Hi, before we get started on the mindful writing post I’m sharing this week, I just wanted to share the happy news that my flash fiction story, Bare Soul, was chosen for Top in Fiction this week! I am so chuffed as this is a story I have worked on for years and finally felt like I had got it right when I published it here on The Mindful Writer last week. Big thanks to and the team behind this great publication.
Hearing Voices
As writers, we have an authorial voice and style that we bring to all of our stories and this week's mindful writing practice is focused on bypassing that to let the authentic voices of our characters shine through, so that what appears on the page is what they think, feel, believe and say so they are not acting as a cipher for our own voices and beliefs.
But just like our own voices, the voices for the characters we create will be influenced by where they come from, where they're at, and the kind of person they are. So in order to find their authentic voices we need to take the time to know them, no matter what length of story we are writing, and really think deeply about how they would speak based on their age, education, background, location, hopes, fears and dreams.
As an editor, I work with lots of different writers helping them to develop their stories and the voice is often the thing that needs the most work, especially when I work with flash fiction and short story writers. They have often written the story from a prompt and consequently, their authorial voice is the dominant one and the character's is quieter beneath that.
For me, the development of my own mindful writing practice came with the recognition that even when writing a flash fiction story I had to know who I was writing about and why, if I was going to be able to turn my first draft into a story with depth and resonance that used appropriate language to convey the distinct and unique voice of that character. I need to know their backstory, even if it isn't going to appear anywhere on the page of the story I'm telling about them.
This story of mine started from an image that appeared in my head of a heart that was shrinking and withering and then the woman who the heart belonged to started to form around it after I had written the first draft. Over the course of several writing sessions, I did the work I needed to do to get to know her and understand why this was happening to her heart. I asked her many different questions to uncover her backstory and wrote over 2,000 words in her voice to get the answers. The published story that came from all of that work is 529 words and the backstory that appears in it is just 28 words:
The one who’d marched for causes, worked in soup kitchens on Christmas Day, and swore she’d never get caught up in the world she’d somehow become consumed by.
But for the story to have emotional resonance and authenticity I needed to do that work. I had to pay mindful attention to her to find out who she was and why she wanted to tell her story. I had to let her voice tell me her story, using her words, in order for me to be able to write the story she needed to tell now.
As it turns out, that work was more important than I initially realised as I have since started working on a new novel and this woman is one of the co-protagonists, along with a woman who appeared in another flash fiction story.
Deep Listening
In The Heart of Buddha's Teaching by Thich Nhat Hahn the Fourth Mindfulness Training he outlines is “Deep Listening and Loving Speech”. And these are mindfulness practices that I have applied to my relationships with the characters I write in stories. As well as working through questions with them, I really listen to what they are saying in their answers to peel back the layers of what they are revealing. I work hard to remove my own judgements and ideas from what they say and immerse myself fully in their characters.
Compassionate listening is at the heart of this mindfulness training and it is this element that enables me to understand what my characters need by telling their story through me. As I continue to develop my craft, I know that it’s also important to understand why they are telling it through me. I have come to believe that these characters are being channeled through me, for me to learn something I need to in telling their story. So when they appear, I spend time getting to know who they are.
You can listen to your characters through exercises like these where you write down their answers, which is an important step in finding the narrative voice that will appear on the page. But I also listen to their voices in my head when I’m writing the story. I try to let go of any preconceived ideas I have of where the story is going and just let their voice in my head take over and guide me.
Often when we do this and we let a character go where they want to go, rather than where we think they should go, this is where the deep truths of their story are revealed.
Another important set of questions I ask of my stories are:
Whose story is this? This helps ensure I am telling it from the right point of view. Sometimes the character that tell the story at first draft is not always the one that should be tellng it. You can play with this and try writing another draft from a different character’s point of view. This question also prompts me to go deeper and get to know who they are beyond what has so far appeared on the page.
Why are they telling it now? This provides the impetus and narrative drive. It’s the reason they need to tell it. Something has happened in their world that is going to change things for them in some way. In my story, Degeneration, the protagonist is telling her story now as she has noticed her heart is getting dangerously withered. She knows she must stop it, or be forever heartless.
Why are they telling it at all? This provides subtext and meaning and is connected to their backstory and the work I do getting to know them. What has happened in the past that has led them to this moment now? In Degeneration she is telling it as the person she thought she would be has become lost in the expectations of her job and the conditioning of society that makes us believe wealth is money and status and things. Deep down she knows this isn’t true and her heart is withering as she’s not living the way she knows she could, and should, be.
What happens? What is the pivotal event of the story that creates a shift? This is crucial to show that the character is being forced to address what is happening for them emotionally and pschologically by what is happening in the external world. It makes the progression of the story logical and gives it resonance.
How are they changed by that? This is the way in which you show how what has happened has brought about a shift in the protagonist’s perception of themselves and their place in the world.
What do I want the reader to feel? The emotions you want to invoke will inform the words you choose, the sentence structures and lengths, and the way you lay the story out on the page. All of this will work together to influence how the reader feels when they connect with your story.
I hope you enjoyed this exploration of how I’ve mindfully developed my writing practice to let me really hear the voices of the characters that come to me. I’d love to know how it goes for you if you try these exercises. Do let me know in the comments or by replying to the email.
Do you have any tools you use to get deep into character in your own practice? I’d love to know about that too!
With love,
Come write with me
There are lots of different ways to come and mindfully develop your writing with me.
The first Mindful Novel Course starts next month. I’ve been teaching a year-long novel writing course for 7 years and I have adapted my teachings to bring this brand new version that goes deep and slow to write a novel that has real emotional depth and brings new insights into being human.
The third group of A Year of Mindful Writing will start in January 2025 and applications are open now. The first group that started in January 2024 has done amazing work so far and we are going to go straight into a second year together in 2025!
Join me for a week dedicated to the art and craft of short story writing at the Short Story Retreat in November 2024. You’ll have a cosy room of your own, delicious vegetarian food, workshops and lots of writing, reading and napping time.
Come to a Mindful Writing Marathon where we’ll spend two hours writing and reading out without giving any responses to each other’s work. Inspired by Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. These are included with paid memberships to the Mindful Writer or you can pay as you go.
My free Mindful Writing Hours sessions are starting up again in October and will run every week on a Thursday. Time to get words on the page alongside each other.
Thank you for reading The Mindful Writer. If you enjoy my posts and would like to commit to a slower, more mindful writing practice, please consider becoming a supporter for only £5 a month, less if you pay for a year in full.
Alternatively, a one-time donation will help me continue the hard work behind bringing these posts to you.
Amanda, first congratulations for your flash fiction piece being chosen, Top in Fiction.
Thanks for the resources and prompts in this post, Hearing Voices. There's a lot of gold here.
Congratulations on your piece winning such a great accolade - worth all the hard work! And thanks for your thoughts in this post - all very helpful.