Author Fan Clubs:
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McKenna Donovan
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McKenna Donovan loves stories. Her short stories cross many genres, including literary, romance,
magical realism, fantasy, and mainstream fiction. Dealing with disabilities is a recurring theme in her work. Her short story,
The Piano, earned honorable mention in the 2005 Surrey International
Writers' Contest, judged by Jack Whyte and Diana Gabaldon. In 2009, two of her short stories,
Breathing on Glass and Continental Divide, were accepted for publication
in the international anthology In the Silence of This Room, published by Grey Sparrow Press.
Over the last ten years, McKenna has worked with hundreds of authors, helping them uncover and stay true to the "naked story," the
emotional foundation of their work which stems from the author's most deeply felt observations about their experience of the world.
In 2009, McKenna earned her Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Goddard College in Vermont. Her current novel-in-progress
explores the idea that "man's thoughts may not be entirely his own," a blend of historical and science fiction designed to reveal a
a previously unknown history of the mid-twentieth century.
McKenna Donovan is also the founder and executive director of To Write Well,
which provides online writing workshops that focus on teaching techniques of storytelling. Check out her blog, The Naked Storyteller.
You can find McKenna on Goodreads. She is also on Facebook (under To Write Well).
On a personal note, McKenna lives in western North Carolina with her
husband, her collie, her basset hound, and four cats.
To Write Well
L. McKenna Donovan's blog
Favorite Authors
Fantasy
David Eddings: The Belgarion/ The Malorean/ The Elenium
Anne McCaffrey: The Dragons of Pern
Historical Fiction
Sarah Dunant: In the Company of the Courtesan/ Birth of Venus
Non-Fiction
Joseph Campbell (storytelling and myths)
Steven Pinker (linguistics)
Richard Dawkins (evolutionary psychology)
Robert Wright (evolutionary psychology)
Michio Kaku (physics)
The Most Favored Weaver of the Chinese Empress hopes to escape the walls of the Exalted Palace by finding a weaver whose skills surpass her own. But at what cost?
Time: 57:32 / $1.29 Sample Add to Cart
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Being hearing disabled, I have always had to concentrate intensely when stories are read out loud. I use headphones designed to isolate every syllable, which renders the story in a very, very real way. Each change in tone, each change in cadence or pace of voice, creates emotion. Since audio requires such significant concentration, I am unable to do any other task, such as driving. In turn, this allows me to dive deeply into the writer's story world, eyes closed, and emotions emerging fluidly. Kailey Bell's rendering of my current story, "The Story Rug," was an intense experience for me. Her interpretation also contained surprises, which have taught me more about how an aspect of a character can be highlighted. A very good thing, yes.
I so much enjoyed the way the actress who narrated and roleplayed your wonderful "The Story Rug" drew me deeply into its storyworld immediately. I see you teach the craft of writing as well, and wanted to ask you if you wrote this story specifically with audio performance in mind? And if so, what tips you might have about writing a story that's as beautifully suited to be read aloud as this one is? Thanks. Avo Thank you Avo! It's great to hear that Kailey Bell's rendering of "The Story Rug" drew you deeply into its story world. It's one of my favorites. No, it was not written specifically with audio in mind, but due to my background in classical piano and foreign languages, all of my work tends to be lyrical, which lends itself well to audio format. I'm highly attuned to how the sound of a word adds (or subtracts) from the sense of the story. Ironically, now that I'm hearing impaired, an audio format is very difficult for me, requiring multiple "listenings" on my part before I am able to grasp all the nuances of the writer's and narrator's techniques.
While print and audio have many storytelling techniques in common, a great print story is not necessarily a good candidate for audio--and vice versa. A story well suited to audio format is the product of several things.
First, the writer's style or voice should flow easily. That's not to say all stories need compound-complex sentences, but that each sentence should set up the next, whcih creates a forward movement for the narrator to give voice to. By this, I do not mean a predictable storyline. Listeners love to be surprised.
Second, the writer must develop characters as individuals, each of whom should have a distinctive voice. While one character might use colloquial language, another might be more formal in speech. Using speech "tics" is especially helpful to the professional voice narrator, who can then tap into a broader repertoire of voices, cadences, expression to indicate age, health (or frailty), gender, social standing.
It took me a few times of listening to Kailey's rendering of "The Story Rug" to tease out of the back of my head an interesting thought: in a print story, the author is the ultimate owner of the story, but in an audio format, the story is ultimately "owned" by the professional voice actor. Be gentle, McKenna