: Re: How to give characters a unique voice When writing dialogue all the characters sound the same. I'm not sure I even know what giving a character a voice means, but my dialogue sucks so any

@LarsenBagley300

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When it comes to crafting individual character voice, be aware that there are existing lists you can find that will give you specific items to think about. These lists include things like: Education level, dialect, age, station in life, accents, loquaciousness, and so on.

You can add a catch phrase for sure, but make it a harmless and invisible one. My characters do each have a catch phrase--and no one else in the novel is allowed to use it. (but that is only one part of their voice.)

Example: One and only one of my characters is allowed to begin his sentences with the word 'Look.' Another uses "Well," and a third sticks the phrase 'of course' into her dialog on a regular basis. They each came to their personal verbal tics naturally and logically. The scientist character quantifies his observations with the phrase 'a bit.'

Look, it's just something to become aware of. I mean, of course you're probably already aware, but if not, pay a bit of attention to people around you. Well, that's how I see it anyway.

Here's some de novo dialog with very little attribution. Can you get a sense of character voice? Why?

“Are we there yet?” she whined.

“Sweetheart, shush. Your father needs to focus on driving.”

“How much longer?”

“Would you like the iPad?”

“I don’t want the iPad!”

“Honey, settle down. We'll get there when we get there.”

It has to do with how characters treat one another. It has to do with punctuation. It has to do with the words they choose--simple or advanced. "Would you like" is a more sophisticated way of saying "Do you want."

It has to do with all sorts of stuff--and you can make yourself a formal list for each character if that works for you, or feel your way more organically. I like lists, personally. Eventually it becomes second nature to write in a character's voice.

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