2022 April - What is Your Inner Ear IQ?

Let's start this month's topic with a Quiz:

When reading words, something magical happens, our brain's inner ear "hears" the voice—the narrator—created by the diction, syntax, vocabulary, and jargon of the words being read. That narrator might be the author or a character or the author-as-a-storyteller (using a storyteller's voice), etc.

So, how good an inner ear do you have? After reading each sentence below, identify the voice of the narrator:

   

    A - "It is half full of water."

    B - "Don't be an idiot, it's half empty." 

    C - "That's just a glass with water in it." 

    D - "Why do you humans concern yourself with a glass containing water?" 

    E - Marsha couldn't believe the conversation had deteriorated to analyzing a glass of water.

    F - When is my master going to pour that water into the bowl for me?

    G - "It is obvious, Sir Charles, that crystal goblet is barely half full."

    H - "Measuring . . .  In the glass is 0.236588 liters of water, which is the equivalent of one cup."

The basic problem with convincing writers about POV-Viewpoint is getting them to realize POV-Viewpoint is not about First Person, Second Person, or Third Person but about "the narrative voice," which is the voice of the person or entity that is narrating the story or article.

Too often a writer hears only their own voice and uses only their own diction, syntax, etc. Thus all the characters and the narration sounds alike. Which isn't good.

Two thing help hone an inner ear and help bring story characters to life. The first is to read voraciously in multiple genres, fiction and nonfiction, memoir, etc. The second is to actually take time to keenly listen to the way people talk.

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So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, 

then you are listening not only to the words, 

but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, 

to the whole of it, not part of it. 

— Jiddu Krishnamurti, philosopher, speaker, and writer

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For those who took the quiz, here are the answers: 

    A - "It is half full of water." (Optimist)

    B - "Don't be an idiot, it's half empty." (Pessimist)

    C - "That's just a glass with water in it." (Realist)

    D - "Why do you humans concern yourself with a glass containing water?" (Baffled Alien Being)

    E - Marsha couldn't believe the conversation had deteriorated to analyzing a glass of water. (Omniscient)

    F - When is my master going to pour that water into the bowl for me? (A pet or being who cannot talk out loud)

    G - "It is obvious, Sir Charles, that crystal goblet is barely half full." (A highly educated and opinionated person)

    H - "Measuring . . .  In the glass is 0.236588 liters of water, which is the equivalent of one cup. (A machine, an automaton, a robot, etc.)

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