Activity

So… Character Voice.

First, let’s define character voice briefly. This is important because we need to be aware of and distinguish between three different voices here: authorial voice, narrative voice, and character voice.

First, authorial voice is your voice: your humor, your natural patterns of words, your instinctual word choices, and etc. We must be aware of this element if we want to write strongly independent characters that don’t all come off like different aspects of our own character. It’s so easy to write things the way we  would (especially when it comes to humor, for some reason XD). But we need to always think twice about this!

Secondly, narrative voice is a little different. Think of Dickens (if you’ve read him), or the prologue to Andrew Peterson’s Wingfeather Saga (if you’ve read it). Both authors use a very unique, strong narrative voice that give their stories a lot of flavor, and can make long sections of prose both interesting and pleasing. (Note: if your story is in first person, your character voice will be the same as your narrative voice. In other stories, however, these are distinct.)

Finally, character voice is what we’re focusing on in our discussion this week (so many apologies that I didn’t have this ready for you all on Monday evening; I’m a terrible, terrible Guildmaster). Voice is a marker of realism, as I mentioned in my introductory message. Every individual has their own voice, and if we can tap into everything that goes into this, we can create round, complex, interesting characters who will be more than able to carry the stories which they inhabit squarely on their shoulders.

So let’s take a look at the stew of character voice, and see what goes into creating a tasty one.

1. The roots. Yes, I’m completely altering my metaphor from stew to trees. Sue me. XD

Here, we are looking at all of the more idea-related things that go into creating an authentic character voice. One of the most fundamental ones is worldview. Building off of that and getting a little more personal, there’s a person’s unique moral code, which may be slightly different from other people who share a similar worldview. Obviously, understanding your character’s personality type falls into this category as well. Another hugely important aspect here is the character’s backstory. This must color the way that they approach life, nature, others, and themselves. Although your reader may never get to see their backstory, even your side characters should be on a journey, and you, the author, need to know what that journey is.

2. The branches. Moving up into more of what actually shows up in the text of our manuscripts, character voice is colored hugely by the divide between internal and external communication. The difference between your character’s internal voice (thoughts) and their external voice (dialogue), speaks volumes about the kind of person they are. They may have a very rich, empathetic, and warm thought-life, but have a lot of problems communicating themselves effectively. Capturing this dynamic creates roundness and complexity, because it highlights a fundamental experience we all have as humans: translating our internal selves to others accurately and consistently.

3. The leaves. Here we get down to the nitty-gritty and have to hammer down the details of subconscious sentence structure, specific word choice, metaphors and similes, humor, descriptions, and dialogue. Here we have to figure out how the roots and branches effect the way the leaves arrange themselves. Do NOT rely on crutches like frequent italicization, bold, underline, multiple exclamation points, and etc… That is lazy voice creation. Instead, think carefully about which words your characters would use, based on their upbringing, social status, worldview, backstory, and overall approach to life. Another good way to keep a reality check on your dialogue is to speak it aloud to yourself. Although a 100% accurate transcription of speech is impossible and would be extremely confusing in text form, we are looking at realistic patterns of speech, filler words that people use when they are hesitating, and the overall organic feel of our dialogue.

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Practice/discussion:

So how do we DO all of this? How do we use root, branch, and leaf to create strong character voices?

First, on the one hand, we must be students of humanity. People-watch. Takes notes on how people actually talk. Think about the ways that people you know have been effected by their past – and how it shows up in their speech.

Second, we must be students of great literature, and take note on how authors who have gone before us created strong characters that effected us deeply.

But thirdly and finally, we must be students of our own characters. There are a couple different ways to meld all of the above elements of character voice into your creative process. Some people put everything into a diagram or table, and come to understand their characters that way. Others, like me, come to understand their characters more thoroughly by immersing themselves in a flash fiction burst of creative writing. Still others have found success by sitting quietly for an hour or two and putting themselves into the mind of their character and cultivating an inner monologue.

Whatever method you use (or combination of methods), listen to your character, and you will begin to hear their voice. Do your best not to insert your own voice when it really ought to be theirs.

In a way, all of this reminds me of acting. We really have to thoroughly understand our characters and in some way become them in order to accurately portray them in our stories. And this is, I think, possibly the best way that we can think of it. We are, in a sense asking our readers to ‘become’ our characters when they pick up our stories and experience the world and events through the eyes of our viewpoint characters. And if we are asking that our readers should become our characters when they read our books, it is only fair that we have gone through the same experience – and even more deeply – in order to ensure that the experience is realistic, delightful, and life-changing.

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Discuss: What method of creating character voice do you find most helpful to you? Filling out a thorough, factual survey/interview? Writing a bit of flash fiction from their POV? Cultivating an inner monologue by immersing yourself mentally in their POV (or writing a journal from their POV)?

Discuss: What level (roots, branches, leaves) of creating character voice do you struggle with the most? Which is your greatest strength? Why do you think that is? Do you have questions about any of them? Tips?

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Write: Using your Ereki persona, write a piece of flash fiction that showcases/develops strong character voice. 500 word max.

I want to be able to discern your character’s worldview, social standing, view of self, and view of others – all through word choice and description, rather than telling. (Really, this whole discussion topic is a big long explanation of one particular way that we need to show, rather than tell…) Obviously, none of this will be graded or anything. XD But if you’re comfortable sharing what comes about from this prompt, we can all pitch in to evaluate each other’s practice! After all, that’s why we’re here in a guild, right? 😛

And we’re Ereki, besides. We unite together, and are stronger together than we could ever be individually.

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