Me? Alive? After all this time?

Okay, to be fair, it's only been four months. BUT in Wattpad years, that's like... 485 centuries. I'm practically Edward Cullen. Fear me. I am a brooding vampire with red eyes. I'm also hot.

Anyways, in all seriousness, it's been a while -- but my goal is to get to 101 chapters in this! So here I go!

Ah, yes. Character voice. I've gotten many questions about it.

So...

Welcome to

For people who have watched The Voice, there's generally four sections in it!

- The Blind Auditions

- The Battles

- The Knock Outs/Play Offs

- The Final Performances

And I think this is a pretty good structure to follow when discussing finding and polishing your character voice!

Starting with the auditions.

Picture this:

You've picked your song. It's your absolute favourite. You've walked onto the stage. You're ready to sing your heart out.

You can smell the sweat in the room. You can see the audience staring intently at you. You can feel your own body shaking.

This is it. This is the moment. Your rise to stardom.

You open your mouth.

And out comes the song.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle All The Way--

The judges don't turn. The audience starts booing.

And no, it's not because you sang a Christmas Carol in the middle of September.

But because you didn't prepare!

Which brings me to my first point:

I've talked about it millions of times already (or maybe only a thousand, I am prone to exaggerating). But seriously. Reading is the most important thing you can do as a writer.

But it's not just reading and enjoying -- you have to analyse.

Look at the authors you love and see what they do. What devices do they use that makes their character voices so distinct and engaging? And when you read books you don't like, what about those voices makes you turn away? You have to see what you like and don't like, but you also need to actively try to learn from them.

The Voice is a pretty cool concept, because the judges cannot see you. All they hear is your voice.

Similarly, when someone is reading your book, they usually don't know a thing about you aside from your name, where you're from, and maybe whatever you decide to throw in your acknowledgements about having a supportive family/friend/dog/imaginary goldfish.

You need to draw them in with your voice. Sure, your characters and plot may be great, but without a good voice to tell them? It's easy to switch off.

But it's not just about having a technically accurate voice. Perfect pitch is great, but it's not all you need -- what you need is to stand out. It's reality television, after all!

How does that translate into writing?

- We're talking using similes and metaphors and personification in ways that no one has heard before. Something different. Something that you can say that you've come up with.

- At the end of the day, your characters are like people. Each has their own unique backstory, and you need to really sell that. What makes your character different to the trillions and trillions of characters that already exist?

Going against stereotypes here is amazing. Your character is a musician? What if they secretly want to be a construction worker? Your character enjoys eating socks? What if they also happen to be scared of shoes? Surprise us. Obviously not to the extent of your character literally... eating socks, but still! Give us something that makes the reader intrigued.

It's really sad that, in a chapter dedicated to The Voice, I haven't referenced like a single song aside from Jingle Bells. Oh Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, what am I to do?

Anyways, the battles are when two singers go head to head and sing the same song in the show. The two singers are literally singing the same song at the same time, and all that matters are the finer details. In literature, it's no different.

I've already posted a chapter about dialogue, so I won't harp on much more about it, but dialogue is one of those things that need to be done so carefully. You want your character to feel real, authentic, but also... they are fictional. How do you do that? Practice, listening, role-playing, and more.

Another thing that you can consider: sentence structure.

Think of the way your character would write their sentences. Would they be patient, with flowery, poetic writing? Were they brought in a very militaristic setting, where they are used to sharp, snappy sentences? I've seen a character that only used one or two syllable words on purpose, and we've all seen Yoda speak. As Yoda always says: Rollin, they see me... Hatin, they be.

But yes! Be technical. It's not just what they say, but how you say it.

I'm sure you're a wonderful person. I'm sure your own voice as a human being is great!

But put a can on it. That's not what we're here for.

Actually, that's a lie. Because, let's be honest, no matter what we write, a huge piece of ourselves will always be in the writing. Even if we are writing from the perspective of a baguette, and all the baguette says is 'pain pain pain pain pain', there's still a huge part of you in the writing. Nothing will change that.

But you need to make sure your voice is

Sure, when people read your books, they should be able to know and guess it's your writing. Why? Because it has you in it. Your anecdotes, your certain structure when it comes to descriptions, your wit and whatever you specialise in.

But if the voices sound exactly the same between your different books, and your voice is so strong that it makes all your characters sound the same... yikes, that could be a problem. Because we don't just want to read about the same character experiencing different worlds but with a different name and backstory. We want different characters with distinct voices -- all that have that piece of you -- but are essentially different to one another.

So here are things you need to think of:

- What is your characters' world view? How do they see politics, the environment, their setting? And how is it different to how you would see it?

- What are the differences between the way you and your protagonist behave? If you two were in a room together, what would that conversation look like?

- When you daydream, chances are, you're daydreaming about your character and your story. But what are they daydreaming about? And please don't say your character is daydreaming about you because that's all sorts of weird when they know they're being written by some writing god and--

- I saw Mummy kissing Santa Claus on Christmas. What did your protagonist see? What would they do to Santa Claus?

This is it. The moment. The biggest piece of advice I'm ever going to give you about this topic.

Are you ready?

It will shock you [not clickbait]!!!! It will blow your mind [not clickbait]!!!!!!!!!!!

The...

Most...

Important...

Thing...

To...

Do...

Whew, I'm getting nervous thinking about it.

Okay, stay strong. We can do it.

It is:

Yep. Are you shocked?

At the end of the day, the best way to develop your voice and make it distinct is to practise. Trial. Polish. See what works, see what feels comfortable, see what fits your vision.

And that's all I have to say! It's really good to be back, and being able to help everyone again.

Next time, we will be discussing especially in the context of Wattpad! It should be fun.

Hope you all are doing wonderful!