HighFantasy Tips & Tricks

Section One Part Five: Character Voice

What is character voice? It's something that's referred to as being an important factor in your writing, but what does that actually mean?

Put simply, this is how readers can easily identify which character is currently being focused on. This doesn't just relate to them speaking, but also to their body language and behaviour.

The best way to visualise this is to watch the people around you. Watch people (not in a creepy way) in your local coffee shop, or your canteen at lunch. Make notes (again, not in a creepy way) about how different people move and present themselves, and different words they use. My colleagues used to tease me that my two most used phrases were "that is unacceptable" and "I'll just Google it". My boss at summer camp, who was very good at active listening, would say "so, what I'm hearing is..." to check his understanding of what the other person said. This can even be seen online, where fans will talk about "fandoms", "ships" and "OTPs".

Your American teenager should sound different to your Chinese grandmother. Unless she's being ironic, I don't imagine Grandma will be saying "bruh" or making meme references. Of course, when you factor in the unique worldbuilding of your High Fantasy world, this then becomes a little trickier.

Some of the questions we covered in the chapters about your main characters and secondary characters are relevant here. Your royal family is likely to talk very 'properly', they might not use contractions (don't, won't, isn't) and are possibly less likely to use slang (nah, ain't, mate, bro). Your hyperactive child might not have much of a filter, and is likely to say whatever pops into their head. Their train of thought may be meandering and difficult to keep their focus. Your extroverted character might talk with a lot of flamboyant hand gestures to make their point. Your nervous character may show their anxiety through fidgeting with something, or struggling with eye-contact. A highly educated character may use bigger words and have a more developed vocabulary than one who received minimal schooling.

Generally, the character's voice doesn't change much throughout the story. As someone who travels a lot, my accent fluctuates slightly over time, but my Manchester roots can still be detected - even though I moved from there before I hit double-digits! I assimilate local slang into my vocabulary, but even after a year and a half of living in America, I still said "car park" before correcting to "parking lot". Nationality isn't the only factor to bear in mind, though. Ethnicity, age, religion (or lack of), sexuality, gender and abilities are all important to remember. How I talk is very different to how my sixteen year old brother talks. This is due to his age, the difference in pop culture, and the fact that he is male and I am female.

You don't necessarily need to write your character's accent or speech impediment phonetically, especially if they're a main character. This can get tiring for you and the reader, and can also be quite jarring when you forget. It's valid to use dialogue tags and context cues to remind the reader that this person has a particular accent. This is where dialect and word choice can be useful too. If they're bilingual, their dialogue might involve a smattering of both languages. A good example of this is in 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse'. Miles' mother is Puerto Rican, and they talk to each other in a combination of English and Spanish. It feels natural, and it's a nod to his cultural heritage without making a big deal out of it.

Their personality is key to their voice as well. If they're gruff and short-tempered, they may talk in abrupt sentences, or grunt rather than reply with words. If they're sarcastic, humourous, enthusiastic, etc, this will show through in how they talk. If they're shy around new people, there will be a difference in how they talk to close friends and how they talk to strangers.

If your story shows a characters' internal thoughts as well as their external dialogue, make sure this remains consistent with their voice too.

Character voice can make the difference between a rich, developed story and one that feels flat. It may be easier to write your dialogue in your own voice first, and then go back to edit it once you have a stronger feel for your character. Or, you might try to develop their voice from the first word you type. It can be a difficult skill, but is one well worth practicing. The more you write, the easier it will get.

What are tips you would share about developing a character's voice? What story do you feel shows the best and most distinct character voices?