Who Is Speaking? Voice, Authenticity and the Writer-Soul with Victoria Hetherington

What makes writing sound like someone? A distinctive voice that reaches you? It can emerge from surprisingly small-seeming choices, which we'll explore: rhythm, syntax, vocabulary, perspective; you can also find it in the things a writer habitually or intentionally leaves unsaid. In this workshop, we’ll look at how writers construct voices and personas, and experiment with imitation, disguise, exaggeration and literary ventriloquism to see how much a voice can change before it stops feeling like the same person. We’ll also consider what happens to our ideas about voice and authenticity when machines can convincingly reproduce some of these signals. What, if anything, makes a voice feel genuinely one’s own? This is NOT a class about how to use AI in your writing; this is a class about how to bring humanity, voice, and authenticity to your writing and write prose that is human, heartfelt, and unique. *** Victoria Hetherington is the author of The Friend Machine and host of the CBC podcast Understood: Artificial Intimacy *** Accessibility: VPL is committed to making our programs accessible for all. If you have an access need that we have not addressed here, please email us at programs@vpl.ca The expected noise level is moderate Participants are welcome to move and take breaks as needed. There will be designated quiet tables, and all participation is voluntary For information on physical access, view the Accessibility information on the Central Library Page.