The Muse & the Marketplace 2016

Find your voice, we’re told, but where to look? The truth is we’re all gifted with various voices, and they arise, as necessary, for the various roles we play and the various audiences we have. Your memoir’s narrator has a particular role as well, formed by where they are speaking from, why they are speaking, and to whom.

In this session, we’ll talk about how to tune your memoir’s voice: how your narrator’s address (in both senses of the word) can help clarify more than the voice itself. We’ll look at two short published excerpts, discuss the question of listener versus audience, and do a quick writing exercise, designed to put the lessons of the session into practice.