Voices in my Head
1. How distinctive is your character's voice? How did you develop it?
I’m going to answer this survey for several characters at once. I try to give each of them a distinct voice in print that is as unique to me as their characterization in my mind. To come up with a voice or tone that they use when posting to character journals or answering prompts from their own point of view, I take a few things into consideration:
Time period they are from, their age, their regional location, education and personality. All of these things, and other, smaller details can shape how a character speaks.
2. Does your character have a regional accent? How do depict this in text?
I’d venture to say that they all have regional accents; I certainly have a very thick southern accent myself. However, I don’t type out my own posts or comments to emphasize this…it’d be incomprehensible. With my characters, I will rely mostly on regional slang and turns of phrase to add a hint of an accent.
The one noticeable difference is Laine Anderson (MacEibhir). When she’s speaking, her grammar tends to be mangled in part affectation and part learned usage as a regional/cultural identity. She also drops consonants from the end of some words and will mispronounce things at times.
For example:
“Well now, darlin’ I ain’t got the slightest Goddamned idea what you’re tryin’ to accomplish with this bull-honky survey business, but I do know you’re goin’ to get my boot up your ass if you keep askin’ me these stupid questions.”
There are times when she mangles language worse than others. Usually, she’ll do it intentionally if she knows it irritates the person she’s speaking to, or if she’s overly upset. It’s not a sign that she’s lacking intelligence; the woman is very smart, she simply has more interest in being understood by the people around her than she does in sounding like a woman who holds an MBA and making others feel dumb.
3. Any affectations of speech? How did he/she develop them?
Phillipa “Pippa” Kerr is another character of mine who has very definite speech patterns that lean to the far more reserved and proper side of things. Her speech, along with her mannerisms, come together to give people a sense that she’s a very proper and graceful person. She is just that in many ways, but she is also quite adept at disguising her less than genteel traits.
It’s not so much an affectation as it is a result of her education and background but Pippa does use speech as a tool, a way to force herself to think and filter her feelings before uttering a single word. Having to pick and choose what she says and how she says it keeps her from over sharing and letting people get too close.
4. Does your character tend to speak quietly, or loudly? Sharply, or melodically? In a monotone, or with dramatic flair?
Pippa speaks softly unless the circumstances she is in calls for her to raise her voice. When she worked as a waitress, she would modulate her voice accordingly to be heard over the crowds, but she never sounded harsh when doing so.
Laine can be loud and rowdy when she’s with a group of people. Her tone very sharp when she’s angry or even just annoyed, but since she works with animals, she is quite capable of toning it down to a soft, melodic hum. She uses her voice to get results, and it shows in the way she addresses people.
Marcus, being eighteen and a bit of an glory hog, tends to speak loudly, dramatically and nonsensically if it means he’ll capture and hold a person’s attention for any amount of time.
Abby is short, curt, sarcastic and at times loud.
Waverly laughs a lot and is rarely serious.
5. Are there circumstances in which your character has difficulty speaking? Any speech impediments?
No speech impediments, but Pippa can become almost rigid with her speech as she gets angry or overwhelmed. The tighter a grip she has on her emotions, the more formal her words are.
6. Are there certain circumstances / or certain people to whom your character speaks that make that character's voice change?
Of course. Everyone has moments where tender words and a soft tone are used. They also have moments where heated anger and hot passion take control and the volume is turned way up. Loved ones are generally the people capable of bringing out either of these extremes in most of my characters. Rarely will any of them allow a stranger to ruffle their feathers to the point of getting a severe reaction out of them.
7. What emotional circumstances make your character's voice change, and how does it change during those circumstances?
Laine’s voice will catch when she’s overcome with grief, Pippa tends to go silent and Abby will up the amount of foul language she uses.
8. How did your character's parentage / ethnicity/ childhood affect his/her speech patterns?
Marcus will, at times, sprinkle his speech with bits of Gaelige. It’s his father’s native tongue and a second language (of three) that he does speak, so it’s natural at home to slip the words into conversation. He addresses his loved ones with endearments and titles in Irish, for example, even if everything else he says is in English. He does not, however, have an accent unless he’s intentionally mimicking his elders. He will do this for effect at times.
Laine uses a lot of colorful expressions she’s picked up from her father. She also has her mother’s manners pressed into her so there is a lot of ‘ma’am’ and ‘sir/mister’ sprinkling her vocabulary.
Pippa’s wealthy, formal background is definitely an influence on why and how she learned to speak the way that she does.
9.Did he/she overcome, or change the speaking habits he/she had earlier in life?
When he was very young, Marcus lost his mother in a car accident. Traumatic on many fronts, he developed the habit of expressing himself via his dog, Loopy. “Loopy wants this for dinner” or “Loopy feels sad about that.” Eventually, he grew out of this but there are times when he’ll fall back on the habit, typically when he’s alone with his father and either going for the cutesy “I know I’m a pain but you love me anyway” vibe or he’s genuinely missing his mother.
10. Does your character's manner of speaking display education or the lack thereof? Formality, or informality? What traits show when he/she is speaking?
I think I’ve already answered this in the above.