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This week: How to Keep Each Voice Consistent Edited by: esprit  
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Characterization is the process of conveying information about characters in narrative or dramatic works of art or everyday conversation. Characters may be presented by means of description, through their actions, speech, or thoughts. The better the audience knows the character, the better the character development. Thorough characterization makes characters well-rounded and complex. This allows for a sense of realism. In contrast, an underdeveloped character is considered flat or stereotypical.
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How to Keep a Consistent Voice
The problem with using a character that you don't know inside-out, is that it's hard to stay in style throughout the story. Instead of writing in a constant voice, it will vary from day to day, chapter to chapter. Without an identifying tag (said Bob), readers probably can not tell who is speaking. That's when it stops being fun and starts being boring--for you and for the readers.
Build a character's voice by matching it to the personality and purpose you want readers to see in a particular story. You will not have to birth a completely new character for every story you write. The more often you use one, the more practice you have with each character, the better he will get. To avoid confusing the voices, I suggest working on scenes of one character at a time while developing his unique voice. Later, you can add a character and watch how they interact to learn more about them.
By the time you're ready to begin the great, break out novel, you'll have the expertise of knowing how to build good and bad guys.
More on building characters at It Takes a Village
Writing Exercise
Have your main character keep a diary for a few days. For a male character, calling it a journal would be more manly I suppose. You can use an idea from your proposed story or if you need a prompt, try these.
Exercise 1 - Day 1 entry. Your character currently lives in a small town. During the writing we learn about his/her move to a big city to start a new job.
Exercise 2 - Your character receives (or sends) a series of anonymous love letters. We will learn how she reacts to each letter and what she does, if anything, to find the sender. If the character is male, he might be the sender. We'll learn why he sends them anonymously by reading his thoughts.
What if the sender was a stalker? The tone would be much different from that of a timid suitor. Antagonist?
As the voice develops you should notice a consistent pattern coming through. If you've kept the character's role in mind, the voice will match. Is it formal, romantic, upbeat, straightforward, funny, frightening, or...? Is it what you expected or wanted?
Part of what a writer aims to do through voice is to create character and story world consistency. They should be recognizable as the same people throughout the story, so name tags won't be required as often.
When you move from the journal into the draft of the story, just tell the story naturally. Don't worry too much about editing yet. Stay in the creative groove by thinking of the story as a long letter to your readers, and remember, we usually don't have problems writing letters to our friends. Your reader is your friend.
One of the reason's teachers and coaches recommend journaling and free-writing is it takes a lot of prep-writing to develop a complex character, and impatient writers tend to skip that part of the process. But writing before you're ready just won't work. Get to know who your characters are in their hearts and their authentic voices will be heard.
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Action/Adventure: December 23, 2009 Issue [#3442]
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