Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

Westercon 65 (2012) Seattle. Panel: Writing in an Historical Voice

A Crash Course in How to Change your Idiolect.

[a work in progress. Version 2.5]

By G.Robin Smith Writer/Speaker/Educator

alymere@gmail.com

An Idiolect is a personal lexicon.

A writer’s choice of words, word order, rhythm

and phrasing. A ‘Word-Choice Fingerprint’.

This is how a writer’s voice is recognized.

With these exercises, you will enable your brain to think in a different voice… one that would fit another time, place, reality or personality.

True Grit, Firefly and Deadwood

all do this to a fine effect.

The Mission: You must re-write a script set back in 1750 Colonial America.

The last writer was fired because their script was full of modern slang and expression.

You have no more idea how people spoke than the fired writer. But, you are not fired yet and have three days to get the job done.

What do you do? You roll up your sleeves, pour the coffee and connect to the Internet and –

1) Browse and get examples of at least five of the following:

a. Personal Diary Entries (Benjamin Franklin, John & Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson)

b. Personal Letters (Search: “Personal Letters 1750”. e.g. ‘Manuscript Women’s Letters & Diaries’)

c. Letters to the Editor (Newspaper Archives – The New England Courant)

d. Political Correspondence between individuals. (Letters trying to influence a position change)

e. Advertisements, Poetry, Riddles, Plays, Popular Songs -- especially work songs –

and Quotes of the era (Poetry.org)

f. Find Instruction Manuals (Franklin’s Diagrams for his Stove, his Poor Richard’s Almanac,

his Way of Wealth) and Cotton Mather’s Bonafacius (a.k.a. ‘Essays to do Good’).

All these show you one person’s attempt to persuade another. Words that seek to MOVE a single person are closer to the individual Idiolect of the time than speeches to crowds.

Some of the following are based on Benjamin Franklin’s personal writing exercises

To Write in a Better Style:

2) Take passages you that have the right ‘voice’ to your ear.

a. Print out and cut up the individual sentences.

b. Put the sentences back in the best order your ‘ear’ suggests.

c. Take away the last half of the piece.

d. Write an ending that sounds the same as, and gets to the point of, the original.

e. Put a prose piece into poetry. Set it aside for an hour and try and translate it back to the original. vice versa.

f. Try writing a modern joke in your period’s style.

By now the rhythm, length of sentence, word order and word choice should be influenced.

If you can feel it, and write in it, you just pulled out a miracle and are your bosses’ new darling.

Congratulations. Or rather:

With what my approbation may provide as an assurance, be relieved and happy ever onward. Your most humble and obedient servant, Robin Smith

A Five-Minute Exercise to see how setting a FORM can make you re-think your Idiolect.

Get a Twitter Account.

Write a sentence in Iambic – u^ u^ u^ u^ u^ u^ u^ and ending in an accent -- that takes up exactly 140 spaces using ONLY standard English (i.e. NO ‘ur’ for ‘your’ or ‘2’ for ‘too’, etc.)

Example:

I am supposed to write this stupid exercise where I write a sentence in Iambic and take up all the spaces allotted me and it will improve my writing HOW?

[153 characters and NOT Iambic]

Diagrammed: [NB: The accented syllable mark (^) and the unaccented mark (u) goes over the vowel]

^ ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ ^ u ^ u ^ u^ u u ^ u

I am supposed to write this stupid exercise where I write a sentence in Iambic and take up

^ u ^ u u ^ u ^ u ^ u u ^ u ^ u ^

all the spaces allotted me and it will improve my writing HOW?

[NB: Once your ear gets ‘tuned’, you do not have to do the writing out of accents. It becomes second nature to recognize where the accents are.]

FIX the sentence so it is Iambic:

u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u

I’m told I am to write this exercise where, if a sentence is Iambic and the spaces are all used, the sifting

^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^

down improves the writing and my skill.

[148 characters, but now it is Iambic and ends in an accented syllable.]

CUT the extra eight characters: I chose to lose the first two words.

Now Twitter is happy and will send it.

u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u

I am to write this exercise where, if a sentence is Iambic and the spaces are all used, the sifting

^ u ^ u ^ u ^ u ^

down improves the writing and my skill.

It’s better. Amazing. Well done.

See C.V. for links to Robin’s various Twitter and contact accounts.

FOR LIFE-LONG LEARNING:

a. Translate from other languages, time periods, and items of record.

b. Note spelling, punctuation choice, word order, commonality of words,

short words vs. longer words, contractions, allegory, directness, pace, etc.

c. Do Chautauqua (improvisational 1st person presentations) in character from another age.

d. Explore period poetic and prose forms and write in them… annoyingly often.

e. Read and Listen tirelessly to the writing of people from your period.

f. Read widely and deeply from the works that influenced your period.

g. Do the work the people of your period did.

Or, if all else fails:

alymere@gmail.com

www.Ben-Franklin.org

814-713-1776

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Writing In An Historical Voice

Writing in Character Appropriate Voice

I love Rules.

They define us... as a people.

Rules define a Time. They define a culture.

They define - mark an outline - of where something starts and where it stops.

Rules provide a filter, a screen.

They provide a way to make decisions as to what stays and what goes.

Rules apply to people, to prose & poetry.

This applies to screenplays.

The Statement: 'We Will Not Go Past This Line' indicates control. Measure.

An indication of Agreement. Mutual Understanding. Consent. Shared Thought.

And with those markers, you can begin to

OUTline, UNDERstand, INternalize and OVERview, through perspective

WHAT makes people tick.

It sets a standard we can count on. A Benchmark to guide us. To measure things against.

