Do you ever read something, and the whole time you're reading, you're hearing the writer's "voice" in your head?
I do.
Not so much in fiction, I guess. In fiction, you hear the characters' voices moreso than the author's.
But in personal essay-type writing, I unconsciously give the writer a voice.
I hadn't realized I did this until I actually met a writer in person that I had read for years. (I won't put her name here in case she googles herself one day and finds this!)
In reading her essays and articles, I had always envisioned her voice to be very soft, sweet, kind...sort of like a gentle, wise teacher.
When I actually met her (although I liked her immensely) she was nothing at all like I thought she would be. She looked the same...I had seen photos of her...but she was rather stern and sharp in person, with a very dry, biting wit. She rarely smiled, but you could tell she had a keen sense of humor beneath her very controlled exterior.
After I got over the initial shock of the difference, I actually liked the real woman better than my mental version of her.
I just hadn't realized I had even created a mental voice and personality for her until I met her.
The same was true, on a different level, of other writers I've read through the years, but have never met.
When I hear them on audio tape or watch them speak on a video, the actual person is never quite what I expected.
Take Anne Lamott, for instance. (I'll put her name here since I've never met her!) Her writing is hilarious, sarcastic, and insightful. I pictured her to be a fast talking, wise-cracking character with a strong voice.
After years of reading her work, I finally saw her on TV not too long ago. Maybe she was having an off day, but she came across as very lethargic, speaking in a slow, halting monotone. Not at all what I expected!
Same was true of Julia Cameron. I heard an audio conversation between her and Natalie Goldberg a few weeks ago.
I always gave Julia Cameron a breathy, lilting, little girl voice in my mind. So much of her work is so dreamy and spontaneous sounding. But, in actuality, her voice was rather prim and stern, with a slight "old lady" tremor to it (even though I don't think she's all that old).
Natalie Goldberg, on the other hand, hails from the norhteast and is bold, brash, and outspoken in her work. I gave her a pushy, New York style accent in my head. On the audio tape with Julia, however, her voice is soft, feminine, and deferential.
It's hard to shake my mental voices, though. Even after having heard the real person speak, I find I still "hear" their writing in the mental voice I gave them.
Maybe that's one of the reasons movies are never as good as books. When we read, our minds create nuances and images that are unique to each one of us. A director is creating his own mental image of the story on the screen, but for the rest of us, that image can never live up to the world we created in our own minds.
