𝖶𝗋𝗂𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖳𝗂𝗉𝗌 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝖫𝗈𝗌𝖾𝗋𝗌

𝖢𝗁𝖺𝗋𝖺𝖼𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝖵𝗈𝗂𝖼𝖾

After seeing some advice on unique character voice, I feel like I have an interesting perspective. People talk a lot about the prose level word choice/syntax of it, but I feel that that's very narrow. advice sometimes. Writing isn't all about about sentence structure and prose, neither is character voice.

✎ 𝖢𝗁𝖺𝗋𝖺𝖼𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝖵𝗈𝗂𝖼𝖾 𝗂𝗌 𝖢𝗁𝖺𝗋𝖺𝖼𝗍𝖾𝗋
This may seem obvious. But I think people forget that a character voice is a two-way extension of character.
Typically when voice is mentioned, people ask: what's their background? How intelligent are they? Are they from the south? Very basic character question. What people forget is that it goes the opposite way too. Pretty much any aspect of a character can be put into a voice. Are they snarky? Judgmental? Smug?Jaded? Have too many knives? Have them make snarky/judge-y etc. comments. Like any facet of character the key is pick important, meaningful details and show it.
BUT WAIT! HOW WILL THAT MAKE THEM SOUND DIFFERENCE FROM-- well, firstly, are they different? Do you have 7 snarky characters? If no, that aspect of the character is unique, them saying snarky/judge-y things is unique. it sounds unique! If yes, then the issue isn't your voice, it's the characters.
Instead of looking for arbitrary things and adding things to a character based on how you THINK they should sound, incorporate what you already know and love about them into it. Instead of listing their favourite food/ alma mater/ that one turn of phrase, it has more of an impact to incorporate core, important aspects of character into voice. A character you want to show is hurt, or has to be in control, is more important than maybe that they know the word protectorate.
Remember: Unique word choices and turns of phrases won't matter if they don't communicate a character aspect that is worthwhile.

✎ ✎ 𝖵𝗈𝗂𝖼𝖾 𝗂𝗌 𝖠𝖻𝗈𝗎𝗍 𝖢𝗈𝗆𝗆𝗎𝗇𝗂𝖼𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇
Strange as it may seem, people don't actually talk to hear themselves do it or to deliver relevant plot points in real life. They talk to communicate. When it comes to voice, this means the way people talk is effected by what they wish to communicate. People say things like "Make your character speak differently to different people" but that's at the mechanistic level and I feel like taking a step back.
The reason people speak differently to different people is usually because they are trying to communicate something differently, or just communicate differently, to those people. When you talk to your best friend informally it's because you're trying to communicate closeness, or you're not trying to communicate formality. If you have a character who is sophisticated how they talk to their bff still depends on the character and what they want. Do they want to be taken seriously no matter what? Then maybe they use formal speech, even with the bff, but drop context, letting familiarity fill in the blanks. If they don't care about being taken seriously maybe they say things like "His technique was absolute shit, the flagrant disregard for the form of the sport was bad enough but this motherfucker couldn't even execute the appropriate maneuver?" It's a rant. It's a complaint. There's still lots of sophistication.
Character voice is influenced most by how people want to sound. Even if a character isn't good at coming across how they want, what they do want (character motivation! general wants for a scene, how they want to be seen) influences their actions, including how they talk.

✎ 𝖣𝖾𝗅𝗂𝗏𝖾𝗋𝗒 𝗂𝗌 𝖢𝗋𝗎𝖼𝗂𝖺𝗅
Looking at adaptions or seeing the same play more than once it's clear that different actors do things differently, and that means the character sounds different, feels different. Let's look just at dialogue for a second and ignore character voice through POV and word choice.

"Fuck you," she said, too quiet, fighting back tears.
"Fuck you." She gritted her teeth

The structure of these sentences are pretty similar and the dialogue is exactly the same, but someone who whispers a swear because they're hurt and someone who swears because they're angry sound different. I mean this is basic character stuff like I said before, But it effects the tone. You can also vary the word choice of a sentiment to reflect delivery. "Who are you?" for instance is a heavy handed form of delivery, but could work for an over the top character in a way "who are you?" just doesn't Emphasis and delivery effect voice in writing like they do in acting.
Look at all those A and B pre-made scripts that people with THE SAME DIALOGUE turn into different characters who sound different, even with the same dialogue.

𝖼𝗋: starting-today-you-are-a-writer