How to Write Unique Voices for Characters in Fiction
When it comes to writing fiction, creating unique and believable characters is absolutely essential. One important aspect of character development is crafting unique voices that reflect each character’s personality and background.
Understand your characters
Before you can write distinct voices for your characters, it’s important to understand who they are. Building out a solid foundation and developing compelling backstories is one of the best ways to ensure they always have unique voices. Here are some tips for getting to know your characters:
- Write character sketches that detail their backgrounds, personalities, goals, and motivations.
- Conduct interviews with your characters as if they were real people, asking them about their likes and dislikes, fears, goals, and more (the Proust questionnaire is a popular way to do this).
- Imagine how your characters’ past experiences will change how they speak in different situations and when experiencing varied emotions.
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Use description to enhance your characters’ voices
Descriptions can be just as important as dialogue when it comes to creating character voices. Here are some tips for using descriptions to enhance your characters’ personalities:
- Use specific details to create vivid descriptions of each character’s body language, mannerisms, and behaviour.
- Consider how each character’s mannerisms might influence their speech patterns. For example, a character who is shy might be hesitant to speak or repeat themselves frequently.
- Pay attention to how your characters interact with their environment. Do they use their hands a lot when they speak? Do they pace around the room or sit still?
- Use sensory details to create immersion. For example, a character who is nervous might sweat profusely or fidget with their jewellery.
Avoid stereotypes and clichés
When writing unique voices for characters, it’s important to avoid falling back on stereotypes or clichés. Here are some tips for creating characters that feel fresh and authentic:
- Avoid using dialects or accents. Not only do these often rely on stereotypes, but they also break reader immersion unless authenticity is absolutely essential to the type of book you are writing.
- Consider how each character’s background and experiences might influence their beliefs and values. One-dimensional characters built on clichés won’t have unique voices.
- Think outside of the box when it comes to creating distinct voices. Instead of relying on traditional archetypes, consider combining traits from multiple sources to create something new.
How to craft unique dialogue
With the basics in place, how do we convert unique character voices into dialogue? Here are some tips for writing dialogue that feels authentic and unique to each character:
- Read your dialogue out loud to hear how it sounds, and make sure it’s true to how you imagine your character to be.
- Give your characters a unique conversational quirk that feels natural. An example could be that they call everyone “love.”
- Vary the length and complexity of sentences to reflect each character’s personality and background.
- Consider how each character’s education and experiences might influence their vocabulary and sentence structure.
- Use dialogue tags sparingly to avoid detracting from the actual words being spoken.
- Avoid using too much exposition or explaining too much in dialogue. Instead, let the characters speak when it serves your story.
By understanding your characters, crafting unique dialogue, using descriptions to enhance character voices, and avoiding stereotypes and clichés, you can create vibrant, engaging characters that will keep readers hooked from start to finish.