If hearing voices is a form of saintliness or madness, all authors are mad saints. Creating characters means knowing them from the inside out and being able to ‘hear’ how they think and how they talk. An out-going, confident character will reflect that in his or her speech. A nervous character will sound diffident, hesitant, or perhaps more formal. The goal is to create a distinctive voice for each of the main characters. They should not all sound alike.
This is important even if you are writing in the first person. First person narratives can be in danger of sounding anonymous and samey. I’ve read a few first person teen novels which, apart from the names, you could be forgiven for assuming were all about the same heroine, a sort of generic ‘15/16 year old modern girl’. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here’s an expert at work:
You know that old film they always show on the telly at Christmas, the Wizard of Oz? I love it, especially the Wicked Witch of the West, with her cackle and her green face and all her special flying monkeys. I’d give anything to have a wicked winged monkey as an evil little pet. It could whiz through the sky, flapping its wings and sniffing the air for that awful stale instant-coffee-and-talcum powder teacher smell and then it would s-w-o-o-p straight onto Mrs Vomit Bagley and carry her away screaming.(“The Dare Game”, Jacqueline Wilson, 2000)And we know this girl. She’s exuberant, imaginative, funny, a rebel – Jacqueline Wilson’s ‘Tracy Beaker’. It looks easy, but it’s not. It would be VERY easy to write something similar but far less engaging:
There’s an old film they often show on the telly at Christmas, the Wizard of Oz. I’ve always loved it, and my favourite character is the Wicked Witch of the West. I like the way she cackles, and her green face, and all her special flying monkeys. I’ve always wished I could have a wicked winged monkey for a pet…This has lost all its energy and sounds written down, not spoken.
Then there’s the pitfall of dialects and regional accents. Here, a little goes a very long way. Unless you yourself are steeped in a dialect or accent, it’s easy to get it wrong and sound phony. Avoid “begorrah’s” and “eeh, by gum’s”; avoid too many dropped ‘h’s’ and rhyming slang. Of course, if you are really at home with an accent, it can add enormously to your writing. In this extract, an eighteenth century Yorkshire drummer boy walks out of a hill – and out of his own time:
“I wasn’t so long,” said the drummer. “But I niver found nowt. I isn’t t’first in yon spot; sithee, I found yon candle. Now I’s thruff yon angle, and it hasn’t taken so long, them bells is still dinging. It’s a moy night getting. But come on, or they’ll have the gate fast against us and we’ll not get our piggin of ale.”“Who are you?” said Keith.“I thought thou would ken that,” said the boy. “But mebbe thou isn’t t’fellow thou looks in t’dark.”“Earthfasts” William Mayne, 1966If you’re not this confident (and most of us aren’t), be sparing in your use of dialect words. The reader will be able to use a few subtle pointers to ‘fill in’ the accent from his or her own experience, and that’s better than getting it wrong. Slight changes to grammar will sometimes help. A nineteenth century servant girl might be l
The VOICE of winter is a silent one. Rain that slowly turns to icy creations...snow that blankets the earth quickly and quietly.
The VOICES we are hearing in the tiny market down in the town, and in churches and on TV are still announcing that there are present outages in our area.
Our street and all those right around us and on up the mountainside are still without power for the 8th day in a row. When we talk to strangers we find everyone has a story, and yet the VOICES are cheerful as is the custom for this time of year. We are still operating on a small generator and we have some internet service from the satillite connection. That puts us in the category of very lucky as many people are still spending their days and nights in our middle school shleter.
So here for your winter enjoyment are scenes of the season...at least up here in the Monadnock Mts. of NH.
The ice is now melted away, and we expect 10 " of snow to top of the small snowfall earlier this week.
People exist with woodstoves, fireplaces, generator, and that typical New England attitude. It seems like they can handle anything with a smile and an ability to rise to any occasion. We have only been here five winters, so we are novice to the challenges, but we are learning FAST.....
Be of good Cheer, Christmas is a few days away. Even in the dark, the light of this Holy season will shine.
Copyright 2008 by J.D. Holiday, All rights reserved.
A lot has been written about why writers write. Writers write for many reasons and some, for any reason.
They write to express who they are and to say what they know. To teach and to inspire where no inspiration has yet taken root. To share the stories they see clearly in their imagination. To entertain themselves first, then those readers who find their works, some write to purge unhappiness or injustices for themselves and others.
There will be some writers who tell you their reasons come from deep in their souls, at the very core of who they are. Jane Austen had Lady Catherine say, “I must have my share in the conversation,” as most writers want their voices heard.
Writers show readers vivid characters and pictures that keep them and us ‘safe and sometimes warm’ from our only realties.
We are lucky today where stories are brought to life by writers and illustrators and visionaries in the many different ways there are to entertain us. But first, some idea is thought and it usually starts with a writer.
So it really doesn’t matter why they write, it’s just a good thing they do!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all Storytellers and Wordsmiths everywhere!
copyright 12-7-08 by J.D. Holiday
Remember that anthology titled 'The Age of Blood & Snow' with the gorgeous cover designed by Nikki Phillips? There is a Press Release regarding its demise over at the Morrigan Books website. The anthology is to be repackaged with a different title and cover so at the moment it is still all systems go and my story, When the Cloak Falls, should be appearing in the new anthology.
I've known for about a week but had to wait for the official announcement before I blabbed. Jeez, it's been hard holding onto my water. :)
In other Morrigan news. The below books are available for pre-order:
VOICES
In every room, there is a story. In this hotel, the stories run to the wicked and macabre. Well-crafted psychological and supernatural horror offerings await you, each written by a master storyteller. Whether you are looking to be shocked, disturbed or out-right frightened, Voices will have something to titillate your nerves and make your hair stand up on end. Leave the lights on and brew a strong cup of tea, the voices in the room plan on keeping you up all night.
