To write is to locate my own address inside my head.
-E.M. Broner-
Find your voice is the mantra of all literary pros, be these writers, writing coaches, teachers, lecturers, editors or agents. But finding this voice isn't as straightforward as knowing that you're a contralto or a bass, for a writing voice is more difficult to isolate and compartmentalise than the one we are born with. Even now, after almost twenty years worth of writing (yes, I purposedly include the very early formative years in these twenty, for they do matter an awful lot), I am not certain I have found my voice, as I like to be lulled by it into the oblivion of sleep and yet resist it as much as I can when I reach the keyboard. Today's prompt is more complex than the ones I've given you so far because to try out one's methods and one's voices takes more than three words and a pint. With lots of patience and stamina though you may well like what you find.
Pick a news item, preferably slightly gory, with lots of inside-knowledge detail. Re-write this piece in three different ways:
- in the sensationalistic, tabloid-like style filled with adjectives, adverbs and points of view masquerading as hard facts. Throw in exclamation marks as well while you're at it;
- in the sanitised style typical of medical reports, where no embellishments are necessary and only a sequence of facts and their resolution matters. Get rid of all adjectives and adverbs;
- in the poeticised way of a Mills and Boon romance, with a pastoral scene for good measure, despite the subject matter. There is poetry in heightened drama, right?
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