by Darcy Pattison
How would you start to create a voice for a character? For example, if you had a lawyer, you could list the cliched attributes of a lawyer’s voice:
- overuse of passive voice
- legalese jargon
- overuse of qualifying prepositional phrases
- long, complex-compound sentences
For example, a cliched lawyer might say, “Johnny was desirous of throwing a ball, a baseball and not a softball, around the ballpark in the evening before it got too dark to see, and therefore, Johnny was accompanied to the park by myself and his two excellent friends and a good time was had by all.”
Instead of plain English: I took Johnny and his two friends to throw baseballs in the park. We had a great time.
After thinking about the cliched voice, you can individualize the voice. How would this particular lawyer think and talk?
The answers would depend on many variables, for example:
- where they live (Boston v. Arkansas v. California would give different voices)
- background of lawyer (did he grow up in Brooklyn or as a red-neck?)
- how well the lawyer switches from legalese dialect to home dialect
- audience
In the end, I would try writing it at least three different ways and see if I could create a voice that sounded and felt right for this character, and was unique.
For YA writers, I think the hardest voice is get right is the teen protagonist. They tend to sound the same, especially when written in first person. Take the cliches and work against them, twist them; or exaggerate them. Don’t just take the first easy option, but work toward something unique.
Related posts:
- Voice Friday: Words for Your Voice
- Voice Friday: Word Choices
- Voice Friday: Word Sounds
- Voice Friday: Sentences
- Voice Friday: Word Connotations
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The LJ feed works well. Got your post right on my friends page. :-)
Thanks again for your your technical assistance and for answering my question about voice. The revisions are coming along nicely now.