Changing Voice
But first…
It’s here! The Last Girls Club – fall issue no. 23 with my short story, The Way Mud is Now. Dystopian horror that is wholly ecological and not the slightest bit political.
You can pick up your copy at lastgirlsclub.com.
Changing Voice from Nineteen to Thirty-Something
I’m getting input from my beta readers. Exciting to see what it is about The Last Summer Queen that works for them (and what doesn’t). For those who don’t know, beta readers provide reader feedback to a still-under-construction novel. For TLSQ, the most consistent feedback is how young my main character (MC) sounds.
When the novel starts, Macy Parker is age thirty-one, but she sounds younger. And doesn’t that lead to the question: how does a person “sound” different from the end of the teen years to the start of the thirties?
Image by Lisa Runnels at Pixabay.com
My consistent stance on this particular character is this. She’s emotionally stuck due to a traumatic accident that occurred when she was nineteen.
Developmental psychology asserts that the prefrontal cortex, governing impulse control and empathy, develops at about age twenty-five. A person (character) CAN get stuck at an earlier stage than chronological age, but how to “show” that through dialogue and action? And how to signal that happenstance to the reader? The best way I know is for a secondary character to say to my MC, “Honey, you’re stuck and this (inciting incident) will get you unstuck.” This is exactly what happens to my character as she deals with drastic changes in her life.
But here’s my question of the month for the readers and writers among you. Would this work for you?
Of course, through the course of the novel, Macy literally grows up. She becomes more confident and assertive. She follows through on what she believes is right, rather than kowtowing to the older and supposedly wiser secondary characters. She develops more agency, does a better job problem solving, and manages her primary flaw (ambivalence) with greater finesse. She learns to trust her instincts and her intuition.
Image by Tayeb Merakchi at Pixabay
As the author, I now feel constrained to go back, reread, and make sure what I’ve just written is actually true in the text of the novel.
Here’s to letting me know what YOU think about characters, age, and voice. I’d love to read your comment.
The Next Blog
As for the next blog, look for it on October 31st, which is both Halloween and the end of Daylight Saving Time for 2026.
And I look forward to sending you the next Newsletter on November 20th. All I need is your email and it will arrive at one minute after midnight on the day.
Thanks for reading!
