One of the most important things in fiction is the writer’s voice. It’s what brings back readers to their favorite writer time and again, and it’s also one of the major factors that give a story its unique vibe. Not to mention that his voice is a writer’s fictional DNA, that sets him apart and embeds his perspective in everything he writes.
But also very important in every work of fiction are the characters’ voices, and these should be even more interesting and compelling than the writer’s.
Finding your own distinctive voice, especially if you’re relatively new to writing (or have just switched genres or language) is not as easy as it may seem. The temptation to allign your tone and wordchoice to that of your favorite books, or even to that of the people you frequently converse with, can be overwhelming. We all know how intoxicating someone’s style of speach, choice of expressions and even tone can be.
When you’re a writer, and like all writers have an oversensitive observatory mind and the tendency to mimic things you fancy and launch into mental experiments that could get you admitted should they be exposed, you are probably susceptible to the voice of every other writer you admire. I know I am. It takes me some exorcising and loud music (or a really bad sitcom) to clear my system of another writer’s voice, so I can continue writing my own stuff and sound like myself.
Understanding and learning how to effectively use your own unique writing voice is not an overnight process and requires quite a bit of practice. It also requires letting go of most rules and limitations that come with the genre or language you’re writing in. And, let’s be honest, it requires a bit of nerve to push through bad influences and role-models alike. When you’ve cleared the clutter and have chiseled your own voice and style, the delight and writing pleasure are all the more wonderful.
But once you’ve found your voice, and have learned to wield it like a razor-sharp sword, the next hurdle is to let it go again.
That’s right. You have to be able to slip out of your own voice, and write in someone else’s voice, that of your POV character(s).
There are a great many ways in which you can come up with unique character voices, along with their very own special personalities, resumes and perspectives on life. Hell, creating a well-rounded, realistic character is damn hard detail work, and it requires quite a bit of psychological finesse. Just like every person and writer has his own unique voice, so does every character. Many writers spend days, maybe even weeks, fleshing out and getting to understand their characters, especially protagonist and antagonist, and sometimes even secondary characters.
This process continues well into the drafting stage. It goes on even when you edit.
Yes, edit.
This is the stage where you have to pay an extra attention to differentiating not only between the characters’ voices, but also between their individual voices and your own. This is extremely important, and unfortunately often neglected.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly normal for a bit of the writer’s voice to seep into the protagonist’s, that’s fine. After all, you spend many weeks writing from their perspective. But you must be aware of that leakage, and manage it carefully.
I’ve read a great many novels, from budding writers as well as experienced ones, from tentative storytellers to deliberate and adept ones, who displayed inconsistencies in this area. It’s probably not visible to the majority of readers, but it most likey is to other writers, and—let’s get really big on this one here—award boards and comittees (don’t hit me), and it’s such a pity to miss taking care of such issues beforehand.
You’ve finished writing your draft, got wasted and ran butt-naked down the street screaming at the top of your lungs that you’re king of the world, and now you’re in the first revision (aka rewrite) stage, and you’re checking your manuscript for plot holes, flawed logic and inconsistent characterization. And here’s the moment you should really listen to your characters, read the work out loud and listen to their voices, and rewrite all passages where they sound more like you than themselves. If you can’t figure these spots out, ask one of your beta readers, who knows you well and is familiar with your work, to look for exactly such passages. Everyone has them, believe me, even the veterans. You’re no unicorn among horses, and neither am I. In fact, I think I’m the molting mule, but let’s get on with the matter.
I know, this is yet another thing you have to look out for, and blah blah busy bee buzz. As if rewrites and edits aren’t pure hell with a cherry on top anyway. But this is an aspect of writing prose that doesn’t get enough attention in my opinion. I would damn right love to meet more characters with voices that are absolutely clean and personal and unmistakeably their own. The world needs more obsessive rewriters!
Hail the rewrite!
Okay. Now you can hit me.
Oh, look, a patch of fur just came off.
*scratch*
There are a great many things writers must take care of when working on a story, and it can get tedious and damn right nauseating sometimes, but it’s all worth it. All our nerve-wrecking, tear-jerking, finger-breaking effort is sooo worth it, because in the end we create a world from scratch, populated by real people with real problems, who have the power to enrich the reader’s experience of life, and that makes everything worth it. What does it matter then that we spent an extra week swallowing down our own ego and our precious voices, and making Jane Protag’s pipe whistle a sharper note?
So what do you think? Do you distinguish your characters’ voices from your own? How deep do you go into the psychology and mannerisms of your protagonist, and do you create her in your own image or make her an individual in her own right?
