Differentiate Characters with Voice and Style

This post is going back to our original purpose of helping authors write effective fiction. I want to concentrate on the technique of making characters different and distinguishable from each other. This includes using effective voice and style in our writing. I’ll cover the subjects of voice and style here.

A writer’s use of voice is the way an author can control the cadence needed in effective dialogue. That’s how a story can be progressed smoothly.  The character’s word choices and methods of speaking make each person unique and easily identified. This lets us keep our use of tags to a minimum.  How tags can become a distraction was explained in a recent post.

An author’s style of writing is difficult to isolate since each writer’s style is unique to him or her. A basic definition of style is the way a person writes with short or long sentences, concise paragraphs or wordy prose. The character can have multiple viewpoints or just one view. Punctuation, grammar and viewpoint should be particular to each main character.

Here are some examples of using characters’ voices to identify them.  “Two Cents Worth” is a short story from an upcoming book of short stories I’m writing.  A quirky character named Diller is easily identified whenever he speaks.  He uses idioms, clichés and buzz phrases. 

While speaking to the main character in the story, Diller says: “Thanks, old friend. It’s been good knowing you.”

During another exchange, Diller says after he kills a man: “Well, that’s that. Thanks, old friend.”

In another story from the upcoming book, a character named Billy uses a buzz phrase repeatedly during the story “Deliberate Impulse.” Billy is questioned by a medical examiner while the corpse of a murdered woman is being examined in a police morgue.

“We’ve concluded something about the size of the killer. Care to give me your opinion, Billy?”

Billy’s response is: “Sure, sure, sure.”

During a response to a question from a local detective, Billy says: “Okay, okay, okay. I’d like to see this case end with a murder charge before I have to leave for home….”

While asking about a cell phone call the detective receives, Billy asks: “What is it? What, what?”

Billy’s distinctive language and voice make him easily identified whenever he has dialogue.     

Some people start sentences with “well,” or “okay.” Other characters will use the word “right” often. Use these speech patterns to help make your characters well defined.

Effective dialogue is very important to make your stories interesting with a smooth story line.  Use voice and style to give your characters unique identities.

Thanks for visiting this blog. A new post will be available in about a week. See my web page at www.joevlatino.com.