“Comforts of the Abyss: The Art of Persona Writing” (post 2) by Philip Schultz, Pulitzer Prize poet and founder of a creative writing school

Schultz usually speaks in terms of “persona,” but he occasionally reveals his understanding that fiction writers have multiple “orchestrated personalities, the great democracy of voices we carry around within us”; and he describes an occasion when he, himself, heard two such voices arguing.

Personalities Within Us

“Occasionally, when suggesting to [a writer] what might be hidden behind a strand of dialogue, an abbreviated scene…stuttering, coughing, or squirming erupts. Whatever is causing such upset, I may then suggest, might be seen as an opportunity to find an “I” or “We” or “You” brave, tolerant, and opinionated enough to confront the origins of their discontent. That inside their assembly of orchestrated personalities, the great democracy of voices we carry around within us, an “I” exists [who will be, to borrow a phrase from Walt Whitman], “the bard of personality” (1, p. 210).

Voices Arguing

“This morning, walking along the ocean on a splendid July morning here in East Hampton, I found myself eavesdropping on an argument between two strenuous points of view. I at first ignored the intrusion but then, looking around and seeing no one, realized that the argument was one I was having with myself…” (1, p. 214).

1.Philip Schultz. Comforts of the Abyss: The Art of Persona Writing. New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 2022.