How someone speaks is often as important to their character development as what they say. In real life, people's words rarely offer the full picture – their tone, their undertone, the subtle variations in their attitude, it's all vital for our understanding of what someone is trying to convey (or hide).
The manner in which you describe someone's voice can also help identify them in the plot. Perhaps your character stumbles down the dark alley, blind, wounded, and they hear a voice behind them ... a voice we've heard before.
Exploring ways to describe voice
At its most simple, you can describe a voice with a simple adjective: commanding, excited, irreverent, lovely. But ... is that telling or showing?
Now, it's not wrong to describe a speaker's voice as commanding or lovely. Indeed, it's fast, it gets the point across, and most people will have an idea of what you mean. But, it lacks information that could otherwise help the reader understand the nature of a person, their history, their recent activities. For example, if our commanding person has just been in battle, are they out of breath? Wheezing? Coughing? That could tell us more about their experience with the battle (hard-fought, or easy-peasy) without us needing to tell the reader anything.
Let's look at some visual words that could add more information:
Booming
Breathy
Firm
Growling, snarling
Hoarse
Husky
Illegible, mumbled
Low, high-pitched, soprano, baritone, bassy
Monotonous, monotone, flat
Musical
Nasal
Raucous
Sarcastic
Shrill
Smokey
Soft
Squeaky
Staccato
Strangled
Wheezy
Whispering
As you develop your scenes with dialogue, look for ways to combine typical adjectives with visual information to build a better picture for your reader. Think not just about someone's tone or attitude, but the physical sound of their voice – and how it has been affected by the context of the plot (i.e. battle, being stealthy, smoking constantly, feeling sad).
You might also consider adding key elements of someone's voice to their bio, if it's relevant to their character.
* * *
Need help? Ask in the comments! And drop a Vote if you appreciate the book.
For more advice, follow me here on Wattpad. Or check out my own writing at @DuncanPPacey.
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