Aug

Character Voice

by Tami

A question from Cal (some of you may remember him from his guest appearance on the Saucy Wenches).

I am at the point now where I’m doing the dialog pass of my editing. Mainly, taking one character at a time and then refining their dialog to match their “voice”.

One problem…I don’t know how to do that :)

How does one figure out a “voice” for a character?

Reference
Two points of reference that I feel are great sources both come from HollyLisle.com, which is my unabashed favorite stop for writing advice.

How to Create a Character
Dialogue Workshop

What is Voice

First question is – what is “voice”? It’s a key part of characterization, but one that many authors tend to gloss over.

Put simply, a character’s voice is any part of their character you could hear if you had a phone conversation with them. It can range from how they phrase or pronounce certain things to the volume that they speak at. A less educated character would use different words than an English professor.

The voice of a shy, nervous boy might have a low volume, and maybe he stutters a lot or trails off at the ends of his sentences. The voice of a brash, gossiping neighbor might be overly loud, shrill, and she probably ends up butting in mid-conversation and interrupting other speakers.

Every character in a book (or screenplay) should have a unique voice. The trick is to FIND it. It’s easy to spot in the caricatures I used in the above examples, but it can be trickier when you’re dealing with several “real” characters.

Talking Heads

The first thing you have to do is forget the silly misconception that you made up these characters and that they are fictional. Throw that whole concept out the window.

Your characters will not have a voice until you view them as people – as individuals with their own personalities.

Some folks have the ability to imagine their character’s faces.

My mental processes don’t work that way (for example, I can’t call up a mental image of my own or my husband’s face – and no, don’t ask me how that can be true and I can still draw things). For me, I have a “feeling” about a character. I can turn to that “feeling” or that place in my head, and I get the sense of the character’s personality. When I’m there, I can carry on a conversation with the character, I can ask them questions, or plop them down in situations and see how they react.

I believe everyone “contacts” their characters differently. If you don’t know what works for you, then I recommend trying different ways.

Once you can do this – you access your characters as individuals rather than as a name on a piece of paper – you’ve reached what is known as the “talking heads” stage.

And now that you’ve joined the rest of us in the loony bin, the hard part is shutting them up. Congratulations, and welcome.

Exercises

Some exercises to not only pin down your character’s voice, but to help give you an idea of how character X differs from character Y. Ideally, you do these before you write something, but they certainly don’t lose their value if you’ve already written something. They may inspire irritating changes in your text, but it’s all for the best.

Write a Letter > Write a letter as though it were being written from one of your characters to another character. It may take a few paragraphs, but many people find themselves “tapping into the character” and truly feel as though they begin to write the way that character would write. This is a good way to get a feel for a single character.

Write a Conversation > Note that this isn’t intended to be an actual conversation in your writing. Just imagine your characters sitting in a room and talking to each other. Start writing. You are not allowed to write anything but dialogue – no “he said” “she said” or anything except pure conversation. Which characters dominate the conversation? Do they change the subject? Do they meander, or stay quietly by the sidelines? Do they start arguments with each other? The characters themselves should propel the discussion. This is a great way to get a feel for multiple characters and how they react together.

Order Pizza > Take your major characters and imagine each one of them ordering the same pizza. Does one of them start a fight with the pizza guy? Does one try to wheedle for a better price? Does one constantly apologize for not knowing exactly what they want? Does one change their mind constantly mid-order? Maybe one decides last-minute that they want to throw a party, and triple the order? This is a good way to get a feel for how your characters are different from each other, and react differently when put in the same situation. (And you’ll also get to know the poor pizza guy, too).

Fin

I hope that was helpful to you, Cal!

Anyone else have any advice or additional exercises?