ysabetwordsmith | Authorial Voice vs. Character Voice

I was intrigued by this exploration of authorial voice vs. character voice. These are two different yet related aspects of writing.

Authorial voice is what characterizes a particular person's writing overall. Frex, mine tends to use rich description and wide vocabulary, unless I have a reason not to do that in a certain story. Other writers excel at different things -- some are known for writing stories heavy in dialog, for instance.

Character voice is what distinguishes an individual person in a story. A young character will have simpler speech and knowledge than an older character. Prejudices and expectations also color word choices. A character's interests or expertise will affect what they notice, and thus, what they talk about or describe and how they do that.

Between the two are regional clusters of varying sizes. If you look at all the stuff I write in my main fantasy setting of Hallelaine, or my dark fantasy setting of Penumbra, or

ellenmillion's shared world setting of Torn World, then you can see how each of those has an overall flavor. Penumbra, for instance, has very stark writing almost devoid of description -- a departure from my usual mode. Then if you look closer, characters from the same area sound somewhat alike. In Torn World, there's a certain worldview and vocabulary shared by the Northerners contrasted with that shared by the Southerners. So my Northerners sound more like each other than like the Southerners, and vice versa; but together they are Torn World folks who have things in common with each other, as contrasted with my characters from some other world.

Authorial range varies too. I have an exceptionally wide range when it comes to writing about different people and places, in different voices and tones. Some of my characters are almost nothing like each other or myself. There are writers with wider ranges -- such as Harlan Ellison -- but not a lot. Most people specialize more. Some writers also have a unique voice that, while it manifests differently in their diverse settings, can be recognized as theirs even beyond the usual authorial choice issues. An icon of this phenomenon is Joss Whedon. Compare what his characters say in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly vs. what Joss says in interviews. He has an incredibly strong vocal stamp whose underlying patterns manifest in wildly different details across his different settings.

What have you noticed about these things?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm a character- and dialog-oriented writer, absolutely. On one hand I am so to the point where I sometimes worry about providing enough plot, but on the other, I'm pleased at the consistent feedback that my character voices are strong and feel "right" to the reader.

It depends on what kind of plots you like to use. If you favor character-development plots, then dialog-heavy writing is terrific. For action plots, you need plenty of description in short sentences.

Probably my favorite kind of story is where an individual character and a distinctive setting interact to create a plot that couldn't happen anywhere else. Those are tricky because you need enough description for the character and setting to be realized in the reader's mind, balanced against enough action to make the story exciting.

In my recent Torn World writing, I've done a lot of heavy-duty character development. Some of that is done with internal musings and descriptions of body language or social interactions. But some of it runs through intense dialog -- there are long sections of "Cutting Time" that are basically arguments between two or more people. Original scene notes for some of that were talking heads, so I actually went in later as the story developed and added a bit more description to improve the grounding. Torn World is also rich in "slice of life" stories that help us lay down a really solid foundation of the setting and characters. However, I also have some pieces in mind for Fala's story arc that will be more action-oriented, kind of wilderness-adventure stories. I have a story about Eshra, "On the Rocks," that plays out her close relationship with snow-unicorns contrasted against her very chopping social skills with humans. There the material-world actions build up a sense of risk, and the internal aspects reveal how Eshra feels about what is happening. You get to see how her emotions influence her actions, and vice versa.

When I go to write a story, I think about what tools I'll need for this particular one. I have a sense of its structure and where the balance falls. Some are mainly about feelings or personal epiphanies. Some are about external challenges. A story can have a fast or slow or varied pacing cadence. Thinking about what kind of story I want to tell ("How does Fala go from being a clingy girl to an independent woman?" is a story of emotional progression) will give me clues about how to tell it ("The plot should consist of events that change Fala's awareness of her feelings and her shifting role in the world.") so that I can choose the right tools for the job.

Part of my issue is that since I'm not visually oriented, I struggle when I have to describe physical action. It's not that I can't, but it's much more effort than finding character voices and motivations and emotional process, so when the story needs action I have to make a more conscious point of putting it there. At that point I recruit people to choreograph the scene for me so I can actually see it as I write it. It seems to work, because people speak well of how clearly they can visualize the scenes as written - but I can't, after enough time has gone by for me to forget and I'm just re-reading.

One possibility.. if you can't visualize, you might try posing yourself, to feel the sort of movements you're looking for. In other words, while you've gotten others to choreograph in front of you, why not be one of the actors now and then, so you can understand (for example) a character's inner flow as they move through the action, and can then describe that for the reader?

I also suspect that as you learn the choreography, you'll get in better touch with your body and visualization skills.

That's quite a handicap for a writer. It sounds like you've found a serviceable solution, though.

Authorial Voice vs. Character Voice

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