Introduction
This week, we’re shifting gears to talk a little bit about voice as a method of characterization. We’re going to go over how you can use a character’s voice in the novel to characterize them and how you can do it well. Too often, we see those authors who choose strange spellings and awkwardly phrased sentences to get across the idea that a character is foreign or has a unique quality to them. While we appreciate the effort put into characterization, we’ve all seen it go wrong when it becomes unwieldy and difficult to understand. My hope is that this post will help you to better understand how you can go about using a character’s voice properly to characterize them.
What is Voice?
To begin with, we need to understand what voice is and is not.
First, what it is not. Voice is not your writing style in this case. While you do have a writer’s voice that develops with time as you write, that isn’t what this article is about. It also isn’t about the dialogue of a character, specifically, though dialogue is a part of voice.
Voice, in this case, refers to the unique way that the character thinks and speaks. If you’re writing in deep point-of-view, something I will discuss briefly next week when I go over bringing flat characters to life (and more in depth about a month and a half from now when I discuss the different points-of-view), this is a little easier to utilize because the character’s thoughts and unique phrasings or sayings will shine through even in third person. Otherwise, unless you’re writing in first person, you’re going to be using voice mainly in internal and external dialogue.
Using Voice
Now that you know what voice is, how can you use it properly? This is a little bit more tricky to explain, but I’ll go over a few do’s and don’ts for you to make things a little easier.
- As a general rule of thumb, don’t make a lot of changes to spellings of words for dialect. Dropping the ‘g’ on the end of a word here in there (endin’ instead of ending) is fine, but don’t go crazy. Use specific phrases or occasional changes to spelling to hint at a character’s dialect or nationality, but avoid doing so in a way that makes it difficult to understand them.
- Don’t overdo on the unique phrases or catchwords. You want the reader to be in on the unique culture of the character, and the best way to include them is not to throw a bunch of phrases or slang at them that they can’t possibly understand just yet. Sprinkle things throughout, and pick some specific words or phrases your character is going to use a lot. Then stick with it.
- Do be consistent. If you’re going to change spellings, make sure you do it everywhere in the same way. Otherwise, you’ll just confuse people.
- If you’re writing in deep point-of-view, do include these little phrases or character-unique words in the narrative itself. The whole point of deep point-of-view is to allow the narrator to entirely disappear so that the reader will be so immersed in the character that they feel as if they’re right there as the character, experiencing everything. Using the character’s catch phrases in the narration here and there or narrating things in a way that shows character-unique mannerisms all contribute to the voice of the character and to that sense of immersion for the reader.
The Importance of Voice
Having characters with strong or memorable voices is really important. It makes the difference between an okay book and a phenomenal one. Why? Because long after the plot has faded from our minds as readers, we will remember characters and the impressions they left us with, the words they said that made an impact, and the voice they had in our heads throughout the story. We’ll remember them because they were memorable.
But that’s only possible if they have something about them, about their voice, that we can hold onto and store away in our memory for some other day. You want to do that with your characters so your readers can remember your characters long after they’ve parted ways with your novel.
So while it is work to write in a voice not your own (not to mention developing it and keeping it consistent), it brings your story to life in a way many other things can’t. It may be a technical aspect of writing, but it’s as important as the less concrete aspects of the craft.
Conclusion
Voice can be tricky to nail down for some characters. Others may come easy. What are some of your favorite ways to get yourself into the mindset and voice of your character while you write? Is it something you find hard or easy? I’d love to hear what all of you think. Leave your comments in the comment section below! And as always, if you have a topic you’d like to see me cover on The Fantasy Nook, feel free to email me with the idea. If it fits well, you may just see your blog post idea covered on here.