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Master the “Special Logic” of Point of View: an Interview with Kyle Minor
by Writing Workshops Staff
A month ago
In the world of storytelling, the voice that narrates is not just a vessel but the heartbeat of the tale. To truly captivate, one must master the intricate art of point of view. Enter Kyle Minor, an award-winning author whose work has been published by Esquire, The Atlantic, and the New York Times Book Review, three volumes of the Best American series, and whose accolades include the prestigious Story Prize Spotlight Award.
Known for his award-winning collection, Praying Drunk, Minor brings his expertise to WritingWorkshops.com, offering an exciting new seminar: Your Story Needs a Speaker: Master the 'Special Logic' of Point of View (for Writers of Stories, Essays, Memoirs, and Novels).
This isn’t just a class; it’s a journey into the core of storytelling. Minor posits that the speaker is the story, a concept that demands not just technical know-how but a deep psychological understanding. How does one craft a voice that dictates where a story begins, unfolds, and ultimately concludes?
Participants will uncover the "special logic" that drives narratives forward, exploring over fifteen distinct techniques to construct a speaker. Whether it's the retrospective voice, the omniscient narrator, or the observer-narrator, Minor's seminar promises to equip writers with a versatile toolkit. But it goes deeper—Minor will guide you in constructing a speaker psychologically, ensuring your narrative choices resonate with authenticity and depth.
Why choose this seminar? Beyond Minor's impressive credentials and his knack for narrative structure, this course offers comprehensive coverage and psychological insight that can transform your storytelling. Engage in interactive discussions and exercises that challenge you to apply these techniques to your own work, and emerge with enhanced storytelling skills that make your narratives not just heard, but felt.
Expect to be inspired to seek out many of the works discussed long after the seminar ends. Don’t miss this chance to learn from one of the best in the field and elevate your writing to new heights.
Waiting Workshops: Your upcoming seminar focuses on the "special logic" of the speaker in storytelling. Can you explain what this concept entails and why it's crucial for writers to understand?
Kyle Minor: The central idea is that until there is a speaker -- until there is a person for whom this story is the most important thing in the world, and therefore it must urgently be told -- there is not yet a story. Without an intelligence that organizes the events -- makes choices about what goes in and what goes out, what comes first, what goes last, and why -- we have only an accumulation of things that happened, and maybe even the people to whom they happened won't necessarily agree about even the facts of what happened.
But once we have a speaker -- 1st person, 3rd, omniscient, maybe dueling speakers, there are many kinds! -- the story has a reason to be, and the writer of the story has a reason for every choice that is made in the story. All those choices follow from the logic that belongs only to the speaker, who says, in writing the story: Here (the beginning) is where the trouble began, and here (the ending) is what we do with it now that it's been told, and here and here and here (the middle) is everything in the A-to-Z chain that represents the way I understand the path from beginning to ending. That's one way to start talking about what a story is, and all of it follows from the subjective putting-it-all-together-as-best-I-can of the speaker.
WW: You mention that every choice in a story follows from the speaker. Could you give us an example from your own work or a piece from a writer that you admire where the speaker’s construction influenced the direction and outcome of the story?
KM: I'm thinking right now about Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," which tracks a mystery through time from a very strange sort of speaker -- the point of view, in gossip, of an entire town, which are represented as "we." Because there is something that the town does not yet know, most of the time of the story is spent in speculating about the mystery, which concerns something that may or may not be happening behind a closed door in an old house. When, at story's end, the mystery is revealed, it is all the more shocking to the reader, because it is even more bizarre than the speakers (the town) had speculated it might be. If we had any other point of view, any other speaker, we wouldn't have the same story at all. That middle would be populated by something other than gossip and speculation, and the ending would have to be completely different as a consequence.
WW: With over fifteen techniques for constructing a speaker covered in your seminar, could you highlight a few that you find particularly transformative for writers and explain how they can impact a narrative?
WW: Your seminar promises to delve into the psychological construction of a speaker. How does understanding the psychology of a speaker enhance a writer's ability to craft compelling narratives?
WW: For writers who are struggling with point of view in their current projects, what immediate benefits do you think they will gain from attending your seminar? How will this course help them make more intentional and impactful narrative choices?
WW: Your own work has appeared in prestigious publications like Esquire and The Atlantic. How have your experiences in professional writing influenced the way you teach point of view to your students?
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Avoid the waitlist and sign up for Kyle Minor's upcoming class: Your Story Needs a Speaker: Master the “Special Logic” of Point of View (for Writers of Stories, Essays, Memoirs, and Novels)
Instructor Kyle Minor is the author of Praying Drunk, winner of the Story Prize Spotlight Award. His work appears online and in print in Esquire, The Atlantic, Iowa Review, Story, the New York Times Book Review, and three volumes of the Best American series. Sarabande Books will publish a new collection of essays, How to Disappear and Why, in August 2024.
