Need help developing a short story about deaf voice student

[Poster-RW]

Hello, all. I am a writer developing a short story about a voice teacher hired to teach a young girl (around 13 years old) going deaf how to sing. In my research to make sure I get the details right, I came across this forum. It has been a pleasure to read several of this forum's threads. I have learned quite a bit about deafness as it relates to my story, as well as about deafness in general.

But now I am at a point where I would greatly benefit from anyone willing to offer some feedback on the difficulties inherent to being a deaf or HOH learning musician. My only real experience with deafness is my father, who has profound progressive hearing loss, and a super-crush I had on a deaf girl in middle school. She was sweet and pretty, and ironically seemed to me the only person that really listened.

Anyway, on to the story. In my story, the girl's deafness is progressive, so she has not always been so HOH. I would love any tips anyone can point out about what difficulties the girl would encounter trying to learn how to sing, any techniques the teacher would attempt to help her overcome obstacles, and any other tidbit you feel is essential to making her deafness seem genuine.

I know I am as yet a stranger here, but I promise to respond with respect and kindness, and I appreciate anyone willing to help me out.

Cheers!
-RW

 

[Hohtopics]

That although I'm no musician and certainly am not a singer, grin.

However, the following sites may be of some help:

Association of Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss - Welcome to AAMHL!

H.E.A.R. | Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers | www.hearnet.com

Hope it helps. Good luck!

 

[whatdidyousay!]

If you're writing a book to make money how much of the royalty will we get
for helping you?

 

[Poster-RW]

That although I'm no musician and certainly am not a singer, grin.

However, the following sites may be of some help:

Association of Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss - Welcome to AAMHL!

H.E.A.R. | Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers | www.hearnet.com

Hope it helps. Good luck!

I hope the links help, and either way thank you for posting them.

 

[Poster-RW]

If you're writing a book to make money how much of the royalty will we get
for helping you?

I am not sure if you are joking. There would be no shared royalties, unless you measure gratitude as having more worth than gold, in which case I would make you very rich

 

[TWA]

Honestly, I think there are limits on creative license. And writing about deaf characters from a deaf point of view when the writer is hearing and has no/little previous real life experience to deafness is one of them. No matter how much research you do, no matter how sensitive you treat the subject, in your writing, you will invariably come across a situation where you don't know how the deaf character is supposed to act (or you are unaware), and so you invent sometime, because that's what creative license is about. The problem is, it will be faulty and inaccurate. What does a deaf character feel when he goes into a bar and cannot understand anyone? You just have to be deaf to understand!

My personal opinion is to just leave it to us writers who are deaf and hoh to write about our experience.

Just about every story or book I've ever read about a deaf character (when written from the deaf point of view) is inaccurate. In some cases the damage that results to readers' perception of deafness is minimal; in some cases it is devastating.

 

[GrendelQ]

I can see a preference for single character first person narratives and autobiographies coming from an authentic source, but in other work, wouldn't you leave a bit of room for someone getting into the heads of various characters, including deaf characters? We'd have lost a whole lot of great literature if writers had to make every character he or she created and dipped into a facsimile of himself or herself.

I'm trying to imagine one of Faulkner's contemporaries advising him not to write the Sound and the Fury because he (Faulkner) was not mentally disabled, or Dickens discouraged from writing Bleak House because he was a man / Edith Wharton told to leave Ethan Frome to the guys.

In this case, the writer may not even be writing from the deaf girl's perspective, just wanting some more accuracy on what her situation might be.

Honestly, I think there are limits on creative license. And writing about deaf characters from a deaf point of view when the writer is hearing and has no/little previous real life experience to deafness is one of them. No matter how much research you do, no matter how sensitive you treat the subject, in your writing, you will invariably come across a situation where you don't know how the deaf character is supposed to act (or you are unaware), and so you invent sometime, because that's what creative license is about. The problem is, it will be faulty and inaccurate. What does a deaf character feel when he goes into a bar and cannot understand anyone? You just have to be deaf to understand!

My personal opinion is to just leave it to us writers who are deaf and hoh to write about our experience.

Just about every story or book I've ever read about a deaf character (when written from the deaf point of view) is inaccurate. In some cases the damage that results to readers' perception of deafness is minimal; in some cases it is devastating.

