A writer's authentic voice conveys the illusion of that writer speaking. It's not about aural performance, it's about personality that comes off the page — and it is assisted by the white space created by punctuation and paragraphing.
Right as he said this, I grabbed a pen and made a note on the back of a scrap of paper: "Tell Bobby Ampezzan to stop leaving his deletions in notes format while he's revising his stories."
Clark quoted someone named Don Frye <sp?>: Voice is the cumulative effects of all the moves that the writer uses to create the illusion that the writer is speaking directly to the reader.
But "voice" is not about oral/aural performances, even though reading the sentences aloud can be a good tool for coaching a writer to recognize his awkward phrasing and lack of clarity — unless reporters insist upon reading their crap aloud in their very most pompous imitation Walter Cronkite.
Clark admitted that sometimes, as he is recording himself reading his books for their audiobook publication, he finds himself revising the syntax. Although his producers usually catch him, there are bits of his audiobooks that do not match the print product.
(Also, Eric Deggans told us that since he began doing his radio commentaries for NPR, he has been coached to drop apostrophe-type clauses and put all his sentences into a simpler noun-verb order.)
Oral performance requires a different cadence.
Thinking about this section of Clark's talk, I have decided that here is yet another reason we still need print: not merely for the experience of reading while holding paper or the convenience of its durability and persistence, but also because print allows a style of expression unavailable in the oral and even the digital formats.
White space reinforces cadence.
And layout conveys a mood. Even in handwritten forms.
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