Hey all!

After five days of internet, uh…let’s call it CHAOS…I am finally able to get back online. Something involving a burned out router, and a settings glitch, and I don’t know…but WOW, did it bring out the VOICE OF PASSION as I stared at my “cannot connect to the internet” windows screen.

I wanted to hurl something at the monitor. But a smart, rational girl listening to her Voice of Reason husband, (who calmly reminds her that it’s NOT the new Dell Monitor’s fault) refrains from acting out. Even though the wildly frustrated girl wants to embrace her Voice of Passion and call up her computer guy and threaten bodily harm if he doesn’t show and I mean Right Now to fix it.

There you have it, the Voice of Reason and Voice of Passion dealing with the same emotion: Frustration.

Thanks for your patience! And for your excellent examples!

Here’s one from Jessica on the emotion of Loss or Grief:

The Voice of Passion is starting to lean toward Izumi, my heroine’s, brother-in-law. He has lost his brother and has a means and opportunity to find the murder. He is steadily climbing to the top of his influential mob family in Chicago.

(Susie: It seems to me that Izumi is following his thirst for Revenge (Passion) to satiate his grief)

The Voice of Reason is becoming Izumi’s sister. She is there to help her over the difficult bumps on the way to Izumi understanding widowhood. Actually it’s more like coping with widowhood.

(Susie: Izumi’s sister is a great voice of Reason. She balances out Izumi’s passionate voice and gives another look at how to deal with grief.)

Well done, Jessica!

Susan C had a great point to accompany her example:

“I think it’s important to balance the Voices of Reason and Passion–to, in Jungian terms, own our Shadows–in order to be fully realized people/characters, in real life and/or in our books. A character/person who doesn’t embrace her shadow will be one-dimensional. Not very interesting, in real life or in fiction.”

Hear, hear! Although secondary character can more fully illuminate the theme, the character should her his/her own voices of passion/reason so we can see their inner struggles.

Here’s her example of Vof P/R in secondary characters in her memoir in progress:

The Voice of Reason is sometimes my mother, sometimes my husband, sometimes my spiritual directors, sometimes, a best friend. And the Voice of Passion is also sometimes my best friend, and my friends in art groups and writing groups.

But the Voice of Oppression is an important third element in my book. It’s when the Voice of Reason becomes legalistic and over-bearing.

(Susie: A very good analysis on when the voice of Reason actually morphs into a negative….suggesting, perhaps that there ARE times when we should follow our voice of Passion instead. Which brings me to a good point…

I got a couple interesting emails from folks who had real trouble writing the voice of passion, whether in secondary characters or their POV character because they simply couldn’t respect someone who lives by their passions. Yeah – I’m hearing that, because who wants to live in middle school all the time? Or worse, a soap opera? However…one great plotting point for your character might be – when would his voice of Passion be the right choice? Isn’t that the message of so many romance novels, the reason that Darcy stands in the field, forcing himself to bare his heart to Elizabeth? )

Here’s another great one from Rachel S:

In A Time For War, my Russian set historical, the voice of reason is the hero’s friend Ivan. His quiet wisdom has saved Sergei from making stupid decisions many times.

The Voice of Passion is Sergei’s headstrong younger sister who refuses to live her life the way she’s expected to. That reckless passion leads her into marrying a man who will manipulate anyone to get what he wants, which is access to the family fortune.

Good job, Rachel!

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Now…how to write Passion and Reason into your story. I got an excerpt from a Voices reader, and I took just a snippet to show how a person might cross over from reason to passion….

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Early Tuesday morning, Ian hooked the wood trailer to the tractor and drove it up into the woods. As he loaded up the pine logs that he’d felled and trimmed the day before, it occurred to him that he could have taken the trailer with him in the first place and had the whole pile loaded, especially with his nephews there to help, but he wasn’t thinking that far ahead. At the time, he wasn’t thinking about anything but knocking something down. Repeatedly.
(Susie: see how his voice of passion is taking over? One idea for a great continuation of this scene would be for him to make a costly mistake while in the grips of passion…and have a voice of reason save him….just a therapist’s thought there…)

Thanks, Camille!

All four courageous voices will receive an advanced copy of Wiser than Serpents (hopefully in the next couple weeks!) Thank you for playing!

And now….if my internet cooperates, tomorrow we’ll start a discussion on…writing DIALOGUE.

“That’s right, good, nice, ATTRACTIVE, little computer, work with me here, I really didn’t mean all the nasty things I may have said to you…”