It includes stories by KV Taylor, Gary McMahon, Paul Kane and many others.
HOW TO MAKE MONSTERS by Gary McMahon
Since the dawn of mankind, we have always made our own monsters: the terrors of capitalism and corruption, the things between the cracks, the ghosts of self…terrible beasts of desire, debt, regret, racism…of family ties, and the things that get in the way of our aspirations…the familiar monsters of our own faces, of tradition, rejection, and the darkness that lives deep inside our own hearts…
Can you identify the component parts of your own monster?
Can you afford to pay the dreadful price of its construction?
Acclaimed Swedish author Per Olov Enquist's first foray into children's literature is Three Cave Mountain, published in hardcover earlier this year. Fascinating and dream-like, this tale for children by tells the story of Mina, who wakes up one night to find that a crocodile has bitten her on the bottom. Her tired parents don’t recognize the seriousness of the situation, but Mina’s Grandpa knows what to do. He takes Mina, her sister, and their cousins on a dangerous journey up Three Cave Mountain. What they find there will leave them changed forever. Offering a sweet and original glimpse into the mind of a perky and irrepressible child, this book will thrill younger and older readers alike. Enquist is also the author of two novels for adults: The Book About Blanche and Marie and The Royal Physician's Visit.
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Verily, Kath, thou hast strucketh ye nail firmly on ye head. Forsooth.
I remember once reading a novel in which a cave-dwelling cro-magnon uttered the line, "I haven't got a problem! He's the one with the problem!" The author would have had to work very hard after that to win me back; and she didn't.
What John said! I like having modern touches in an ancient world setting too. In Ithaka there's a slogan chalked on a tavern wall which reads POSEIDON RULES!
Well, why not?
Have you seen that wonderful Blackadder episode -
"The wise woman? The wise woman? Three things must ye know of the wise woman. First... she is a WOMAN! And second ... she is wise!"
I think the key to slang, especially when writing YA is to use it to enhance the feel and attitude of your characters but otherwise find different ways of creating genuine voices. I just finished writing a YA set in 1983/1984 punk rock California. The slang we used back then is practically archaic and also confined to a relatively small group of people, so I concentrated more on how my MC thought about situations and how she reacted rather than filling her mouth with lots of Californianisms.
Nice to have the 'hath' 'hast' stuff sorted out.
Very timely and helpful post from my point of view, Kath! I'm just wrestling with this in edits. Firebrand has 16th century characters but like your Halewyn, they transcend time. And what's more, the narrator is telling us in English (looking back quite a while, too) what he'd originally have said in Gaelic.
So while I avoided 'OK' and yelled out loud when I caught myself describing a moon like a 'floodlight', I am going to let him use the word 'thug', and I'm still swithering over 'stroppy'. (Anybody know how old that is...?) I don't mind an anachronism or two - as you say, so long as I know they're there...
Kath, you would have got away with 'exploded' in your Troll saga. Some Norsemen might have been to Iceland and see the volcanos and geysers there. Also, caught whales can explode if you don't cut them up in time.
Don't be too hard on Aragorn, though. He's in a very formal situation when giving that speech. I don't suppose our coronations here have less high-flown language.
Lollity, Nick, I'm trying to get the image of that exploding whale out of my head now...
When I was a kid I didn't notice how pompous and highfalutin' Aragorn is in the Return of the King (I must have liked pompous and highfalutin' then). It was only when I went back and read it a few years ago that it hit me between the eyes. It seems so unlike him and I wonder if Tolkein ever regretted it. It seems especially unlike delicious Viggo, hem hem.
I've read Dark Angels, Kath, and 'take me to your leader' didn't jar for me a bit! As in, I didn't go 'ooh, tut-tut, Kath', but then get to the end and think 'ah, I see: that's all right then'!
Another curious thing is that books set in Ancient Rome seem to get away with modern-sounding dialogue more than most. Robert Harris's 'Pompeii' is a case in point (all right, not strictly Rome) and his other Rome books, are a case in point. The characters use entirely modern idioms and yet it works. I wonder why this is. Perhaps it's because we think of Rome as an advanced civilisation, a forerunner of our own (just lacking in iPhones) and so 'modern' is its mood.
Mood is what it's about, ultimately. The words and phrases we associate with certain contexts. A story set in the age of Beowulf, by contrast, would probably avoid all Latin-derived words if it possibly could.
Thanks Fiona! And no, I wouldn't expect or want it to jar or to be a puzzle for the reader, but I did feel I had that freedom with this character to be playful if I felt like it. In fact his 'voice' changes dramatically at one point later in the book.
Love the exploding whale, Nick, and point taken. I did in fact think of puffballs which explode, and I may in fact have used the word once or twice - but the point is valid and in general it's a good principle.
Very interesting post, Katherine.
Nick, I think Rome gets away with a more modern idiom because it's a totally different language, so one can happily find a modern equivalent: no one is expecting you to write in Latin. With periods where they spoke an older form of English, it's easy to get caught in a slightly stilted compromise between modern and archaic forms.
Oh and Kath if you would only add the difference between "-eth" and '-est" then perhaps people who want to do "olde Englysshe" in ads etc would not make such prattes of themselves!
It is one of my pet peeves!
I have a peeve too - people who pronounce the 'Y' in 'Ye Old Tea Shoppe' as if it were the modern letter 'y', when we all know that it's actually a thorn, and that the word should be pronounced 'The'.
Charlie: I have to confess I was one of those dumbies who pronounced the "Y" in Ye. I didn't know it was a thorn. Thanks for the tip. It's amazing what you pick up around the place. I learned something new today!