To understand someone else, we must alter our perspective, the RULES we live by.

To know why someone else does not share our beliefs, our likes, our passions,

To know why others do not work our job, write what we write

and love whom we love.

We must see from that other person's point of view - their perspective.

To convey THEIR point of view, THEIR understandings, THEIR Time & Place

We must TRANSLATE using THEIR RULES. Then we begin to think as they do.

To be able to replicate -- convincingly -- an image of someone else's point of view/perspective, we must be able to sympathize, empathize, commune with their world and -- most importantly -- understand what they tried to move or change and what tools they used to do that.

Let's focus in.

Thinking in a Historical Voice takes an understanding of where a person is coming from, going to and whom they have to move out of the way.

Writing in a Historical Voice requires research, exercise and - what the Classical Training of the Enlightenment calls - 'Imitation'. Writing, to me, is exercise. Don’t just write, don’t just edit, EXERCISE those writing skills and writing in Poetical Forms is one of the best ways to discipline yourself to produce your best quality work on demand.

Coleridge states that Prose = Words in their best order and Poetry = the BEST words in the best order.

A Feature script is ~120 pages and more description than dialog, so EVERY WORD MUST COUNT and be ‘the best words in the best order’. So study the creation of Poetry for that, in fact, is what a Screenwriter must write.

Hints for the benefits of one’s Muse or Robin’s Writing Rules & Helpers

“The secret to enduring success depends on not only inspiration, but also disciplined application of vast artistic knowledge.” http://www.aristidesatelier.com/content/about-aristides-atelier

Or:

“If a writer is still being read 100+ years after they died, their style has substance. Study it.”

Have a HATE list.

If you say, “Don’t get me started” about a subject, that’s the kind of thing you want on this list.

Also, have a ‘Love’ list as well, with Actors, Movies & Thoughts that inspire you.

But the Hate List is more important.

Get an iPod for downloading podcasts. (Most of these have 50+ archived shows on iTunes)

Subscribe to:

BBC History Magazine. Stories from around the world and from all ages of the past.
Chop Bard from www.InYourEarShakespeare.com . It’s fun, sassy, revealing and I am a contributor. Shakespeare, because you should know him better.
Classical Mythology because this is where today’s stories have their basis.
Grammar Girl because it improves your grammar.
NPR Science Friday because it’s about what we are passionate about.
On the Page. Essential. www.OnThePage.tv . Because you already DO!
Philosophy – the classics because this is at the heart of all struggle.
USC School of Cinematic Arts especially the talks with Stephen J. Cannel, Nicholas Meyer & Julie Taymor.
The Writer’s Almanac. Garrison Keillor’s daily podcast about writers, writing and events.

Pick other topics to increase your education. Gardening, Naval Warfare, Travel, Government, etc.

Get a Netflix account with streaming capabilities. Whenever you hear someone you admire recommend a movie (Nicholas Meyer – The Rules of the Game) watch it.

AmazingMail.com for customizable postcards to thank your contacts.

Write Poetry. It’s like Yoga, a great exercise. But for the love of Heaven, feel no need to share it.

To strengthen your work, use William Shakespeare’s ever-present influences of

Death, Order, Love, Transformation & Sovereignty (The D.O.L.T.S.)

Know: Audiences are always fascinated by those that are blessed with luck, those that have no power yet try and struggle against those that do and those who are appointed to rule.

Magic, Manacles & Majesty. Or -- if you prefer -- Sorcery, Slaves & Sovereigns.

To have your Agent always take your call, always call them with news of money coming their way.

Go to Writer’s Conventions and network.

Have writing partners.

Be Mentored. Mentor others.

Writing is the end part of the process, like the bailing of hay. 1^st, know the land & climate, 2^nd plant the seed and tend to it (market, research, plot, outline). Then write.

G.Robin Smith (Robin)
C.V. & Contact/Link Page

Educator, performer, writer, speaker, fundraiser, musician
Agent: Amber Forrest - Forrest & Associates

ben@ben-franklin.org,
alymere@gmail.com,
814-713-1776

Brought on by New Zealand Screenwriter Guy Hamling to translate his work into Elizabethan English. VERONA (now on www.InkTip.com ). Audio trailer at www.myspace.com/inhonorof Look for "Verona"

Member: Northwest Screenwriters Guild
IMDB Resume: http://www.imdb.me/grobinsmith
Member: National Writers Union

Contributor www.ScreenwritingMoviesAndTV.com Podcasts

Author of www.Twitter.com/POBox_TheBronx

A free daily Tweet of loglines & story ideas to spark your imagination.

Subscribe to www.Twitter.com/RenaissancePoet
for bursts of Iambic

Subscribe to Renaissance.Poet@gmail.com for twice-weekly posts, usually Elizabethan-styled sonnets.

History Educator since 1981
Chautauqua Presenter since 2001, Benjamin Franklin & others.
www.Ben-Franklin.org
Created an interactive history education company in 1982
Now The Interactive History Company (www.InteractiveHistory.net ) run by his wife,

author Cymbric Early-Smith

Festival / Event organizer
Director of the VLA-Shakespeare Project The Black Hills Shakespeare Festival www.BlackHillsShakespeareFestival.org
Contributor ChopBard Podcasts www.InYourEarShakespeare.com

Fundraiser www.FiveRiversFundraising.org
Member: Northwest Development Officers Association
Ambassador for The Showcase of Fundraising Innovation & Inspiration (www.SOFII.org)

www.Twitter.com/InspirationFund for brief tweets of progressive fundraising thoughts.

Sponsored in part by Hardwick & Sons, Inc. (www.eHardwicks.com )

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