: Re: Is muteness appearing without explicit reason acceptable? In one of my stories, my main character was once able to speak, but after being alone for 3 or 4 years in his early 20's without speaking

The issue is that you have your character losing the ability to speak as a young adult. There has to be some kind of trauma (physical or emotional) for that to happen. The neurological pathways for language are formed starting in infancy (they really get going around 9-10 months) and continue for several years. If your character knows how to talk at 20, he's not going to abruptly lose the capacity just because he didn't use it for several years. It's not like walking where you lose muscle tone.

(Also, I don't know about you, but I talk to myself all the time even when there's no one else around. I laugh out loud at things I read, I call the cat, I sing along with music, I talk back to the TV, I yell obscenities if I hurt myself, I mutter if I'm looking for something. Being in isolation for several years does not by itself mean I won't speak for several years.)

Now, there's a difference between losing the ability to speak (he wants to, but can't) and losing the desire to speak (he can, but doesn't want to).

It might be more interesting if the reason for your character's muteness is a mystery which the other characters (and the reader) have to figure out. There either is some trauma which makes him afraid to speak, or he took some kind of vow of silence so he's choosing not to speak. That could be political, religious, cultural, or just personal persnicketiness.

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: Re: Is muteness appearing without explicit reason acceptable? In one of my stories, my main character was once able to speak, but after being alone for 3 or 4 years in his early 20's without speaking

More posts by @Debbie451

: Scrivener: marking multiple (non-adjacent) phrases in a manuscript with same footnote How can I mark multiple different non-adjacent words and/or phrases with the same endnote marker and the same

: How do you make a character witty? How can a character be made to appear witty, or funny? That is, the character amuses other characters, not the reader, who should ideally be impressed with

: When do I explain my created world scenario in a prologue vs. letting it unfold in the story? Let's say I'm creating a unique world for my book. New planet, maybe new species, complex society

: My sense (as a reader, not someone who's published a YA novel) is that you kind of want to liken it to a PG-13 movie. If it's too graphic for a 13-year-old to be watching in a movie

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