Creating a Gripping Voice with Torrey Maldonado

Torrey Maldonado: CREATING A GRIPPING VOICE 

Torrey Maldonado was born and raised in Brooklyn, growing up in the Red Hook housing projects. He has been a teacher for New York City public schools for over 25 years, and his fast-paced, compelling stories are inspired by his and his students' experiences. His popular novels for young readers include What Lane?, which garnered many starred reviews and was cited by Oprah Daily and the New York Times for being an essential book to discuss racism and allyship; Tight, which won the Christopher Award, and an ALA Notable Book, and an NPR and Washington Post Best Book of the Year; and his very first novel, Secret which has been in print for over ten years. 

Torrey shares 3 Rs to help your writing be thrilling.

RIVETED

RIGHT-SIZED

RAW

"Our voice should be riveting, right-sized and raw." And Torrey adds one more: RELATABLE 

Torrey takes us back to his childhood, and his own dislike for school and books. "If stories don't love us, we won't love stories."

Torrey shares some of the questions he asks himself to be certain his voice is THRILLING. 

His mom told him: Sometimes the question has the answers.

He says, "Whenever I write something, it's like cooking. All cooks taste their stuff, or share their stuff." Torrey asks these questions to cook up great voices:

• Is this voice fun?
• How can this voice be funnier?
• Is this voice fast?
• Is this voice adrenaline pumping?
• How can it feel faster? 
• How can it feel more thrilling? 
• Will a reader skip a character? Will the reader skip this part?
• How can I tweak it so that readers won't skip, but turn to someone else and say, "Come here. You've got to read this. You've got to hear this."

But then Torrey shares with us some great questions inspired by a boy who attended one of his events:

• What's more thrilling than getting a secret or a treasure that no one else is getting? 
• Do I make my reader feel that way?

Torrey shares, "Uncertainty should be the certainty." He sees his job as the writer is making sure his protagonists wants and needs are not met. He asks how he can make the character suffer, but not for the whole story because the suffering has to be alleviated. 

"Write something that hasn't been seen before. Hasn't been heard before. Hasn't been experienced before."

"Take the known and make it feel new."