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About Vero
You’ve finished writing your draft, got wasted and ran butt-naked down the street screaming at the top of your lungs that you’re king of the world…
*horrified gasp* You saw me?
Oh, how the real writing happens in the editing. Every. Freakin’. Edit.
(If I believed in hell, instead of flames, I’d be facing ms edits.)
But seriously, my writing/editing experience proves that the more I work on every single page and on every line, the more the character’s voice comes through. The first draft seems more like a pass-through, as if its purpose is to pencil in notes like: Jane talks to Bob about seeing Susie’s will here, or Jane finds Susie’s locket under Bob’s passenger seat here and sets his car on fire.
I’ve found that if you have a crit partner who knows you, she can serve as a sharp eye to help you pick out when your voice is coming through instead of your character’s.
Great post, Vero. Thanks!
That was you?
Rewrites are very sobering indeed.
You look at the manuscript as if it’s your last golden egg, and realize it’s utter and total crap, and you can’t believe you’ll ever be able to polish it. But every glitch you take care of helps the monstrous thing become more and more coherent. And the characters start to sound like real people.
I love rewrites.
Thanks for the comment!
This is very wise advice. When I’m editing, I do a run through that focuses on each major character, to make sure they are consistent throughout the story. It does take a lot of time, but it is so worth it when the characters take on a life of their own. Great blog post!
That’s a great way to check for consistency of voice, Pauline!
I actually even draft that way. I have several interspersed POVs, but when I’m deep inside a character’s head I write as many of his scenes as I can, and don’t switch back and forth.
Thank you for the comment! It’s very good revision advice in and of itself.
I tend to base characters on people I know so I can steal their personalities and mannerisms. Is that cheating?
Nah, that’s quite legal and fun to do. Although I bet you’ve stumbled over quite a bit of weirdness in your studies, am I right?
“You’ve finished writing your draft, got wasted and ran butt-naked down the street screaming at the top of your lungs that you’re king of the world”
Well now I’ve just rewritten my plans for the evening…
We should organize a flash mob and get some more fellow loons to join the fun!
I’m not nearly as interesting as my characters. Just a voyeur am I.
I beg to differ. There’s certainly some interesting energy rushing down those gray matter highways of yours, otherwise you wouldn’t have come up with those characters.
Great advice! It is amazing how difficult it is to find your voice. I thought I had and then everyone started telling me how much I sounded like one of my favorite authors. *sigh* Back to the drawing board.
As for making each character unique and have their own voice, that get’s pretty tricky sometimes. My biggest problem isn’t actually making them sound different from me. It’s making them sound different from each other. When I’m editing I often realize that all the voices sound the same. And that is just as big of a problem.
So thanks for the words of wisdom and happy writing!
Thank you, Jeff!
Differentiating between characters is not an easy task, and one of attention to detail. It takes a lot of listening to others to learn what differences of speech mean, and it takes submersion into each character’s mind, his past experiences, his environment and his goals. But it’s a labor very much worth it.
Thanks a lot for the thoughtful comment.
My characters are usually based on a person, a stereotype, or another fictional character and therefore come with a voice. Sort of a prepackaged voice, if you will. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not but it does make it easier for me to write in a particular character’s voice (since they came with one already intact).
Writing a character based on an already known voice can be helpful, Adam. There are, of course, the potential pitfalls of that voice not fitting seamlessly into the narrative, or not being consistent with the character’s personality (since it’s not his own), but I doubt you’re having any of those problems. You’re quite a fine writer, you’ll be okay.
You’re a charmer!
I’ve found that voice-acting your character helps. Especially in their early development. You might surprise yourself – or your character, that is!
Oh yeah, enacting dialog from your manuscript is an awesome way to catch problems, and fine-tune your characters’ voices!
Thank you for your mindful comment, Rebecca!
This is why I write narrative non-fiction – I can stick to using my own voice. I was never good at impersonations!
Great post.
Thanks, Cindy!
Creating new characters is sometimes like meeting new people for me. I’ve written characters based on people I know (sometimes unintentionally), but more often than not they just float face-up out of the aether pool and greet me at my desk. This makes finding their voice pretty fun. I like to imagine myself sitting down and having conversations with my characters. This does wonders for hearing their voice through the muse-fog, as well as distinguishing it from my own. As fun as it is to create worlds and universes, populating them is pretty damned fun too!
The people we meet do have a way to sneak into the maelstrom of bits and pieces we keep in the back of our head and use to come up with stuff.
I just love coming up and getting to know the cast (or create it, flesh-out, explore creatively, birth in a splash of imaginative goo) even more than the setting.
Thanks for dropping in!