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Developing Character Voice

It’s easy to spend your time daydreaming about how your characters look, what color their eyes are, how their hair feels when you run your fingers through it. But what about their personalities, their voices? Voice is something that sticks with a reader long after they forget whether your protagonist’s eyes are green or blue.

Voice is a difficult thing to tackle, but here are a few ways that I approach it.

• Write without regard to voice and see if one naturally develops. I’m not sure where character voice comes from, but sometimes writers just tap it naturally. Don’t get in its way if this is happening for you!
• Observe voice around you, particularly if you can’t think of a voice for your character that’s distinctive. How to the people in your family talk? Or at your job? Or on your favorite TV show?
• Do a separate edit for voice only

Your assignment:

Take a character you like, then look at their best friend and determine how they speak. What length of words do they use? Is their style more in the way the lines are written, or is it in the way the actor delivers them? Write a one-paragraph analysis of how they sound, and why.