Originally published Aug. 11, 2015 as “Can you recognize your character’s voice?” UPDATED June 3, 2024.
My last blog talked about point of view (POV), so it seems appropriate today to discuss creating a unique character voice for each of your book’s main characters.
Our voice is as much a part of who we are as is the shape of our face. It’s an aspect of our physical being that people come to recognize about us as they get to know us.
Just as we—as writers and as individuals—have a recognizable voice, the characters in our novels have voices, too. And they shouldn’t sound like you or like every other character in your novel.
Though the reader doesn’t hear voice in the usual sense, the reader can recognize it through the character’s personality, how he or she speaks, and the words that character uses. This is character voice and is as apparent in the narrative of your POV character as it is in the dialog of your characters.
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