Chip on Your Shoulder

Use the five senses, writing teachers remind us, in your reporting and writing.

What does it look like, feel like, taste like, smell like. Often, we try to fill our stories with sounds -- the rasp of a saw, a bird's cry, the rhythmic hum of traffic, screams of protesters. But how often do we try to describe what someone's voice sounds like?

Last December, author and humorist Brian McConnachie proposed a way that National Public Radio could invite listeners to tackle that sensory writing challenge.

The segment, called "Vocal Impressions: Hearing Voices," features household voices -- Morgan Freeman, Marilyn Monroe, Truman Capote, Jack Nicholson, Odetta, among others -- and invited listeners to describe what they sounded like.

A month later, McConnachie returns and reads some of the entries.

Among my favorites entries:

Morgan Freeman:

"A silk trombone" -- John Josh Halpern

"A voice too tired to hurry and too powerful to slow down"-- Andy Mullins

"A lion gargling with pebbles"-- Susan Sullivan

And here's what Marilyn Monroe's voice sounds like to some listeners:

"A voice to make a 7-year-old boy think differently about girls" -- Bill Malvitz

"The steam rising from a souffle" -- Ken Bolinsky

"The slow folding and unfolding of a pink cashmere sweater" -- Andrea Huske

Get the idea?

"Vocal Impressions," featured on NPR's afternoon drive-time show, "All Things Considered," has entered its fourth round. This one asks listeners to put into words the sound of these memorable voices: Mick Jagger, Eleanor Roosevelt, Barry White and Luciano Pavoratti. (You can hear audio clips here.)

At the risk of humiliating myself, here what I just submitted:

Eleanor Roosevelt: "a dowager with a teen's wobbling voice desperately trying to find common ground"

Barry White: "the soundtrack for a night you wish would never end"

Mick Jagger: "the whispering devil on your shoulder"

Luciano Pavoritti: "his arias spear the theatre's ceiling, break into shards of crystal that light up the heavens"

McConnachie's brainstorm is an innovative and very cool writing exercise that draws on your memory, imagination, and sense of verbal play.

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Playing "Vocal Impressions" also adds a sensory device that uses metaphors not only to put a character on the page, but to put that character's distinctive voice there, too. Here's the link to submit your impressions to NPR.

Wanna play? Share your "Vocal Impressions" using NPR's offerings or suggest your own contender for a voice to describe. Give it your best shot.