Excerpt from Powell's Essay/Interview with Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Here's an excerpt to think about when we're thinking about voice -- what it is, why it's important, how it works to bring the writer and the reader closer.

Powells.Com From the Author Amy Krouse Rosenthal

"People ask me how I arrived at the idea of presenting a (my) life in encyclopedia form. Can I first say that until very recently I didn't think it was that outrageously odd of an idea. Yes, I understood that the structure was not conventional, I got that — but this format made such perfect sense to me (on many levels) that it was more like of course this is how my book will operate versus boy, I'm really doing something zany here with the structure. That said, this question has been posed to me enough times now that it is clear that people are either a) indeed curious about how I came to this encyclopedia solution, or b) it's simply the least wobbly plank from which to launch a dialogue.

That concludes the preface answer to the real answer. Here's my real answer: I don't think that question needs to be answered anymore, or at least not anymore today. I have answered it head-on for a few weeks, answered it like an earnest school girl who's been called upon, and here's the outcome: it's starting to make me feel sleazy. Why is that? Why do I feel like I'm giving a bit of myself away every time I answer that question directly? I don't know. Maybe you know. Maybe you've been here before. But I haven't. When do they serve lunch?

I think that if I continue talking about the book this way, explaining it, dissecting it, doing all this fancy circus-performer back-tracking about the process — it's potentially damaging. You explain something away enough and you're left with a dehydrated mass. I'm picturing a rotten, pale, sunken-in orange. There isn't a lot of juice or magic in a rotten orange.

Not to mention: It's no secret that I speak to this question at great length (i.e., excruciating detail) in the "Evolution of this Moment" section of the book.

Not to mention: What if I'm remembering the creative process all wrong? What if I'm romanticizing it? What if I am changing the story ever so slightly each time I tell it, in an effort to improve it, polish it, keep it fresh and unboring to me?

Not to mention: Who cares.

Let's talk about something else."

Read the full piece here: http://www.powells.com/fromtheauthor/rosenthal.html