Using Dialogue to Determine If Your Character's Voice is Unique and Distinct

My current WIP has been undergoing some pretty major revisions, including a POV change and rewrites to a few characters. In some cases the changes are simple - changing a HER to an I, and so on and so forth. But in other instances I've had to completely rewrite scenes because the characters have changed pretty dramatically.

It was while rewriting a scene that I accidentally stumbled upon a great tool for checking character voice: dialogue.

 That might seem obvious since dialogue is literally a character using its voice to speak, but let me tell you how you can use it as a quick voice "test."

In earlier drafts, I had written a character named Aunt Minnie who was the best friend of my MC's late grandmother.  Minnie was an eighty-year-old sweet grandmotherly-type, with a playful attitude and a flair for making inappropriate comments.  I loved Aunt Minnie, but ultimately decided to rewrite her into my MC's actual grandmother, nicknamed Gams.

Gams is also an eighty-year-old grandmotherly type with a flair for making inappropriate comments. BUT she's also a former principle dancer at the New York Ballet Company, owned her own dance studio until she had to retire, and was my MCs original dance instructor.

I assumed that I could leave most of the scenes between Aunt Minnie and my MC the same even though the character was changing, with a few minor tweaks here and there.  But when I started reading the dialogue I realized that it no longer fit.

It takes an immense amount of focus and discipline to get accepted into a revered ballet company, and to become a principle ballerina at that company takes even more discipline. When Aunt Minnie spoke she was funny, almost childlike in some ways, and her laissez faire voice no longer worked when I started to piece together the kind of woman Gams was: focused, determined, and perhaps even a little critical. In short, they were two distinct characters with different motivations who needed two distinct voices.

Here is a quick trick for checking to see if your character has a unique & distinct voice:

Imagine a new character that is like your original in almost every way, but give them a slightly different back story and/or hobby.  For example, maybe this new character has a tiny chip on their shoulder because their parents are going through a divorce, where your current characters parents are happily married.  Now go back and read some of this character's dialogue, but with the slightly modified character in mind. Would the existing dialogue work with the newly imagined character?  If the answer is yes, you are likely suffering from a lack of voice, and you might want to take a step back and figure out how to infuse your character's uniqueness into the way they speak.  If the answer is no, congratulations!  You have written a character with a unique POV that is reflected in the way they think and speak.  In other words, you've created a distinct and unique voice for that character.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

Happy writing!

YA Book Pick: FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell

Once a month, we choose an outstanding YA book to review. We want to spotlight books of interest to aspiring writers, as well as highlight some of our favorite books and authors!

This month's Book Pick is FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. 

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .

But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

First Line: "There was a boy in her room."

This is a great first line, because it sets up the conflict immediately. Our viewpoint character is someone who isn't comfortable having boys in her room. The next few lines make it clear that Cath has just arrived at her new dorm and is sort of freaking out about the newness of everything.

Highlights: Gosh, where to start? First, let me say that I devoured this book. I literally couldn't put it down. My YA fiction taste tends to skew more speculative, but this contemporary novel completely won me over (much like ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS and LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR by Stephanie Perkins--also highly recommended).

I gushed about Rainbow Rowell nailing the teenage voice in my review of her last book, ELEANOR & PARK. This book is even better. Cath, her sister Wren, the boys in her life, her roommate Reagan--any one of them could have stepped right out of life and into her book. The central romance is sweet without being cloying or sappy. Cath's fears and doubts about her love life will ring true for anyone, not just eighteen-year-olds.

The author's take on the subject of fandom and fanfiction writing is gentle, but also realistic. As someone who spent her teenage years obsessed with the TV show The X-Files, I saw a lot of myself in Cath. I think a lot of readers will be able to relate to this, no matter what their age.

A Good Read For: YA contemporary/romance writers searching for great examples of teenage voice or a slow-build romantic relationship. Although the book was marketed as YA rather than New Adult, it is set in the first year of college and therefore might be of interest to NA writers as well.

Writer's Resource: Voice Lessons (not the singing kind) From LA SCBWI

So I almost forgot that I had a post scheduled for today, because I've been spending every single free second stalking the WriteOn forums.  There are so many great writers out there!  Hop on over and take a look if you haven't already.

Also, quick announcement about an upcoming query workshop - Brenda Drake and three other fabulous writers will critique 40 query letters on August 20-24.  Check out her blog to learn more.  Winners will be chosen on Friday, 8/17.

Now on to my regularly scheduled (but almost missed because of WriteOn) post.

Voice Lessons (not the singing kind) 

Developing a character's voice is a tricky thing, and while at SCBWI's LA conference I had the good fortune of attending several workshops that addressed the topic of voice.

Voice is more than the words your character says or the actions/reactions your character has to their situation.  Voice is in how your character sees the world around them - every detail about your character should act as a filter for what your character comments on, be it through dialogue or internal monologue.

Picture three different characters walking down the same street - a cement layer, a florist and a bird watcher.  The cement layer would probably notice cracks in the concrete, or uneven places in the pavement.  The florist would probably not comment on the street at all, because he is too busy admiring the foliage that lines the road.  The bird watcher wouldn't notice anything below her neck, because she's too busy looking up at the sky.

Think about who your character is and how those details might affect the way he or she sees the world, then bring that world view into your writing.  If you are writing in first person or third person close, you should never deviate from that world view, because it is a reflection of who your character is.

A few exercises that may help develop your character's world view and voice:

1.  Write a series of journal entries from your MC's POV. What kinds of things are important to him/her? How do they spend their day?  What language do they use? How do they feel?  Start thinking of your character as more than a person from your story - think of them as an actual person, and start to put yourself into their shoes.

2. Write down a series of adjectives that describes your character.  Now start replacing each word with an antonym. How would these words change your character's actions? Their dialogue? The word choice?  Understanding what your character shouldn't do can often help you make smarter choices about what they should be doing.

3. Go back and read the first few pages of your favorite books.  What did the author do to set up the story? The character? How quickly did you get a sense of who this new person might be?  How does one character feel versus another character from an entirely different story? Why do they feel different to you?

4. Read the award winners, both in your genre and out of your genre.  Pulitzer prize winners are often a great place to start, because they almost always have rich, complex characters that hop off the pages right from the opening paragraph.

The key takeaway for me was that developing voice takes practice and patience - it can't be forced. Practice, read, and practice some more.

Now back to the WriteOn forums...

Happy writing!