How to Write a Character's Voice-- Attempting to Define the Undefinable

Alrighty, folks, I seem to be back from the world of the internet-less. To celebrate, I'm doing a post I've been putting off for a while, 'cause it's a tough one.

It's one of those undefinable, hard-to-give-five-easy-steps sort of concepts in writing: voice. Not author voice, but character voice. You know, that thing that everybody says they want in a book but no one can say exactly what it is. I'm going to attempt to define the undefinable today, and attempt to give a few tips.

To me, voice is the character's worldview as expressed through their language. 

Yeah. And what exactly does THAT mean?

Everyone has a unique take on the world. Our experiences and inborn traits shape our perception of everything around us. Voice is how a character expresses that unique view. It can come out in the tiny things like word choice and sentence structure. But voice is about more than words and tone.

Yes, those are important parts of it, and sometimes I do a full draft just tweaking those things for my character's voice. But equally important is your character's thought process. When something happens, how does your character process it? What do they think about it? What do they connect it to-- something in their past? Something else in the world around them? SomeONE in the world around them?

Because a character's voice is shaped so much by their traits and backstory, it's important to know those things about your character. Take time to get to know your character. This means different things for different people. For me, it means an extensive character worksheet and spending pre-writing time trying to view MY world from the character's head. It also means discovering them through the story, so the voice often changes in subsequent drafts.

I am always asking myself WHY and HOW. Why is this character sarcastic/sweet/bubbly? How does her love of X,Y, or Z affect the way she sees the world? How do certain character traits (optimism/pessimism, dry sense of humor, impatience, etc.) come out in her voice? This helps me take a particular character's voice into a more definable realm, so I can purposely execute their voice instead of letting it be all over the place.

Here's a silly example. My son is in love with Winnie the Pooh. Each of those characters has a different "voice." They have their physical voice, of course-- what they sound like-- but if we just read words on the page from each of them, we'd know who they were without the sound. Pooh would likely be relating something to honey, because that's what he loves. Rabbit would be worried/irritated about something, because he's wound very tightly. Tigger would be excited, self-centered, and relate everything to bouncing, because that's his personality and love. Owl would tell a long-winded story relating the conversation back to his past, because that's what's important to him.

Of course, sometimes a character voice comes to you out of the blue. I have a character for my new WIP idea that is coming in loud and strong, and I hardly know anything about her. Which, of course, is where the "undefinable" part comes in. If that happens to you, run with it! But don't be afraid to expand and fine-tune it as you go.

So, my friends, don't be afraid to take "voice" beyond sarcasm and snark. And do tell-- how do you define the ambiguous term of voice? How do you pull it off? Do you have any tips that help you execute it?


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