3 Tips for Creating Voice
Voice–one of the most elusive pieces of writing craft.
It’s hard to pin down a standard definition for this element. And in writing, you have your author voice and you have your character voice. Author voice is the *YOU* in the story, the idea that across all your works, there is a thread binding them all together. Someone could pick up your work and without having seen your name on the cover, immediately think it was yours. The same way you hear a new song and you're like, oh, that sounds like...and 99% of the time you're right!
Character voice is the words, tone, sentence structure, etc, (the diction) of how they speak and think. You want your characters voice to be strong so that if you pulled a random bit out, it can be instantly identifiable by the reader whether or not it has a dialogue tag or name attached to it. This becomes even more important when you have a multi-POV book. Your reader needs to be able to know which POV the chapter is from within the first few sentences of a chapter in order to orient themselves.
I have never not written a multi-POV manuscript. When I write the zero draft, all my characters sound the same. And they don't even sound cool in their sameness, it's a very cliched, basic type of writing because I'm still figuring my characters out. By the end, there might be a few moments where their personalities shine through bright and clear, but for the most part, it's something I tackle in revisions.
Multiple sets of revisions.
On my latest version of revisions, I worked really hard to make each of my POV characters standout. I had several readers of the previous version point this out that there isn’t enough difference between two of my characters–they’re best friends, so they share a lot of the same beliefs, but I had to really dig in to how those ideas and actions would manifest on the page.
It wasn’t easy for me to accept that my readers thought my characters sounded too similar. It actually really frustrated me. Mostly because I, as the creator of these characters, am like, HOW ARE THEY SIMILAR? THEY'RE SO DIFFERENT??? But there in lies the rub, my readers don't have access to my brain (thank the gods) and so while my characters are clearly delineated in my mind, it's not coming through strong enough on the page. I need to dig deeper and really make each one stand out. This is EXCELLENT feedback. And this, dear Scribblers, is why good betas and CPs are worth their weight in gold.
Here are my 3 tips for making each voice stand out as though they were the mainest of main character:
1) Know their background:
You might not include a lick of backstory in your manuscript, but that character you created had to come from somewhere and YOU need to know where. Get as detailed as you like, but you definitely need to understand the basics. What was their family like? Did they have siblings or were they the only child? Was extended family involved? And what was that relationship like? What is their socio-economic status? Different income groups communicate differently at the family level, both in how and when they communicate and in what they communicate about. Billionaire families might talk about the ski trip they're taking to Switzerland or hiring a new tennis coach. Middle income families are more likely to talk about grocery shopping or saving up for a family vacation to the beach. Lower income families tend to communicate more about immediate needs-did you do your homework? Why aren't you watching your brother? Did you clean your room? Each of these is predicated on the intricacies and nuances of their daily life (yes, these are basic caricatures and no one identifying element makes someone a monolith and there are always outliers!) The point is that you need to know the words, phrases, and sentence structure your characters grew up with and make it consistent. The Nurse in Romeo & Juliet is a fantastic example of this. It's made clear she's a low class servant. She makes horribly inappropriate jokes and when she does try to sound smart, she consistently uses the wrong words.
In my manuscript, two of my main characters grew up as orphans. So I worked to make that evident in how they process and prioritize their world. They're both cautious about forming relationships with others and only count on and trust each other--the rest of the world is full of people they use to get what they want, but not form strong relationships with. And when they want something, they take it regardless of whether it's morally right or who else it might hurt. So know where your character came from and why they talk and act the way they do. Just like us, our characters are creatures of habit. So my two orphan characters could grow up and get jobs and be financially stable and have a roof over their head, but in the end, if a chance arises for them to steal a wallet or take something they want, it’s likely they’ll take that chance. Those behaviors and beliefs are embedded in their brains. It's why we love stories about the character who’s “retired” from a life of crime, but then, the need arises and they fall right back into their old habits. Uncle Iroh for example in Avatar the Last Airbender–he is still a fierce warrior and fire bender. He’s walked away from his past and is trying to make amends, but those skills continue to show up as he guides Zuko towards the right side of history.
This ties into Tip#1 because it's based in what their backstory is. You need to think about the way they frame their thoughts and how they respond to different events. What words or phrases do they use consistently? What types of metaphors do they use? If you character loved water and swimming, they might frame their thoughts or speech around words, metaphors, and ideas related to the ocean or sea life. A character on a spaceship might make a lot of mental comparisons to computer programs or AI. If you stop and think about yourself as a character, how do you frame your thoughts? Do you use sports metaphors? Cooking metaphors? Animal metaphors? For me, everything either has a movie quote or song lyric reference. Someone will say something or I’ll be having a conversation and I either mentally frame it around that quote or lyric, or I sometimes respond with it and hope they understand the reference.
