Voice Consistency

Corussa said:

One thing I'd suggest, as it helps me, is listening to specific songs that you associate with your character and her outlook on life.

Click to expand...

I do this too, it's a great tool.

"Voice" is (IMO) one of the most elusive things to pin down, but in the end I think a lot of it comes down to how well you know your characters and their world. I started my current MS with a clear idea of my narrator's voice, and it didn't change *significantly* throughout the story. BUT, I'm also a pantser which meant that I learned more about her as I wrote... and in edit I did have to go back and do some tweaking to the early chapters to bring the voice into line with how it had evolved. For instance, my narrator definitely has a sarcastic streak, but it toned down a bit as the story went on and I felt I needed to trim a couple of spots early on where it was more intense than it needed to be.

kkbe said:

But sometimes, you're so close to your stuff that you don't see what may need fixing. That's why posting on SYW might be helpful

Click to expand...

It certainly helped me.

blacbird said:

Write your story. If it has legs, it will have voice. This is about the most meaningless thing you can worry about.

caw

Click to expand...

Excellent mimic of the mega-sassy voice! OP, do this!

Leema said:

So I've just started a new piece and I love my narrator's mega-sassy voice.

I'm just worried about keeping it up for 60k more words...

Any tips?

Click to expand...

Yeah.

Stop worrying about it and write your story. Let the story carry the voice, and don't force things. Too many writers worry too much about "voice" and not enough about "story".

caw

blacbird said:

Yeah.

Stop worrying about it and write your story. Let the story carry the voice, and don't force things. Too many writers worry too much about "voice" and not enough about "story".

caw

Click to expand...

What he said.

Great advice so far. The only thing I might add is that when you read something you've already written in order to find the right voice again, maybe it should be the same page each time. This way you will know for sure what you are shooting for every time you start to wander.

I agree with what Once! and Sage said. I'm not an expert, but when I feel like I'm losing a character's voice, I go back to a scene where I felt like the character was most in character (or I was the most out of the way--however you want to look at it), and reread that scene to try to get back in the groove. I often end up identifying one quintessential scene for each character that I go back to again and again to check for consistency.

Personally I think tone shifts are the hardest part about keeping the voice consistent. Because it needs to be in character without always being the same. Like if you have a super bubbly character but then terrible things happen that force her out of that natural bubbly mode. I find I really have to discover all the layers to my character. Maybe it would be interesting to think about when your character *wouldn't* be sassy. What would push her out of that mode? And what would make her really dial up the sassiness?

ETA: In case it wasn't clear, I'm not just referring to dialogue, but also to narration that's done in the character's voice.

For me a theme-song works every time. Like a charm. Each of my two main MC's has one and putting this song on one-loop always sinks me deep into these characters. And then I won't have to worry about voice, because I will be speaking from this one's true heart.