Hello, writers. Tonight’s topic, giving your characters different voices, is by request. And by the way, we absolutely adore getting requests around here. Because after 2 ½ years of Write On!s my ideas are kind of running low.
The title of this diary is something my mom jotted in a scrapbook she kept when she was 20. It’s a quote from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, a description of how Sloppy reads the newspaper. My mom used to read to us the same way-- every character had a different voice. We really loved the squeaky voice she used for Gurgi in the Prydain Chronicles. We used to insist she do it again and again, even though it really hurt the poor woman’s throat.
“Brave, valiant Gurgi is a mighty warrior too, with slashings and crashings!”
Or something like that. But even reading silently, you always knew when Gurgi was talking. He sounded like Gurgi. None of the other characters talked anything like him. He bragged, but he was also rather pitiful. He whined. And he rhymed a lot.
Some other characters with distinctive voices:
Severus Snape: “Ah, yes. Harry Potter. Our new-- celebrity.”
(He doesn’t need to sneer. His words do it for him.)
Lord Vetinari: “Ah Vimes. So kind of you to come.”
(So cultured and polite. I’m scared already.)
Nanny Ogg: “And she was old, too, if you’re after the truth of it. Not old like me. I mean old.”
(There’s a mythic quality to Nanny Ogg’s voice. Or as she would put it, myffic.)
If you don’t give your characters distinctive voices, they tend to all sound the same. In fact, they tend to all sound like you. So think about how your characters talk. Not dialect --dialect’s kind of out of style these days-- but the things they’re likely to emphasize, the personality that feeds their words.
I usually go for a walk in the woods and let the characters chatter away to each other in my head. Not about what’s happening in the story, necessarily. Just about whatever they want to talk about. That way I get a feel for their voices, and how they bounce off each other.
You can make a character sound whiny, arrogant, dotty, inebriated, constantly suspicious. She can refuse to take anything seriously. He can take offense at the least little thing. She can find a sexual innuendo in practically anything. He can be not really listening to what any of the other characters say. She can shut her mouth with a snap and refuse to speak at all.
For tonight’s challenge, edit the following dialogue. Right now the characters’ voices are pretty flat. Fix that. Give each one a distinctive voice, one we’ll know when we meet it again.
(Don’t just edit this a little bit. Change what I’ve put in quotes completely to suit the character’s voice.)
The king leaned forward across the table. “What do you see? Is it telling you anything?”
The soothsayer peered into her crystal ball. “Yes. I see a callow youth. He is approaching the castle.”
“When will this happen?”
The soothsayer frowned. “I don’t know. But it will be soon.”
“What does he want?”
“He wants to overthrow you.”
“He will not succeed,” said the king, although his eyes asked “Will he?”
“He might succeed,” said the soothsayer. “He has the Jewel of Togwogmagog.”
“He can’t. It’s lost.” The king became angry. “You are lying to me.”
“No, I’m not,” said the woman.
“Guards, take this old woman away and kill her.”
“Yes, sir,” said the head guard. The men grabbed the woman and hauled her from the room.
“This doesn’t change the truth of what I say,” cried the old woman, as she was dragged struggling from the room.
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