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Joined: 4/28/2011
Posts: 11
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One of the things that *makes* a character is his voice -- a way of speaking and thinking that's uniquely *him*. Distinct voices make characters stand out from each other; they make them vibrant and real in the reader's mind. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files always comes to mind as a great example -- Harry has such a unique voice that works brilliantly for the narration, and all of the characters are distinct and real.
Voice is something I struggle with in my own writing. I can hear beloved characters from other people's work, both from books and TV/movies, clear as day -- but the voices of my own characters are far more muffled and fluid, at least in my head.
How do you develop good, distinct character voices that pop?
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Joined: 4/27/2011
Posts: 18
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Such a good question! I guess in my experience, I get used to the characters and their voices during endless, brain-numbing rewrites. Quite often, I find I don't much like some of my characters, but nothing makes the good guys better than making the bad guys worse. It's hard as the writer when you have to find a way to understand/empathize with all of them, even true scum you can only hope you merely imagine exists.
But speaking to a first-person narrative, I think finding the right main character can override all other requirements of the story. The problem is, in writing, it's easier to find a hero than a heroic deed. Compounding that is the general truism that heroes are created by circumstance (as are villains), so ultimately story must trump character ... or at least, even the greatest hero will fail if never challenged.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 244
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The strongest character voice of my characters that comes to mind is a retired knight from an earlier book that I wrote. His experiences color the narrative when I'm following him (it's an epic/high fantasy). From how the narrative describes his surroundings, always looking at things for their tactical advantages and disadvantages, to what he does with his hands while moving through that terrain. It colors his speech, too. He's analytical and always wary.
Voice, to me, is as much about the way a character views and describes their world as it is about how they structure the sentences they speak.
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Joined: 5/2/2011
Posts: 59
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I tend to start out with a list of traits I need them to have. One of my characters is a mute, so his writing (which is the entirety of my WIP) has a very distinct voice. Not just in terms of diction, but in terms of his emphasis. He doesn't tend to write out dialogue, for instance, because he considers the words unnecessary, merely their intent important to telling the story. As for regular characters, their voices start out as "loquacious, prone to cursing" sort of notes. I might mimic authors of a certain era (usually Victorian) to get a grasp on those differences in an early draft, and let them develop from there. In this story, my character Nathaniel started out with a bit of Thomas Hardy, and Gertrude was more Dickens. They developed over time to adapt to their character, but the early mimic gave me a base to work with.
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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 376
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When it comes to dialogue, I've actually got the opposite problem: I can hear the characters so strongly I forget dialogue tags.
Other than that, though, I tend to be a bit pedantic and loquacious. When I'm writing characters that *aren't*, I have to keep myself in check. I delete as much as I write.
Sometimes, though, like with 'Blue Bloods', the voice of each character just starts happening. From Drew's self-recrimination to Jesse's complete lack of self-examination, from Charlie's constant near-subconscious paranoia / preparedness to Steve's being a 'player', it all just came out as I was writing.
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