your own first-person voice.
Read Aloud and Respond: As an optional warmup, select a short passage by a writer whose work you admire and read it out loud. In your Process Notebook, reflect on any new connections you make.
What do you hear with your mind’s ear? If you’re not sure about which writer to read, try the passage below. It’s from the opening of one of Le Guin’s most famous novels.
Read-Aloud Practice: The Left Hand of Darkness
“I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination. The soundest fact may fail or prevail in the style of its telling: like that singular organic jewel of our seas, which grows brighter as one woman wears it and, worn by another, dulls and goes to dust. Facts are no more solid, coherent, round, and real than pearls are. But both are sensitive.”
— Ursula K. Le Guin [2]
- "A Writing Lesson from Ursula K. Le Guin: In Pursuit of the Gorgeous Sound of Language," from her book Steering the Craft: A 21st-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). This excerpt includes two writing exercises you might find useful for developing the sound of your voice. ↵
- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Ace Books, 1969). For more about Ursula Le Guin's legacy, read "My Favorite Misfit: Ursula K. Le Guin" by Martha Nichols (Talking Writing, Spring 2018). ↵