Voice consistency and character growth

Voice has many levels. The tone and emotion behind the words may change - as should the words - but the foundation, the phrasing should be a constant.

M.Austin said:

When you start off a novel, you have your main character and his/her voice. There are usually going to be some type of character flaws that help shape the character's voice. For example someone who easily trusts people sounds completely different than someone who is overly cautious.

As the character grows and over comes the flaws, is it expected for the voice to change? Or is it expected for the voice to stay consistent?

I was reading Nathan's blog and came across consistency as one of the great qualities of voice. So if your character starts off with multiple flaws, his voice reflects it. If he gradually begins to change all of these flaws, naturally his voice and attitude would as well.

Thoughts/opinions?

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Voice should generally say the same, even if his attitude changes. Unless his entire environment changes.

M.Austin said:

I was reading Nathan's blog and came across consistency as one of the great qualities of voice.

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Now, Nathan Bransford's essay is about the 'author's voice' rather than 'character voice'.

What it is -- we got two kinds of 'voices' we talk about.

First off, there is the way the author writes. This lets you pick up a Hemingway or an Austen of a Faulker and know right off that that's what you have in your hand.

This is the voice Bransford says should be consistent. The author should sound like himself everywhere in the book and from one book to another. And, if possible, his writing should be distincitive so readers come back looking for it.


The second kind of 'voice' -- the one you are talking about -- is the character voice.

Johnny doesn't talk the way Grandpa does or the way Mr Hernandez in the corner grocery does or the way his teacher at school does. Each of them has a character 'voice'.

M.Austin said:

When you start off a novel, you have your main character and his/her voice. There are usually going to be some type of character flaws that help shape the character's voice. For example someone who easily trusts people sounds completely different than someone who is overly cautious.

As the character grows and over comes the flaws, is it expected for the voice to change? Or is it expected for the voice to stay consistent?

Click to expand...

You are perfectly correct in saying that the character's knowledge and attitude and experience will affect how he thinks. This will be reflected in his internals. It's a fine and subtle point you make.

But while the internals are written in 'character voice', thinking differently is not so much going to change that character voice.

When we talk about 'character voice', we are mostly talking about how the character sounds in dialog.
How somebody 'sounds' when he talks is going to arise from
where he comes from,
his social class,
his intelligence,
his education,
whether he's a smooth-talking extravert or a shy stumbling introvert,
if he has a wry sense of humor or is he all seriousness,
does he use long rambling sentences or crisp short ones,
is he quick and impulsive or slow-thinking and calm . . .

All this 'character voice' doesn't change because the character has become more older and wiser.

M.Austin said:

For example someone who easily trusts people sounds completely different than someone who is overly cautious.

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I don't actually agree with this. But I suppose I could be convinced of it.

Now I could see a character acting different or saying different dialog or thinking differently. But that's not so much 'voice'.

M.Austin said:

When you start off a novel, you have your main character and his/her voice. There are usually going to be some type of character flaws that help shape the character's voice. For example someone who easily trusts people sounds completely different than someone who is overly cautious.

As the character grows and over comes the flaws, is it expected for the voice to change? Or is it expected for the voice to stay consistent?

I was reading Nathan's blog and came across consistency as one of the great qualities of voice. So if your character starts off with multiple flaws, his voice reflects it. If he gradually begins to change all of these flaws, naturally his voice and attitude would as well.

Thoughts/opinions?

Click to expand...

Voice belongs to the writer, not the character.

I'm not good enough at character voice to have the narrative change noticeably just because the character learns something (assuming this would even be a good thing--which I'm not sure it would be). My narrative changes a little bit from book to book depending on what styles I want to use, but generally stays the same from character to character within the project.

If you're talking about dialogue, the things a character says will change as they change, but speech patterns are pretty set.

I see a character's voice as being composed of all of the past history and past experiences of the character, their place in society, often their class and ethnic background -- these are the things that don't change, or don't change quickly.

You can look at a novel like "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" -- that's a voice that changes with age and the scope of the character's understanding. The same, maybe, for "Flowers for Algernon," though that's a diary rather than a traditional first-person narrative. Both of those represent huge changes in a character.

Or "Will Grayson Will Grayson" -- David Levithan really nails the voice of someone who is deeply, clinically depressed. If the depressed Will Grayson* were to come out of his depression, would his voice change, or just the things his voice says?

To be honest I'm not completely sure myself.


*The book concerns two characters who are both named Will Grayson and who meet by chance in a porn store. Yes, really! And it's a great book.

My MC's voice varies with his mood. He has...bipolar tendencies.

I don't think the voice will change, but how they view the world will. What they say in their voice will change, if that makes sense.

One caveat here...

If the change is to something that strongly affects voice, like they're sarcastic and have worked to overcome being sarcastic to everyone, then you might see a change in how they express themselves. But I'd guess that their internalization would still be sarcastic, as that's them, even if they did learn to keep their mouths shut.

Again, Nathan isn't talking about character voice, and it isn't character voice that makes novels sell. It the writer's voice he means must be consistent, and it's the writer's voice where problems lie.

Every writer must have the character be true to himself, but this has nothing to do with "voice."