This particular bit has always been a struggle for me with my characters and I have to very intentionally sit down and think about how they frame things and how they see things. In my most recent manuscript, my one POV character, Edria sees things either as a fight, food, or a party. So it fits when her friend looks at her in shock and she describes it as “looked at her like Edria had declared she never wanted to go to a party again.” These little bits of voice that you work into the manuscript make a huge difference to the reader and how engaged they become. There are other ways to indicate her friend was shocked, but this is a uniquely Edria way of doing so and this builds character voice and reader engagement.
One way I work on this is to really sit with my character and put them through a lot of what if situations they will never actually do or experience on page. (It's also how I distract myself when I'm bored!) I'll put my characters into whatever situation I'm currently in: waiting in a doctor's office! grocery shopping! doing yard work! picking out a puppy! (okay, I wouldn't be bored while picking out a puppy, but putting my characters through that--and realizing that one of them is not a dog person--was a huge moment for me) The point is, once you home in on what your character prioritizes, you can make their voice stand out because it's consistent and it tracks with the rest of their character. The decisions we make about little things are typically microcosms of how we approach the big stuff in our life. The same applies to our characters.
So try putting your characters into some mundane situations. Take them grocery shopping, how do they pick out their fruits and vegetables? A second exercise is to have a think about what metaphors and comparisons they would make. What systems and concept make sense to them and how would they apply that to something like picking out fruits and vegetables at the store? To go back to my character, Edria, she might pick out the biggest, buffest fruits or veggies at the store because they look like they would win in a UFC Vegetable League Prize Fight.
3) Let Their Actions Speak For Them
This also embraces the age old idea of ‘show don’t tell’ in your writing. Of course, there are times when telling is absolutely the right move–it’s important to remember there is no writing advice that is ever applicable 100% of the time. Part of learning writing craft is learning when to follow “rules” and when to ignore them.
My third tip for deepening your character’s voices is, objectively, my favorite. I find it incredibly fun to figure out the way they physically move through the world and how they act to different stressors in their environment. Deciding how they physically respond to things ties in with their background and the lens they see the world through--it's all linked together to create that deep dive into voice that really draws a reader into a story.
Again, how they've lived and experienced life is going to affect what they do. If we look at a character like Katniss from the Hunger Games, we see this from the beginning of the novel. The first thing she does when she wakes up is reach across the bed for her sister. It’s a small action, but it primes the reader for Katniss to volunteer to take her sister’s place. It’s an action that reinforces how much she loves her sister and sees it as her job to protect her. As you follow Katniss through the books, by the time we get to Mockingjay, we’ve seen Katniss experience unthinkable things and her actions reflect that.I remember the first time I read it and thinking “why does she keep hiding in closets–get out and do something!” But this was really such a brilliant characterization because Katniss just wanted to feel safe and secure and protected from the world that had given her massive PTSD. I recommend going back and re-reading The Hunger Games with an eye for how each experience shapes Katniss’s character and examining how her character arc evolved. There’s a lot to learn from Collin’s writing–you just have to avoid getting sucked into the story and keep your focus on doing a close read of the text. May the odds be forever in your favor.
You’ll want to choose actions and habits that not only fit the character's emotion for that scene, but also fit into who they are and how they think. What are the repetitive actions for your character? Do they rub their wrist? Jig their leg? Roll their eyes? Pick at their clothing?? And why do they do that? How does it tie into their past and does it match their diction or does it counteract it? What I mean is, does the action fit the mood and diction of the character or does it offer a balance of opposites? There's a lot of things to play with here!
Stop and think about your own habits. Do you bite your nails? Do you run your hand through your hair? When do you do those motions? When you’re thinking? Stressed? Unsure? There’s a great book called the Emotional Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. It’s a fantastic resource for looking at internal and external signs of how someone is feeling. It’s an invaluable resource for writers and I highly recommend picking up a copy.
There is a caveat here and that’s to be careful of overusing an action–we’ve all read books where it seems like the character is doing the same action time after time. Whether it’s rolling their eyes or their Adam’s apple bobs–the reader will pick up on it and it can bump them out of the narrative. So always be very intentional with the actions you use and work to keep them from being repetitive and overused.
As always, your mileage may vary! Take what helps and leave what doesn't! Drop a comment with tips or methods you use to help the voice of your story flourish!
