Tone: In my previous post, I mentioned that I was reading Larklight: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Reaches of Farthest Space, by Phillip Reeve and David Wyatt. I can't recommend this enough. It's a middle-grade space fantasy set in the Victorian British Empire--if they had developed space travel. It's a rollicking good time and I think a great deal of it's charm derives from the tone. (The rest of it's charm is probably due to the space pirates and enormous, man-eating spiders, but I digress.)
It's a first person narrative, told by Art Mumby, an eleven year old boy, with the occasional intrusion of his sister's diary. The prose is wordy and veddy, veddy English as befitting a proper Victorian lad. But the tone is something more, there is humor, an arch wink and a nod that makes the whole thing just a delightful, frothy read. I'm having such a lovely time in this world.
But sometimes I want something else, something darker and richer. I'm a fan of L.E. Modesitt Jr.'s Forever Hero trilogy. Modesitt is the master of the brooding, thoughtful tone. As we see his character move from a wily young orphan to a weary immortal, the tone progresses so that you feel the character's burden of everlasting life.
When I'm discussing tone, I mean specifically manner in which words and thoughts are expressed. For me, it's often a conscious choice. When I conceive of a story idea, the tone comes wedded to it. I think about the tone, the feel, the mood, as much as I think about anything when I write. I concentrate on maintaining the tone. My greatest joy in both reading and writing isn't the perfect description, the gorgeous prose. While I appreciate those things, I either fall in love with the tone of a book very quickly, or I don't. And that makes it very important to me.
How do you approach tone? Is it a conscious choice or happy accident? Something you concentrate on or completely organic?
It's a first person narrative, told by Art Mumby, an eleven year old boy, with the occasional intrusion of his sister's diary. The prose is wordy and veddy, veddy English as befitting a proper Victorian lad. But the tone is something more, there is humor, an arch wink and a nod that makes the whole thing just a delightful, frothy read. I'm having such a lovely time in this world.
But sometimes I want something else, something darker and richer. I'm a fan of L.E. Modesitt Jr.'s Forever Hero trilogy. Modesitt is the master of the brooding, thoughtful tone. As we see his character move from a wily young orphan to a weary immortal, the tone progresses so that you feel the character's burden of everlasting life.
When I'm discussing tone, I mean specifically manner in which words and thoughts are expressed. For me, it's often a conscious choice. When I conceive of a story idea, the tone comes wedded to it. I think about the tone, the feel, the mood, as much as I think about anything when I write. I concentrate on maintaining the tone. My greatest joy in both reading and writing isn't the perfect description, the gorgeous prose. While I appreciate those things, I either fall in love with the tone of a book very quickly, or I don't. And that makes it very important to me.
How do you approach tone? Is it a conscious choice or happy accident? Something you concentrate on or completely organic?
8 comments:
It depends. Sometimes the tone is set from the biginning, but others, the work doesn't find its voice for a while. Of course, that means rewriting early sections, but that's okay, because once the voice is found, and the tone established and you're in the groove the rewrite is easier.
Great post.
I love your posts, Mary!
Tone is a conscious choice for me, because it's such an integral part of storytelling. I need it there before I can get the story down.
There has been so far only one story I've done where I had tone as a conscious choice - it was a humor fantasy piece, in first person, and that was my first try in both genre and POV.
I think because it was first person, I took great care to create and maintain a tone. But in my usual flavor, it's entirely unconscious. I'm sure just by sheer accident, many of us write in a style and tone that it just who and what we are as writers. But it's definitely fun to actually put forth an effort to create a specific tone - just as an excercise if nothing else.
And you had me until Giant Spiders. *shudder*
I don't consciously think about tone most of the time because when I do whatever I'm writing seems to become contrived.
Most of what I write is character driven and they take the lead for most elements of style. Pacing, language usage, everything.
Tone, huh? We're supposed to think about that!? Gah...
I just write. I have no idea what tone is. I couldn't tell you what the tone of any story I've ever read is. Maybe that's my problem. I have no idea what I'm doing.
Ed, just because I obsess on a topic doesn't mean it's important.
Both of those stories sound wonderful. I love the idea of a growing tone in character as you mentioned for Forever Hero. The development of that character sounds like a gripping/captivating adventure.
I find that I simply let what happens happen on the page in the first draft. In the second I go over it and pick where it rings then develop the consistency of that through the rest of the book.
Oh, everything I do is pretty much an accident!
And this book sounds awesome -- I can't wait to check it out!
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