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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/9940
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/9940
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Your problem is that your characters aren't rounded. They don't have distinguishable voices because they aren't distinguishable people.

Do this as an exercise: Pick your favorite TV show, movie, book. Pick two or three characters from each. Interview _them._ For example:

* * *

_What's your favorite book?_

John: _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy._ Read it to tatters in Afghanistan.

Sherlock: "Favourite" would imply affection. I do not feel affection for inanimate objects. If you are asking which book I find most useful, that varies from case to case. A group of Chinese smugglers once used _London A to Z_ as a cipher key —

John: Yes, let's not revisit that case, shall we? I ended up tied to a chair with a crossbow pointed at me because they thought I was _you._

* * *

Wilson: I'm really enjoying _Game of Thrones._

House: So am I. By which I mean the show, with all the boobs, not the big doorstopper novels.

Wilson: Boobs and politics.

House: Politics and boobs. Best of both worlds.

* * *

Go through your "interview questions" or find the email surveys which go around and practice interviewing someone else's characters. It's a bit fanficcy, but it will teach you how to look at a character and answer in someone else's voice.

Then you need to figure out the _why_. Why does Sherlock not have a favorite book he returns to? What does John get out of rereading something he knows by heart? Does House find the act of reading boring or too time-consuming? Does Wilson enjoy the soap opera or the intricate politics?

Once you've taught yourself to analyze an existing distinct character, you can use those tools to make _your_ characters more rounded. When you have a character who feels like a real person, it's much easier to have that person speak in his or her own voice, _which is not yours._ Remember that your motivation and your characters' motivation are not the same.

Original score: 6