Voice
Now that I’m almost 40% through the first draft of Chapter One, I’ve introduced several characters representing each of the major factions. Aside from the obvious differences in clothing and appearance, the biggest challenge in depicting these characters has been giving each of them a unique voice. This is more than attempting to account for regional accents. Rather, it’s using the character’s dialogue to reveal their social class, their level of education, and to some extent their life’s experiences. Creating the unique voice for each character is challenging enough. Being consistent is tougher still. Maintaining the proper cadence in the sentence structure while not distracting the reader is perhaps the most challenging aspect of all.
As I reviewed some of my favorite authors, I noticed that they would rarely attempt to write in a particular accent. Rather, their character descriptions were so effective that the reader provided the accent without the disruption of having to decipher it from the text. That is something I hope to achieve in Child of War.
It amazes me to learn that the art of writing a novel is more than the art of storytelling. It’s more than just putting words on a piece of paper. Rather, the novelist must sculpt those words into a sentence structure that imparts mood, feeling, and emotion. A major advantage the screenwriter has over the novelist is the knowledge that a musical score will accompany the action on the screen. That musical score can evoke a wide range of emotions without any action or dialogue on the screen. We all remember how the musical score presaged a tragic event in Jaws. We remember the anticipation in Star Wars whenever we heard Darth Vader’s theme in the background. The music set the mode and it heightened our senses in anticipation of some major action.
When writing a novel, the author must set those same emotions but without the advantages of a musical score. Rather, the author must rely on cadence, on word sequence, on sentence structure. For example, it’s a fairly common technique for an author to lull the reader with long flowery sentences. Then they suddenly change. The sentences are short. They are abrupt. The reader reads faster. Anticipation builds. Then BAM. The author provides the climax to the scene and, thanks to the buildup, the reader is in the right emotional state for it. It’s a powerful technique, but very difficult to perfect.
This is what I am working on as I slowly develop the first draft. The character’s voice is most important. Without a good handle on voice, not only would the reader be unsatisfied, but it would actually be a moot point. The novel would never be published in the first place. What I have not worked on to any great extent is the mood structure. That will come in the second draft. For now, the intent is to get the primary action set and let the characters and plot develop naturally. Adding the musical score – the cadence and sentence structure that will elicit the proper emotions – will come later. It’s no wonder that the better authors take a year or more to release a novel. There’s a lot more going into the book than meets the eye.
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