 

[AlleyCat]

How to sing ...

From my perspective as one with a profound loss .. I wear HAs, so that enables me to hear sound. Yet I have NO clue how to tell what's on pitch, in tune, on key, (or vice versa.) All I can tell for myself is whether I like the sound or not. And if I do, I keep listening.

How to use the concept of liking how something sounds in terms of how to sing? From a profound perspective, I don't think it can be done. How would you teach someone to sing something on key? How do you describe it? Changing (higher or lower) how you're singing a word, or speed?

I can see how someone who had significant hearing to begin with could learn to sing appropriately, and be able to retain that after losing hearing. But to not have heard something in tune or on key to begin with? I can't begin to figure out how that'd be done.

I'd be interested in reading what others have to say. Mind you, I have no aspirations to become a singer!

 

[whatdidyousay!]

I am not sure if you are joking. There would be no shared royalties, unless you measure gratitude as having more worth than gold, in which case I would make you very rich

We get a lot of hearing people using this forum for their own benefit, I personality do not like hearing people using this forum to write a book about a deaf person and expect to use my life experiences for their own benefits!
If anyone is going to made money on my life experiences is going to be me !
No , I am not joking!

 

[Daredevel7]

Honestly, I think there are limits on creative license. And writing about deaf characters from a deaf point of view when the writer is hearing and has no/little previous real life experience to deafness is one of them. No matter how much research you do, no matter how sensitive you treat the subject, in your writing, you will invariably come across a situation where you don't know how the deaf character is supposed to act (or you are unaware), and so you invent sometime, because that's what creative license is about. The problem is, it will be faulty and inaccurate. What does a deaf character feel when he goes into a bar and cannot understand anyone? You just have to be deaf to understand!

My personal opinion is to just leave it to us writers who are deaf and hoh to write about our experience.

Just about every story or book I've ever read about a deaf character (when written from the deaf point of view) is inaccurate. In some cases the damage that results to readers' perception of deafness is minimal; in some cases it is devastating.

Sounds like the word "fiction" does not exist in your vocabulary...?

Also, sounds like you can never write a story about a hearing person.

 

[TWA]

Sounds like the word "fiction" does not exist in your vocabulary...?

Also, sounds like you can never write a story about a hearing person.

Tell you what: go read a few books and stories that are written by hearing people that try to utilize the pov of a deaf character. Let me know how you feel about them.

 

[Bottesini]

I object to what looks like a pity the deafened story. Teaching a young girl who is going deaf how to sing?

arghhhh.... Cliche from 1890.

 

[shel90]

Teaching the young girl how to sing using ASL would be more accurate.

 

[TWA]

I can see a preference for single character first person narratives and autobiographies coming from an authentic source, but in other work, wouldn't you leave a bit of room for someone getting into the heads of various characters, including deaf characters? We'd have lost a whole lot of great literature if writers had to make every character he or she created and dipped into a facsimile of himself or herself.

I think there is just as much to explore from a hearing person's perspective on deafness as there is to explore the deaf perspective. Why don't hearing people try to write about this perspective? I know of far less books that are written about deaf characters from a hearing POV than I do written from the deaf POV.

In real life, we are always careful to be sensitive of other people's differences and experiences and not make assumptions. Correct? Being a fiction writer doesn't exactly give you the right to disregard this basic rule of tolerance and understanding.

I suppose it does depend on who your audience is and what your intent for writing the story is. If you're writing a thriller, or something of not much substance, then I could care less about using a deaf character the wrong. Such genres rarely depict any experience accurately, so it's not an issue.

I personally deal in writing stories of realism. My genre is meant to be entertaining, but also meant to reveal universal truths about the human experience; to allow us to enter into a world that we wouldn't normally experience. A hearing writer who writes the deaf POV incorrectly not only does a disservice to deaf people, but also does a disservice to humanity and the art form in general.

I'm trying to imagine one of Faulkner's contemporaries advising him not to write the Sound and the Fury because he (Faulkner) was not mentally disabled, or Dickens discouraged from writing Bleak House because he was a man / Edith Wharton told to leave Ethan Frome to the guys.

