The Who What Now?
When I first started writing years and years ago, I never liked how my non-protagonist characters sounded in my head. I realize that may sound rather odd if you read it out loud. But if you’re like me, then you have the conversation in your head while writing it. The problem I had in the early writing was that both characters in any conversation sounded like me. That meant the conversations weren’t interesting if it’s the same person. One of the ways that I got around that was by eventually using some techniques that I’ll include below.
Of all the techniques which I’m about to mention, some of them I don’t use, but most I do. The first thing that would come to your mind would be how they look – at least it is with most people. One thing to keep in mind, of course, is that this applies to major characters. You certainly don’t have to go into this much depth when you are developing a character who will be gone in half a page.VisualizationMany of the pieces of software that are available for writing does include some form of character information. In part of that information, you’ll find an image placeholder that can store a picture of the character. So here’s what I recommend:
- Picture the person in your mind, then
- Google images of men or women with attributes you are looking for (i.e., an old woman wearing a hat), and
- Pick out one image that reminds you the most of the character and save it to your computer.
Now whenever you are writing about that character, use that picture in your mind.
Someone You Know
When you are creating a character that has some substance, its simplest in your mind to picture someone you know. You can change the traits of the character you know to fit what you need it to be. But how they talk and move and express themselves, you can use. For many of the wild west stories I write, I picture many of the people with who I’ve ridden horses.
Traits
Next, you’ll want to make a note of all the traits you want this person to have, spiritually, mentally, and physically. Do they have a limp? Are they smart but hate people? Are they careful in what they say not to offend anyone? Are they confident or shy? Do they have an accent? Do they use their hands when they talk? Do they plot behind your back? In one book, I had a character be a brilliant coroner, but he always had an edge to him. The love of his life had rejected him years earlier when she met a newcomer to the town they lived. The newcomer and the woman married. The woman died in an accident caused by the newcomer. So the coroner felt cheated out of life and didn’t visibly hide that side of his personality whenever he came in contact with the newcomer. When you put the traits together, it's only to form a complete picture in your mind of the character. Once you have that, then the next section should be easier.
Now Speaking
The last thing is learning how to speak as that one person with those traits. If you watch enough television or listen to audio books, one thing you should pick up on is something very key that voice actors do. When they are a protagonist, more often than not, they use their voice. They don’t distort it. Seth MacFarlane voices the character Brian in The Family Guy. That is his normal voice. H. Jon Benjamin uses his voice without distortion as the character Sterling Archer in Archer and Bob in Bob’s Burgers. So here use that same technique. For your protagonists or antagonist, depending on what you are writing, use your voice in your head when you are writing conversations. By doing that, morphing into the other character when you are having a conversation becomes easier. All it takes is practice.
If you are writing down a conversation between two people who aren’t the protagonist and antagonist, then the only things to keep in mind are the gender of the person and the job they are doing. Having a female or male waiter talk to people at the table is different depending on who is sitting at the table.
I Realize That
I do realize that this article may take something that seems very difficult and makes it seem simple. But trust me on that, it is simple after you practice. Just keep writing and the more you do things like this article outlines, the easier it gets in the future.