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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47076
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'd like to add to Thing-um-a-jig's answer.

The written "voice" of a character has at least three components.

1. The character's **lexicon**. This is the unique way a person/character uses words. This is what Thing-um-a-jig is talking about.

2. The character's **sound**. This is narrative description that gives the reader an idea of what the character's voice sounds like. Is it gravelly? musical? flat? hoarse? or any of a thousand other words. Thanos might sound "booming," but it also is (to me, anyway) a baritone sound with rich depth, like it was spoken in a Cathedral.

3. The character's **basic mood**. This is separate from the immediate emotion of the scene. Is your character naturally angry? happy? cheerful? sardonic? Thanos has remarkable self-confidence, combined with an odd amount of compassion. He believes what he's doing is right, but understands the pain it causes. While many fans might disagree, I suggest his basic mood is _humble._ Like the character's **sound** , this is something you need to provide in narrative description. However, to give you an idea of the difference, the **basic mood** could be thought of as something that affects others. In other words, a character may sound like they constantly inhale helium, but their basic mood may make you nervous. Very, very nervous. In the case of Thanos, I would feel a sense of awe standing in his presence, but unless I'm challenging him, I would feel at ease, almost at peace (even while getting zapped by his cohorts, who never seem to be on the half-who-need-to-die list).

Unfortunately, writing a character is quite a bit more complex than this. Those three are the basics, but they are consistently modified scene-to-scene to accommodate how the character reacts to different stimulus. If I recall correctly, George Lucas had entire folders describing the principle characters in _Star Wars,_ and the script/story had to be written according to the descriptions (aka "rules") found therein. In short, he wrote books to produce the foundation for writing the book he actually wanted to write.

Developing a complete character voice is an important part of writing fiction. Doing it well takes practice, like any other skill. But in your case, let's start with the basics: lexicon, sound, and basic mood.

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