The third class of the Wild Angels centered around hearing and reading our work. Whether a poet or a novelist it is important to read out loud. We have this voice we hear in our head but how it sounds in the world is usually completely different. Our characters can take on a new life or we discover an aspect to our own personality previously undiscovered.

We can also play with sound modulating our voices, adding dramatic flair or ignoring it completely. The advantage of writing is the element of being hidden. If you have reclusive tendencies writing can feel safe when we can keep it to ourselves. But stepping beyond our comfort zone can enchance the quality and depth of our work.

One of the exercises we tried in class was doing a three part reading. Taking a three paragraph piece of writing, one person began to read out loud, at the end of the first paragraph another person began to read from the beginning. When the second person got to the end of the first paragraph a third person started to read from the beginning. So you would have one piece of writing read out loud by three different voices at different points of the piece. While you are listening to the three voices you are also reading along, adding a fourth internal voice to the mix.

At first the sound is chaotic, crazy and a bit disorienting. When you repeat the exercise over a period of time you begin to distinquish one voice from another. You start to hear the unique quality of each other.

We finished the class with some workshop time. Reading out loud, hearing our work and the feedback is invaluable to the craft of writing. The homework for Thursday is to create a one to three minute monoloque from one of the categories listed below. The idea is not to be perfect but to be able to push past our comfort of the paper and hear our work.

Categories:

The Culture/Society Story: Stories of experience, attitudes and feeling involving race, gender, religion, ethnicity, culture and country.

The Family Story: Writing about aspects of your family, parents, siblings, spouses, children, adoption.

The Relationship Story: Stories of short or long-term, casual or intense relationships.

The Money/Class Story: Stories connected to wealth or lack of it.

The Work Story: Stories about the work you do or dream of doing.

The Ageing Story: Life’s stages, the sense of time passing.

The Death and Dying Story: Stories about loss, threat of loss and ambivalence toward life.

The Emotions Story: Stories that come up in connection to the emotions of love, hate, envy, fury, etc.

The Learning Story: The shaping power of education.

The Sex Story: Stories about feelings connected to your body.