Story Nook Bend

Character Voice: How to make your Character Speak

Hello everyone! Welcome back to another fun and amazing writing exercise! Today’s exercise is character voice! What is character voice? Character voice is the expression of your character’s outer and inner personality in the story. Yes, character voice can mean dialogue, but there’s soooo much more to character voice than just dialogue. A character can express as much of themselves just as much as any of us. In these exercises, I will be demonstrating the basic five factors of expression:

• Dialogue

• Body language

• Thoughts 

• Feelings

• Behavior pattern(s)

Of course these factors are useless unless you really know your character. So first develop your character, really get to know them like any good friend. Then, once you’ve got your character down pat, you are ready to use your character in your story:

         The first factor which most people will probably think of first when mentioning character voice is Dialogue.

Dialogue is the most commonly used form to expressing character voice. Yes, dialogue is a good ingredient to creating an engaging story, no, books don’t necessarily need dialogue to be a good story(. Try it! It might change your life…). Dialogue can actually be a very in depth way to expressing character voice. If you think about real life, every person has their own unique way of speaking. They all use their own expressions, repetitive choice of words, and references. Not only that, they can also speak with a stutter, smoothly speak with elegant words speak with an accent, speak softly, speak loudly, etc. That is the difference between bland dialogue and real, vivid dialogue. Here are two examples of bland dialogue and rich and diverse conversation between two characters:

      First Paragraph:

      “ Hey Margo, I am going to the theatre to watch this new movie called “ Murder Oasis”. Want to come?”

     “ No thanks, Frank. Maybe next time.”

      Second Paragraph:

     “ Hey Margo! I just got tickets to see this sick new movie called “ Murder Oasis”. It’s got Martin Freeman and that guy who plays Percy Jackson in it. It’s got some really good action! Wanna come?”

     “ Uh… maybe. I might want to… uh.. no. Frank, I’m sorry. I… don’t really… want to see that movie. I’m sort of afraid of… movies with…blood in it. I’m sorry. Maybe next time??”

     You see the difference between those two paragraphs? Notice I didn’t use dialogue tags just to completely depend upon the dialogue itself. Makes for stronger writing. Notice how you could tell who these characters are just by looking at the way they talk? Frank is obviously a movie nerd with lots of enthusiasm as well as a love for action and bloody movies. And then there’s Margo, who’s completely shy, but sensitive of his feelings and doesn’t want him to be hurt. See how these characters’ voices can be expressed just through the use of dialogue? Also, the use of italics, noises they make, and punctuation is a great way to enhance your dialogue.

      Okay, for our next factor we will be using body language. Body language can be from physical aggression to small tiny ticks, to facial expressions. Here is a paragraph depicting the difference body language can make on your writing:

    Example Paragraph:

    “ Hey Frank, did you get to see that new movie yet?” Margo said, smiling.

     Frank shifted his feet, staring down at the pavement, and said,

   “ Yeah I did, but it wasn’t very good. It was probably made by some lame production studio or something.”

   “ Oh… okay.”

    Margo studied Frank and noticed he was trying not to look her in the eyes. Margo’s smile disappeared and she fidgeted with her shirt, not sure what to do. Frank smoothed over his hair then said,

  “ Well, I guess I’ll be going.”

    And he walked briskly away.

     See how emotion was expressed just through the paragraph? You could tell Frank was obviously uncomfortable about something, and that made Margo nervous. So that’s one example of body language.

     Another factor I like to use is called thought. Getting inside a character’s head is one of my most favorite things to do and a great way to expressing your character’s inner world. Again, expressing a character’s thoughts can be just as diverse as dialogue( except they don’t think in accents or make sounds like sighing in the brain). Note, there are two ways to expressing thought. You can either use the italics for any none Deep POV writing( if you don’t know what Deep POV is, look back at my previous writing exercise post) or just use a normal sentence( depending on your type of POV and style):

       Example Paragraph:

       Margo

       What is with him? He’s never acted this way before. Did something happen? What if I said something wrong? Maybe I should’ve gone to that movie with him. Why was he acting so weird around me?

     Frank

     Ugh, why did I act so awkward around her? I wish I’d never mentioned that movie. I just couldn’t get Margo out of my mind. Maybe if I found something that both of us liked to do together, maybe she wouldn’t have felt so bad. I hope I didn’t hurt her feelings. Man! I just hope she didn’t notice I was blushing. Come on! Get it together Frank!

     Do you see something happening here? So this is the two character’s different perspectives and how they each processed their awkward meeting.

Each of them processed the information and emotions they felt differently according to their inner personality. ( Another reason why character development is very important before expression).

