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Q&A Is the strategy described here an effective one, to distinguish character voice?

Honestly, I don't think so. A characters voice is as much how they act, perceive things and present themselves as the words/accent they have. I feel that it would soon become trite, repetitive and...

posted 7y ago by Thomo‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T07:20:53Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/31457
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Thomo‭ · 2019-12-08T07:20:53Z (almost 5 years ago)
Honestly, I don't think so. A characters voice is as much how they act, perceive things and present themselves as the words/accent they have.

I feel that it would soon become trite, repetitive and more than a little annoying if every character was like this. It may work for one or two, but everyone just seems a bit much.

The way that people talk, the words they use, the sound etc. is as much a product of their surrounds/society as the individual. It's how we recognize that someone is from somewhere else - they sound different.

Sure, there are variations within that, but by and large people from a certain area/region/society will speak the same way. Follow similar sentence structures, use similar words etc.

As a reader, I know that the voice I give the character is built on how their personality shows through in the writing. Use this - their actions, experiences and personality, to give them a unique voice.

On a practical side, how often does it come up that you need to differentiate between 30 different people without dialogue tags or some other identifier?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-11-14T01:37:25Z (about 7 years ago)
Original score: 8