Isaac Asimov once opined that it is the obvious which is so difficult to see, so let me say something that may blur a few shapes in our collective mirror: there is a seismic difference between academic writing and personal narrative.
Most of the students that work with me have very strong academic backgrounds in that they've taken a bevy of AP classes and can therefore write pretty solid essays.
But these skills don't always translate over to yielding polished narratives.
So, what can be done?
In today's video, I introduce a Voice Lesson exercise that has students re-writing classic children's literature from the perspective of a pop-cultural Voice Master.
To model this concept, I rewrote Where the Wild Things Are from the voice and perspective of Chris Stevens from the cult classic sitcom Northern Exposure (I know ... I'm dating myself).
To give you a fuller sense, one student reworked If You Give a Mouse a Cookie from the vantage point of Morgan Freeman (he has the chops to crush a personal narrative); another student adapted the voice of Lisa Simpson to recast No, David; and another student rendered The Cat In the Hat from the perspective of Rory Gilmore (all characters who have the requisite "stuff" to rock some pretty killer personal statements).
Exercises like this are akin to scrimmaging before the big game.
Students must practice with all the requisite things of voice, rhythm, flow ... the nuance things of the "Show Me" versus "Tell Me" ... and this exercise even has them toying around with honing in on developing voice through the manipulation of their sentence patterns.
As college personal statement season is right around the corner, I'll keep pumping out these videos. Please subscribe to the new YouTube channel and help spread the good word.
Write It Ivy Right, my friends!
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