    The fourth factor is feelings. This is only expressed in a non- Deep POV perspective, where we give names to emotions, not expressing them in body language. But even just plain feelings can express a lot more than dialogue and simple narration:

Example Paragraph:

     Margo stood at the table in the room and felt sad. She slowly poured herself some punch and dismally listened to the music. Frank stood on the opposite side of the auditorium, nervous and edgy.

All the kids from their class danced to the music while the two friends stood apart, feeling awkward. Then, after some consideration, Margo determinedly walked across the dance floor towards Frank. Scared, Frank avoided Margo, trying to hide. Margo accidentally tripped on a boy and was surprised until he caught her before falling to the ground.

        “ Are you okay?” He asked.

        Startled, Margo replied, “ Yes… yes I’m fine.”

        Standing her back up, Margo recognized the popular boy, Ralph, and suddenly felt giddy and excited. Frank, standing in a corner, felt angry at the scene unfolding before him…

       Here we see the whole drama unfold as we can tell from each of their emotions what it is they are thinking. Now to sum it all up, I will be giving the conclusion to this short little story through my final example of the last factor, behavior patterns. Now behavior patterns is the expression of their beliefs or their moral code. Each character will act the way their code is wired( although it’s okay for characters to not act like themselves in certain situations, like in stress or anger.) But it’s pretty much the things the character goes back to in any given situation, bringing out their values, habits, and opinions. Here, I will be using all the methods we just learned and use them to express their inner code:

Example Paragraph:

            “ Sorry if I didn’t introduce myself before, I’m Ralph Anderson,” Ralph said, smirking.

            “ Yes I… I know who you are,” Margo said, blushing.

             “ Really? I didn’t know I was that popular.”

              Frank rolled his eyes as he listened.

             “ Anyway, what is your name, pretty lady?” Ralph smoothed his hair as Margo tried to stop fidgeting with her dress.

            “ My name is… Margo Winkley.”

            “ Well, pleasure,” Ralph replied, kissing Margo’s hand. Margo chuckled and tried not to snort. Frank felt sick and walked straight up to Ralph in a huff, and said,

             “ Well hello Ralph, what do you think you’re doing?”

            “ Oh hello Frank. I didn’t see you walk up,”

Ralph said, not taking his eyes off of Margo.

             Frank clenched his fists then took a deep breath.

             “ Well, I was just about to ask Margo for a dance.”

            “ Well, you’re a little late, ‘cause I was about to ask this lovely young lady for a dance.”

             Frank thought to himself as Margo turned away her blushing face from Frank, shifting from one foot to the other.

              What can I do to convince Margo that he’s just a cheat? I can’t just let him do that to her. Ugh, him and his perfect teeth. I just want to punch him. But fighting him won’t do me any good either. Margo would hate for me to fight..

              As Frank thought, Margo stopped fidgeting and let go of Ralph’s hand and said,

            “ Actually, I’m not too sure about this. Maybe …I should just go away.”

            “ No! Nonsense! Our night’s only begun,” Ralph explained, taking Margo’s hand. Frank slapped Ralph’s hand away and then stepped in between the two and said,

            “ Now Ralph, you leave her alone. She can make up her own mind who to dance with.”

            The two boys stared hard at each other as Margo backed away from the two, nervous, then thought to herself,

             I … I don’t want to make a scene. But it’s not everyday I get asked out by the most handsomest guy at school! But then… what about Frank? He’s been my friend for a long time, and I can’t just leave him. What if his feelings get hurt? Wait, what if he actually… likes me?

         Margo cleared her throat and said, “ I’m sorry Ralph. Maybe… maybe you can find somebody else to dance with.”

         Frank smiling, Ralph clenched his fists and frowned at Margo. Then he calming himself down, he said,

         “ Fine, if that’s the way you want it. Good bye, Frank.”

         Ralph left, feeling bitter, while Frank turned to Margo, proud, and said,

         “ So… you really want to dance with me?”

          Beaming, Margo nodded her head and said, “ Yes…if that’s what you want.”

           Smiling, Frank took her arm and said, “ You know, there’s another movie I’ve been wanting to go see. It’s called ‘ Lilacs in the Valley’. I believe it’s rated PG. It’s about a romantic couple that meets in this western like town. No blood in it, I promise. Would you want to go with me?”

        “ I’d be happy to.”

          And the two friends danced and lived happily ever after.

           There you are. In one short story, the five factors on how to express your character’s voice are explained! Of course, these are just little examples of all the possibilities you could do. Developing your character is the most important thing you should do. The more you relate to real life and study how you and your friends interact, the more your characters will reflect a more real and relatable character. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this article! Let me know what you think. Have a good week!

— Abygayle Wynderas