This week: Voice and the Dialogue Edited by: Joy Jingles Bells  
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"My writing voice is a little quirkier, more singer-songwriter-y than the Top 40 stuff I cover."
Sam Tsui
“Cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can’t fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.”
William S. Burroughs
“We’re past the age of heroes and hero kings. … Most of our lives are basically mundane and dull, and it’s up to the writer to find ways to make them interesting.”
John Updike
“I think the deeper you go into questions, the deeper or more interesting the questions get. And I think that’s the job of art.”
Andre Dubus III,
Hello, I am Joy Jingles Bells , this week's drama editor. This issue is about how the voice and the dialogue are related.
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
We all know voice is important to a story, don't we! It is also important how that voice is expressed in dialogue.
So, let's look at how different people would express the same idea in their own different ways of speaking. Suppose someone hurts someone else, and means to say, "I'm sorry!" The meaning in their speech would vary according to the character, wouldn't it? A few examples of different characters for saying," I'm sorry," probably would be like this:
* Shy character: “I… I didn’t mean to make you upset. I’m really sorry.”
* Formal, educated character: “I apologize. I recognize that my actions caused you pain, and I regret that.”
* Blunt, awkward character: “Yeah, I messed up. Didn’t mean to. Sorry.”
* Manipulative character: “I’m sorry you took it that way.”
* A hip teenager: “My bad, okay? I didn’t think it would, like, actually hurt you.”
As in the examples above, matching a character’s voice with their dialogue is one of the most important elements of telling a good story. This can be so polished that a reader can immediately know who's speaking, even without the dialogue tags. So, as writers of fiction, how do we accomplish that?
To begin with we need to know our characters well and especially their core traits. These could be a character's age, education level, cultural background, life experiences, beliefs and values, and most importantly personality, as to their being shy, sarcastic, poetic , confident, anxious, etc. This is because a character's voice grows from who they are.
Then, relatedly, word choices reveal who the characters are as different people choose different vocabulary. A scientist may say, "This outcome is statistically improbable" whereas a kid would say, "“No way! That won’t ever happen!” They are both using different words and speech but meaning the same.
Also, there may be something like a musical pattern to people's speech. Some characters speak in short blunt bursts, while other use long sentences filled with qualifiers. Then, some may hesitate with "ummm" or "I mean" while others speak directly and clearly.
In addition, when dialogue is matched to emotion and personality, even silence can be part of a person's voice. This is because a character responds to the world through his voice and vocabulary. As such, a nervous character rambles on and avoids telling the truth while a confident one gets to the point immediately, and a poet might use imagery to no end.
So what do we do as writers to match our characters' voices with their vocabulary. First, we have to know the character real well. Do they overshare or hide their feelings? Are they funny without knowing it or are they funny on purpose? We must also be aware of the character's emotional filter; that is, how they see and understand the world.
We also have to keep in mind that real speech can be messy while the dialogue in a story has a much better shape. So we need to use more clarity in what a character says, without wasting story's space; however, we must pay attention to the fact that the illusion of real speech has to be there.
Consequently, each spoken line needs to be true to the character's background, personality, emotional state and worldview. When a writers can achieve this, their readers can really hear the characters' voices.
A test of voice and dialogue is:
If every character sounds the same, the voice isn’t matched. If we remove the dialogue tags, can we tell who speaks? If we can, that means the voice is strong.
May all your characters be heard through their vocabulary and voices.
Until next time! 
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 Enjoy!
| | | Playing D&D (13+)
A guy talks friends into learning to play Dungeons & Dragons to get his mind off a girl.
#2243282 by Schnujo  |
Here's an Item in the reply to the previous newsletter about fiction from memoirs
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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 This Issue's Tip: We must note that characters change, and their voice can show it. For example, a guarded person may become more open, a child’s vocabulary may grow, and a depressed person may start sounding hopeful. Usually, a dynamic voice mirrors character growth.
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Feedback for "Memoir-Inspired Dramatic Fiction"
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iKïyå§amasy-Bah-HumBurger 
Thanks so very much for featuring my short story in your excellent newsletter! 
Lovely story and you're very welcome!
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I saw Mommy kissing Dave Ryan 
Regarding "Nights In White Satin"
I came to WdC specifically to work on my memoir about the bullying I endured at school, and I have since used the experience to write a couple of short stories. I hated what I was forced to do, but strangely enough the best fictional story I wrote about the subject was from the point of view of someone who was really into it.
Thank you for the input. I'm sure such experiences will feed your writing career, very well. Even the worst things we face, we as writers learn how to use them well. As they say, if life throws you a lemon... Keep on writing!
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And then...
All the answers were great, to the question: Have you written a fictional piece that is based on your memoirs and have you taken any liberties with it? Here's what Jack of Diamonds  wrote:
Not written, not sure I could, but my oral history, especially in my youth, was... well, let's just say that I've claimed to be eyeballs-deep in things I was never near, and uninvolved in things in which I was a driving force. I think all youth ~ young men, at least ~ try to maximize their *Cool* factor when they talk about their "exploits," but that my have been my superpower. It's possible I turned to writing to exploit my penchant for the tall tale, and I'm certain that it cost me a number of friends who had functional BS detectors.
I served in Vietnam in the '60s, but never did anything heroic. I have seven medals, but they're all for time-in-theater. I passed the occasional joint around in the '70s but never touched the hard stuff. But those events, and many more, grew in the telling until my friends saw me as some strange hybrid of John Wayne and Tommy Chong. All those old friends are out of my life, some of them out of this life, and I can't track them down and apologize for yanking their chains, but in the fullness of adulthood I've learned to confine the BS to the occasional piece of written fiction, to declare it to be just that, and people seem to love it! That's good enough for me... J*Suitdiamond*
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Drama: December 03, 2025 Issue [#13470]
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