Edie Falco, the Emmy-award winning actress who played Carmela Soprano in the HBO series, commented in an article in Vanity Fair about James Gandolfini, her co-star: “I knew almost nothing about his personal life …. He was just Tony. He really was fully inhabiting the part of this man that I was married to. It was thrilling. Usually, if you look deep enough when you’re doing a scene with somebody, you can see the actor, and I never saw anybody but Tony. Ever.”
If Gandolfini was a writer, we would say he was nurturing the voice. That’s one of the ways it’s done.
Mary Robinette Kowal of the Writing Excuses podcast does something similar when she is nurturing her voice. “I try to internalize someone else’s work …. I don’t read anything that’s out of period.”
Brandon Sanderson adds that as a writer, you need to have a life. “Voice comes from something you love. Get out there and learn as much as you can. Find something you can be passionate about.”
The opening scene in Rules for Giving is on a golf course. I love golf and I was told by another advance critique reviewer that my writing shows it. By having that first scene of the golf course, I established an authentic voice in the first few pages.
So what are your thoughts on your writing voice? Where does it come from? How do you nurture it?
See ya’ later.
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