Characters' voices

 It's been a wild month since I last posted. We got an offer on the house in Baton Rouge in two days (!), I finished my last semester as a full-time professor and officially retired, the house was inspected and appraised and we packed, packed, packed. Furniture, etc., was picked up for storage on June 27. We closed on June 28 and immediately got on the road to Albuquerque. We arrived at our rental on July 1, went house hunting on July 2, found the absolutely most perfect place and made an offer and were under contract by July 3. Now it's waiting again for inspections and the appraisal. We're scheduled to close on August 1 and our furniture should arrive between August 10 and 19. 

Yesterday was the first meeting of my writing group in Albuquerque and I'm back to pondering the art and science of writing fiction. Readers have commented on how my many (some say too many) characters all have individuals voices and can quickly be distinguished from each other by their dialogue. I've been thinking about how I do that. I will be honest and say that it's not entirely conscious. It's an outcome of the process of creating an individual, unique character. This includes physical description, clothing, and manner of speaking -- their actual voice. 

The first thing I do is decide the gender and age of the character (not surprising). Then, the character's socio-economic status, which includes education and family composition, as well as birthplace/home town. Did this character grow up in a wealthy family, attend private schools, graduate from college? Or is this a working-class character with a high school education -- or less? It is 1929. Many young people left school at 16 to go to work and help support the family. Does this character come from a place with a distinct accent? 

At this point, I start to hear the character speaking in my mind. I don't put the word "hear" in quotation marks, because I quite literally hear the character's voice in my mind. I'm beginning to realize that not everyone visualizes the characters and the action of a book, as if a movie is playing in their mind.

I'll hear the voice, the accent, the rhythm of the character's speech. I make notes so that the voice will be consistent later. Does the character speak rapidly or slowly or at an average rate of speed? Does the character speak in a monotone or with dramatic emphasis or something in between? Does the character drop her gs or use double negatives? Does the character have a wide or narrow vocabulary? Does this character use slang and vulgarities or is this character prim and proper or perhaps timid or shy? Does the character remind me of a person I know/have known or of an actor or other celebrity? If so, I need to be careful not to create a parody or caricature of that person. It's one thing to be "inspired by," it's another to parrot or mimic another character -- real or imaginary. 

Whatever voice the character has, consistency is vital! Sometimes readers will correct a character's speech because it's grammatically incorrect or the word doesn't mean what the character thinks it means or because the phrasing is awkward or verbose. Occasionally it was a genuine mistake on my part, but most of the time, that's part of the character. 

And, of course, in my work, there is the issue of the character's voice being historically accurate. Word usage has changed. What was once incorrect is now correct, and what was correct is now incorrect. Words now have different meanings. Current idioms may not even have existed at that time, and idioms that were in use may be impenetrable or have changed meaning. Acceptable terms of the day may now be completely unacceptable and I need to do more research to find a historically accurate term that will not be offensive. It's also important to recognize that acceptable terms today may have been extremely offensive in a previous time.

In summary, voice comes from character. Your characters will have distinct voices if you've developed them sufficiently and know them well and allow them to speak naturally. 

We're off now to explore the Elena Gallegos Open Space here in Albuquerque. We find ourselves in the peculiar position of wanting to see and do as much as we can in ABQ and NM and yet realizing that we literally have the rest of our lives to do so.