Monday 19 March 2018

On Finding Your Voice


with Penelope Janu

We'd like to give a big welcome to the lovely Penelope Janu, our guest blogger this week. 

I started writing creatively five years ago, after working for many years as a lawyer and legal academic (my six children kept me busy as well!). Harlequin Mira published my first novel, In at the Deep End, in 2017, and my second novel with Harlequin Mira, On the Right Track, will be published in June 2018. Another novel, On the Same Page, won the XO Romance Prize for 2017, and will be published by Brio Books. It’s been a busy few years, and a very steep learning curve—but in some ways starting from scratch, and doing things a little differently, has been a good thing.

 
Available through Amazon and Booktopia

Much as writers do have to think about which publisher might be the best one to publish their book, or whether self-publishing is an option, I believe you should start out, particularly as a new writer, by ‘finding your voice’. Don’t worry about what others might think, just write the book you want to write, and then see if there’s a home for it. And even if there isn’t, you will have completed a novel and be ready to embark on the next one with all that you have learnt.





Link to pre-order 





My next insight relates to voice as well, but not mine—the voices of my characters. All my stories are told by one character, a woman, in first person. This means the reader sees most things from the heroine’s perspective. So how do we show the hero’s perspective?










Firstly, dialogue. I enjoy writing dialogue so, once I’ve worked my characters out, this part of the novel is an absolute joy to write. Sometimes I have pages of dialogue that end up being reduced to half a page, but it’s almost like my characters needed to have the long conversation, for me to get to the essence of what they needed to say.

Secondly, emails, texts, letters. I like incorporating these forms of communication in novels even though, in my view, they have to be used sparingly. Including emails and so on from my heroes is an excellent way to get their voice on the page for the reader. Not only that, when the main POV character receives the correspondence, it will give her a good opportunity to ponder what is meant by it. Although often the reader might see that she hasn’t understood him as well as she might! A good example? Lizzie Bennet poring over Mr Darcy’s letter in Pride and Prejudice.

Image courtesy of missgeorgianadarcy.com

There are other forms of communication too. I used blog posts in In at the Deep End to describe some of the historical background of early explorer expeditions to the South Pole. The circumstances were relevant to the contemporary plot, but to put them in dialogue would have been clunky—condensed they work well. In On the Same Page, my heroine is a writer of historical romance, and I use excerpts of her writing to demonstrate how the characters in her novels were starting to bear an uncanny likeness to the contemporary hero (who wrote emails that demonstrated he had no idea what was going on!) The heroine is a speech pathologist in On the Right Track. She uses animal assisted therapy, and a computer program developed for children without speech, other interesting means of communication that also become means of communication between the characters.



Have you come across devices that work well to illustrate character motivations or thoughts? Do you have examples of novels to show where this is done well? I’d love to read your thoughts!



Love to love: quiet scenes in a novel, where you can imagine that, once the characters have overcome their obstacles, they will be perfectly matched

Love to laugh: when my family imagines closing my laptop means I’ve finished thinking about my characters for the day

Love to learn: new things that relate to what I’m writing—polar exploration, and species of eucalypts. I know so much more than I did when I started writing my novels!

14 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your books Penelope and thanks for contributing to the blog. I especially related to your love to laugh!!

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    1. Thank you, Darry! It is so wonderful to be able to read so many Australian voices these days!

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  2. Looking forward to the next reads from you, Penelope because I really enjoyed In At The Deep End, your sense of humour and your 'voice'.

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    1. Thank you, Darry. Aren't we lucky to have the opportunity to read so many Australian voices (and places) now, as well as others? Thank you for reading my post!

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  3. Congratulations on achieving your dream of being a published writer, Penelope, and being able to reveal your 'voice' to readers. And it's a lovely voice, you have, as seen in At The Deep End. Looking forward to your next books.

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    1. Thank you, Enisa. When I re read my post I realised I should have been more explicit - I might only have been writing creatively for a few years, but the characters have been in my head for many more! I think its something all writers go though, isn't it? Many thanks for reading the post! Pen x

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  4. Hi Penelope! I love epistolary-type books; I think it's a great way to reveal characters' personalities. The last book I read in this style was Sasha Walsey's 'Dear Banjo', and I also enjoyed Jodi Perry's '19 Letters'. In 'The Farmer's Perfect Match' I used transcripts from a reality tv program to get across some idea of personalities which, from reader feedback, worked well. :)

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    1. Hello Marilyn. You've just talked about my TBR list! I've also enjoyed some historical romance author's work in this way - Julia Quinn does it really well! Pen

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  5. What a lovely post Penelope. Thank you so much for sharing a bit about your writing style. I write historical romance so I think I am going to love your book On the Same Page.

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    1. Hi Cassandra. I hope you do like it. I had so much fun writing this book - and hope I do the historical romance genre justice! Only snippets in my book - happy to leave a whole novel in your capable hands. Pen

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  6. Thanks for sharing your ideas about a writer's voice and ways to convey a character's viewpoint to readers Penelope. I learnt a lot.

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    1. Hi Sharon. Thank you for posting! And for reading. This suggestions worked for me, and I'm sure there are many more examples too!

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  7. Thankyou Penelope! I love epistolary books, or the parts contained therein. I also love first person books - you might have to work harder to show the other characters, but it’s always interesting. And really , how we all see the world.

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    1. Hello Malvina. Thank so much for reading my post. Yes it is hard work sometimes - particularly as the reader has to engage with the protagonist in some way. But when it 'works' it can be wonderful - you feel like you are really with the character and her quest for a happy ending (even if she doesn't see it until the end!) Pen

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