Things Your English Teacher Won't Tell You

Every Character Has a Voice, Even If It’s Yours

People often ask, who is such and such a character based on, and after a brief and unsuccessful attempt to conjure up a good lie, I admit the truth. My protagonist is almost always based on me.

Okay, they then ask, who is the villain based on?

Again I answer: me.

Confused now, they ask, but what about the sidekick? Or that guy in the cafe, the one with the machete for a spatuala? Or how about that alien wth the three eyes and the extendable nose?

Yep, it’s me again.

Now, that doesn’t mean that I don’t try my level best to make each and every character, every sidekick, villain and hero right down to the red-shirts and spear-carriers who die in the first scene, unique. A story wouldn’t be any fun to read and it certainly wouldn’t be any fun to write if every character was the same. I am, like most who ply our craft, a vivid watcher of the species Homo Sapiens. I love picking apart their little quirks and reactions, their mannerisms and, especially, their motivations. I like to know what makes people tick, and like any good collector of worthless trivia, I store these bits of data away in the back of my brain to use on some future character. But in the end, no matter how much or how little I might base a character on someone I have encountered, that character is going to be filtered through me. All that meticulous observation, all of that thoughtful structuring of each and every character, no matter how I try to pretend otherwise, is still just a figment of my imagination tacked down on some page.

I am my characters, and they are I. Or is it they are me? Either way, we are as entwined as a pair of electrons. And just to make it clear, your characters will be a part of you, as well. It is unavoidable.

How then, you ask, do you make every character unique if they are nothing but fragments of yourself? This is where a character’s voice comes into play.

Keep in mind, a character’s voice is not just about how they say something – although that is a part of it – but more about what they say and why they say it. Are they deferential to authority, or do they bristle at the slightest hint of someone telling them what to do? Do they answer every question carefully or do they blurt out the first thing that comes to mind? Do they take offense easily or just shrug off other’s opinions as if they don’t matter?

Basically, if you wanted to substitute the word attitude for voice, you wouldn’t be far off.

But wait, there’s more!

The way the speak, the actual delivery, is also important. Do they have any little verbal ticks, pointless bits of filler that they use and abuse?

“The way I see it…“

“Okay, but…”

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“Um….”

“Well, yeah, no…”

You get the picture, right? Certain characters will consistently say the same phrases unconsciously, just as all of us do in real life conversations. Physical mannerisms are also a part of a character’s voice. Do they laugh or snort at inapproiate jokes? Do they cross their arms when the conversation becomes uncomfortable? Do they look others straight in the eye or stare at the ground? This is where people watching becomes so important. Watch how people communicate, both with words and body language. Note the way the act and react in different situations. Someone who might be a real chatterbox around frends and family could be the same person who absolutely refuses to speak up in public. All of this can be part of your character’s unique voice.

There is another type of voice that we should talk about – pun intended – and that is the Authorial Voice. How you string words and scenes together is part of your unique voice, along with how often you as narrator intrude into the scene. Just as character voice is synonymous with attitude, authorial voice is in a large part synonymous with style. Some writers have a very loud voice. These are the authors who you can pick out from reading a single paragraph and immediatly know who wrote it. Other writers prefer to stay in the background and let the story do the talking. Either way is fine, just be aware that the more you write, the stronger your voice willl become. Like every other aspect of writing, your voice is something that develops over time, and conciously or not, the more you use it the more pronounced it will be.

And that is a good thing.