You're painting with a broad brush here by equating each of your example characters to a deaf character (or even to each other). In the case of Benji, we'll never really know what the experience of being developmentally disabled is like, since the nature of the disability itself most likely precludes the possibility of writing a book about it. Faulkner gave us an amazing and sympathetic hypothesis of the experience of being developmentally disabled. Accurate? We'll never know... One difference between deafness and a developmental disability like Benji's is that there are plenty of deaf people capable of writing about their experience. Why don't we let them handle it?

Using Ethan Fromme and Esther Summerson (I couldn't stand either of those books, BTW. But to each his own) as examples just because they are the opposite sex of their creators is a gross oversimplification of the issue I am trying to bring attention to. C'mon. It is not difficult to enter the mindset of the opposite sex (okay, it is. lol! but it can be done) for purposes writing that character. We interact with members of the opposite sex everyday. It's not a stretch to write such a character.

In this case, the writer may not even be writing from the deaf girl's perspective, just wanting some more accuracy on what her situation might be.

Yes, I reread the original post, and now I see that as well. Seems it is being written from the hearing person's POV, which I would support, but that still means there are many sensitivities to pay attention to. I'm glad the writer is doing his research.

 

[whatdidyousay!]

Honestly, I think there are limits on creative license. And writing about deaf characters from a deaf point of view when the writer is hearing and has no/little previous real life experience to deafness is one of them. No matter how much research you do, no matter how sensitive you treat the subject, in your writing, you will invariably come across a situation where you don't know how the deaf character is supposed to act (or you are unaware), and so you invent sometime, because that's what creative license is about. The problem is, it will be faulty and inaccurate. What does a deaf character feel when he goes into a bar and cannot understand anyone? You just have to be deaf to understand!

My personal opinion is to just leave it to us writers who are deaf and hoh to write about our experience.

Just about every story or book I've ever read about a deaf character (when written from the deaf point of view) is inaccurate. In some cases the damage that results to readers' perception of deafness is minimal; in some cases it is devastating.

My older sister and I where visiting our mother in the nursing home and mom asked us if we knew about our dad cheating on her. I DID NOT hear mom ask this, my sister told me later. When mom dies my sister wrote a horrible disgusting poem that she wanted to read at mom's funeral . My sister wrote that when mom asked about daddy cheating on her "we laughed at mom like crackling witches!" I was BS when I read this! My sister said she had a 'poetic license' and could write whatever she felt like! My sister thought I heard my mom and my sister was the one that laughed at our mother! When she wrote her disgusting poem she wrote that I heard our mother, and this was not true! My sister is hearing and HAS NO idea what I can and can't hear
and she said a devastating thing about me laughing at my dying mother! She read her fucking poem to her friends ! TheWriteAlex you're 100% right! Hearing people have no ideas what is like to be deaf or HOH and will invent something so horrible like my sister did about me! My mom dies in 2008 and
I still and angry at my sister to for calling wanting to call me a
crackling witch at my beloved mother funeral! I have a 'poetic license' too and can call my sister
a bitch of a witch!

 

[Hohtopics]

Maybe there are some deaf singers with a progressive loss out there that this story can be based on?

 

[Bottesini]

Maybe there are some deaf singers with a progressive loss out there that this story can be based on?

There's one deaf singer, Mandy Harvey? But I think she was late deafened after already knowing how to sing.

 

[Daredevel7]

Tell you what: go read a few books and stories that are written by hearing people that try to utilize the pov of a deaf character. Let me know how you feel about them.

Oh I totally understand, but aren't you applying one group's ignorance towards the other group to everything? I mean, I'm sure that a lot of veterans get upset whenever they read a war book that was written by someone who knows NOTHING about war. Does this mean that there should be a law somewhere that no one can write about what they don't experience? I just don't see any difference between this and ANY author that doesn't know jack squat about what they are writing about.

At least, he's doing genuine research. I prefer that there are MORE books about deaf people out there, whether it is right or wrong. Why? If it is at least somewhat right, great! More education for hearing people. If it is wrong, then you bet that a group of deaf people will complain and have their voice heard. There aren't many books about the deaf in the first place, so any book about the deaf will surely catch the deaf community's attention. And I am also willing to bet that it creates more of a push to have more deaf people write books about their experiences.