In a post on Writer Unboxed, Dave King examines character voice and how to get it right. “Ideally, your viewpoint character’s voice will emerge naturally,” King says. “But even when the words are flowing, it’s sometimes hard to tell whether or not they have a distinctive voice.”
King recommends compiling all the dialogue spoken by one character and reading it through in one sitting. Do the same with each character. “Can you tell the difference between the characters just on the basis of their dialogue?” he asks. “If you can’t tell the difference between your character’s voices, one of several things might be going wrong.”
Maybe you don’t know your characters well enough or maybe you’ve simply forgotten about voice. King recommends imagining yourself inside your POV character’s head before writing a scene. “I’m talking about a step-by-step, deliberate act of imagination – picturing what their hands look like, what they’re wearing, where they sitting or standing,” he explains. “Filling in details from their immediate past – what happened to them just before the scene, how they feel abut the other characters or the situation they’re walking into. Enough practice with these acts of imagination, and you may find your voice flowing more easily.”
