Let's Play: The Headline Game!

Nailing down voice

If you can “get” voice, you’re home free… Some notes on voice, then our game

• Voice is all the ways you get language “wrong”

• Voice reveals a character’s body of knowledge

• Voice reveals a character’s agenda and slant or spin

• Voice reveals the tunnel vision of the Point of View character

Now the Headline Game

Imagine how a niche reporting organization would headline a story. How the story would be slanted toward the priories of its target audience. For example, a young gunman commits a mass shooting at a supermarket. The headlines:

Doable Twunk with Pretty Eyes Kills Eleven

Blonde Hottie Solid Eight, Stacked, Among Those Killed

Damage to Baywood Store Largely Cosmetic

Wall of Boxed Merlot Strafed in Senseless Attack

Dead-Beat Dad, Head-Shot, Won’t Be Missed

Experts: Massacre Tied to Global Climate Crisis

Give me some examples. Name an event, then give the skewed headlines. Years ago the New York Post got lambasted for reporting on the murder of a business executive knifed in her hotel room. The headline in question was: Executive Killed in Rape-Gone-Wrong. Yikes. Does rape ever go Right?

I’ll let this run for a while. Post your entries in the Comments. A dazzling prize for the winner.