Finding and Strengthening Your Vision and Voice

 

7 Questions to Develop Your Vision and Voice

 

What are Vision and Voice and Why are They Important?

Vision is how you see things (expressed in theme, character actions, genre).

Voice is how you express what you see (tone, dialogue, description, delivery).

The 7 questions that follow get you thinking about your Vision and Voice:

1. What’s Your Core Story?

Across my work and social media, my branding is: “Every Day is a Story All Its Own.” My pinned tweet on Twitter is: Remember: Every day is a story all its own. A new chapter. Another chance. What story are you telling? Dream it. Write it. Live it. And it will be so.

It’s my philosophy for living a satisfying, creative life.

What’s your Core Story? What keeps you going in the face of the frustration,  competition, and often rejection that comes with being a Creative?

My Vision and Voice center on my belief in the power of story to change lives.

2. What Motivates You to Create?

What do you want from the creative act?

What are you willing to sacrifice as far as time and attention to other things?

Do you want to evoke emotional responses?

Motivate action?

Help your audience get away from their problems and escape into an alternate universe?

3. To What Types of Stories and Genres Are You Drawn?

4. With What Types of Characters Do You Most Identify?

5. What are Your Strengths as a Storyteller?

What elements of your writing or performing are praised?

Which are the projects where you’re contacted because “You were the first one I thought of” or “This would be perfect for you!”

6. What’s the Story You Most Want to Tell/Theme You Want to Explore?

Is it rags-to-riches, redemption, the bad guys win, love conquers all, or we’re all slaves to The Man?

7. What Do You Want Your Audience to Take With Them?

On a personal, visceral, emotional level, for what do you hope?

Do you want them to learn something?

Do you want them to take action elsewhere afterward?

The World Needs Your Stories!

For more on Vision and Voice and how they are enhanced by structural models, see:

https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/1027346460735612910/5945755792416409541?hl=en

For a video on this subject, see: