Finding a voice

This is the second of my blogs, offering some thoughts about how drama can be used to improve your fiction.

Actors impersonate. And in many ways that’s just what we do when we write a story – we put on the voices of our characters, and the voices of our narrators too. I think voice is very important in fiction.

In a film or play the mimicry is partly achieved by the actor’s intonation and performance. But a significant part of it is orchestrated by the scriptwriter, who provides the actor with a character’s specific diction and speech rhythms, as well as a subtext of that character’s fears and desires.

Determining a character’s vocabulary is often a question of choosing between basic words – would she say ‘ain’t’ or ‘are not’; ‘farewell’ or ‘bye’. The playwright Tanika Gupta admits to hanging around at bus stops to pick up the latest teen talk. Why not try it? If not bus stops, listen at work, in cafes, shops or pubs. Listen for words and phrases that people use frequently – ‘quite’, ‘really’, ‘like’, ‘cool’, ‘you know’. If used subtly, these repetitions can lend an insight into how your character thinks.

The scriptwriter’s use of full stops and commas is surprisingly important too. These tell the actor when to breathe, when to pause, creating the rhythm of a particular character’s speech and thought processes. Alan Ayckbourn describes how characters’ voices can evolve through his first drafts - he uses the tactics of interviewing them while he’s in the shower and talking to them when out on a stroll. And he returns in subsequent drafts to ‘re-voice’ them.

Try interviewing your characters (not necessarily while in the shower). Performing and editing voices is a crucial part of a fiction writer’s craft. So is research, as the scriptwriter and novelist Jane Rogers attests - she gathers the cadences of her characters’ voices by reading diaries from the era in which her novels are set.

A common shortcoming in novels is when all characters, including the narrator, sound the same. But this can be solved. Imagine your reader performing the characters’ voices. Think of your main narrative voice – third or first person – as a dramatic monologue. Imagine the story as a dramatic performance. Are your voices distinct? Read them aloud – this can be a vital part of your editing process.

I think novelists can learn much from the way that dramatists script and develop characters’ voices. And it’s handy to remember that your eventual reader will not only be the performer of all the parts in your novel. They will also be your audience.

About Derek: Derek Neale is a fiction writer and dramatist, and is editor and co-author of A Creative Writing Handbook: developing dramatic technique, individual style and voice. He is Lecturer in Creative Writing at The OU. Some of his conversations with novelists, playwrights and screenwriters are available at OU podcasts.

Unfortunately Derek cannot answer individual questions, but he'll be posting further writing exercises in upcoming months.