i came across a couple of articles that are short and simplify explanations on tone and voice.
https://writerswrite.co.za/155-words...-authors-tone/
https://examples.yourdictionary.com/...n-a-story.html
i've excerpted a section from (the article above) Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" and bolded specific words as examples of how word choice determines tone, which is your attitude toward your story or subject matter. it's a fantastic example.
In the following excerpt from Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," notice the many adjectives and verbs that imply insane, nervous, and guilty tones.
It was A LOW, DULL, QUICK SOUND -- MUCH SUCH A SOUND AS A WATCH MAKES WHEN ENVELOPED IN COTTON. I gasped for breath, and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly, more vehemently but the noise steadily increased. I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations; but the noise steadily increased. Why WOULD they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men, but the noise steadily increased. O God! What COULD I do? I foamed -- I raved -- I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder -- louder -- louder!
not a screenplay but a good example, i think. one can easily imagine writing this same scene with a calm and composed manner-- but that was not the "tone" the writer was expressing. this is what makes a great writer, imo. understanding there is a way to elicit emotion with the written word.
Voice is the second element [with tone] that determines a writer's style. voice is when you express your personality through your writing.
https://writerswrite.co.za/what-is-your-literary-style/
these are short articles that can help clear up confusion about what style is and how to develop and apply it to your writing.
yes, i am easily distracted. procrastinating, i know, but i agree with these articles.
another great resource that helped me to develop my writing style is Karl Iglesias' "writing for emotional impact."
a while ago i took an online professional writing course now called Screenwriter U (originally called the Pro Series). i won't get into the whole program but there was a section of the program where the work focused on writing scenes from a specific point of view, which i felt was, and still is, fascinating.
you have a scene. you have an emotional word that you want to express in that scene. for example dread and you write the entire scene from that point of view. if there is more than one character one character's words and expressions can apply "dread" and the other can contrast "dread." this technique can amplify the emotion, heighten the experience.
it taught you how to communicate a feeling, mood, and emotions through word choice and sentence structure to create fear, dread, tension, suspense, surprise, rising action, etc. and the beauty of it, is that once you understand how to do this, you just always do it. it becomes a part of your style.
sometimes i'll read a writer's work and cannot believe the monotone at which the scene and the entire script is written. there is no ebb and flow. no attitude. no voice. the entire narrative lacks any kind of emotional rollercoaster that we go to movies to experience.
we want to FEEL something. we want to be slapped in the face with surprise. we want to choke on our own tears of despair. we want to feel our heart pounding in our chest with fear until we can't stand it any more. we want to soar with elation as our hero makes the final sacrifice, earning the reward he seeks.
there are times when you need to s l o w d o w n a moment and build the tension and suspense in order to take the audience on an emotional ride. this isn't about overwriting. it's about how you communicate that moment. how you draw out emotion to heighten the experience.
there are other moments, like in intense action sequences where shorter, quick sentences or even single words can amp up the urgency and tension and keep a relentless pace that rises and rises to the final crescendo that the audience expects you to deliver.
consider the lightening strike scene in "War of the Worlds" where Tom Cruise is in the back yard with his daughter. he's fascinated at first, then his daughter's fear begins to build, he uses humor to try to calm her, then the unexpected happens, lighting strikes the same spot again. then a series of lightening strikes hit the same spot. faster and faster they come until his own fear explodes as he realizes there is something unknown and threatening in the lightening-- something menacing. something alien.
i still remember sitting next to this woman in the theater and saying out loud to her, "man, that was so intense." i mean, i was physically affected by the suspense that was slowly built over the course of a few minutes. my entire body was tense.
that's our job as writers-- to affect the audience's emotions and challenge their expectations. your writing can create that sense of total exhaustion from watching or reading a scene or sequence, all with the words you choose and the way you choose to say it.
i think i'm done procrastinating. haha.
https://writerswrite.co.za/155-words...-authors-tone/
https://examples.yourdictionary.com/...n-a-story.html
i've excerpted a section from (the article above) Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" and bolded specific words as examples of how word choice determines tone, which is your attitude toward your story or subject matter. it's a fantastic example.
In the following excerpt from Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," notice the many adjectives and verbs that imply insane, nervous, and guilty tones.
It was A LOW, DULL, QUICK SOUND -- MUCH SUCH A SOUND AS A WATCH MAKES WHEN ENVELOPED IN COTTON. I gasped for breath, and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly, more vehemently but the noise steadily increased. I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations; but the noise steadily increased. Why WOULD they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men, but the noise steadily increased. O God! What COULD I do? I foamed -- I raved -- I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder -- louder -- louder!
Voice is the second element [with tone] that determines a writer's style. voice is when you express your personality through your writing.
https://writerswrite.co.za/what-is-your-literary-style/
these are short articles that can help clear up confusion about what style is and how to develop and apply it to your writing.
yes, i am easily distracted. procrastinating, i know, but i agree with these articles.
another great resource that helped me to develop my writing style is Karl Iglesias' "writing for emotional impact."
a while ago i took an online professional writing course now called Screenwriter U (originally called the Pro Series). i won't get into the whole program but there was a section of the program where the work focused on writing scenes from a specific point of view, which i felt was, and still is, fascinating.
you have a scene. you have an emotional word that you want to express in that scene. for example dread and you write the entire scene from that point of view. if there is more than one character one character's words and expressions can apply "dread" and the other can contrast "dread." this technique can amplify the emotion, heighten the experience.
it taught you how to communicate a feeling, mood, and emotions through word choice and sentence structure to create fear, dread, tension, suspense, surprise, rising action, etc. and the beauty of it, is that once you understand how to do this, you just always do it. it becomes a part of your style.
sometimes i'll read a writer's work and cannot believe the monotone at which the scene and the entire script is written. there is no ebb and flow. no attitude. no voice. the entire narrative lacks any kind of emotional rollercoaster that we go to movies to experience.
we want to FEEL something. we want to be slapped in the face with surprise. we want to choke on our own tears of despair. we want to feel our heart pounding in our chest with fear until we can't stand it any more. we want to soar with elation as our hero makes the final sacrifice, earning the reward he seeks.
there are times when you need to s l o w d o w n a moment and build the tension and suspense in order to take the audience on an emotional ride. this isn't about overwriting. it's about how you communicate that moment. how you draw out emotion to heighten the experience.
there are other moments, like in intense action sequences where shorter, quick sentences or even single words can amp up the urgency and tension and keep a relentless pace that rises and rises to the final crescendo that the audience expects you to deliver.
consider the lightening strike scene in "War of the Worlds" where Tom Cruise is in the back yard with his daughter. he's fascinated at first, then his daughter's fear begins to build, he uses humor to try to calm her, then the unexpected happens, lighting strikes the same spot again. then a series of lightening strikes hit the same spot. faster and faster they come until his own fear explodes as he realizes there is something unknown and threatening in the lightening-- something menacing. something alien.
i still remember sitting next to this woman in the theater and saying out loud to her, "man, that was so intense." i mean, i was physically affected by the suspense that was slowly built over the course of a few minutes. my entire body was tense.
that's our job as writers-- to affect the audience's emotions and challenge their expectations. your writing can create that sense of total exhaustion from watching or reading a scene or sequence, all with the words you choose and the way you choose to say it.
i think i'm done procrastinating. haha.
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