How to give your character a distinctive voice?

One of the of the greatest ailments plaguing mediocre fiction happens when, no matter what they are saying, all the characters sound the same. Whether your characters are young or old, rich or poor, haughty or insecure, each line of dialogue should reflect exactly where there they are coming from.  In fact, really great stories make it possible to pluck any paragraph of dialogue out of a book and instantly recognize who is speaking.

It's an amazing feat when a writer achieves this, and here are some tips on how to do it.

What is dialogue?

It is the dialogue between Luther
and Brainiac that makes this scene
from Action Comics 872

Dialogue is one of the most crucial elements in a story: great dialogue can make a story soar. Bad (or even mediocre) dialogue can sink it faster than Clark Kent can change into Superman. In order to approach the subject intelligently, let's first define a meaning for dialogue we can all agree upon.

Dialogue is essentially two things:

1) What the character says (the conveying of facts or opinions).

2) How they say it (the conveying of how the character feels about what they say).

Many scripts get the first part right, but fail miserably at the last part.

Determine Tone and Attitude

What is your character's general and specific attitude in the scene? Are they cool and collected or wildly reactive? Do they view the world (and therefore the scene) from an analytical stance or are they more intuitive on how they deal with things?  Do they see the positive in everything or are they primarily pessimistic? Do they act respectfully towards others or do they tend to belittle everyone?  Whatever their attitude, it should come through effortlessly in the dialogue (even if it's not effortless to write!).

Also, attitude colors the "tone" of the conversation. You can tell a lot about a character just by how they convey that it is raining when looking out of the window:

"Hey, it started raining" (neutral)

"It's raining. How lovely." (positively inclined)

"Dammit, it started raining!" (negatively inclined)

"Well hell! I wasted all my time talking to you instead of enjoying the sun and now it's raining." (belittling)

"It's raining. Well, I guess you and I are going to have to find a way to entertain each other indoors." (sexual innuendo)

What happens in the real world and how it affects the character are two very different things. Examining the character's present attitude allows us to relate to the reader how the character feels by giving him a corresponding tone.

Rorschach's worldview gives him
an intense, personal dialogue style. 

When Wolverine is attacked by 12 ninjas, he relishes the fight and feels fairly confident that he can "snikkt" them all to pieces. His tone will probably be very different than if you and I were attacked by 12 ninjas. (All apologies. I shouldn't make any assumptions about your ninja fighting skills, but mine are most definitely lacking.)

Worldview and Personal Background

Our family's class, our geographic area of birth, our education and our personal experiences - everything that has ever happened to us - all create a "filter" through which we see the world.  Not only does this filter color how we view events that happen around us and how we respond to them, it also affects how speak.

Compared to a cowboy, a scientist will have a profoundly different vocabulary (and world outlook). Someone who lives in a small town will have a fairly different worldview and style of talking than someone who has lived their entire life in the "big city."

The difference between all of these people's speech patterns could be

informal	vs	formal
light, humorous	vs	serious, grave and decorous
personal and subjective	vs	objective and impersonal
casual and offhanded	vs	impassioned
loose and rambunctious	vs	reasoned and reasonable
zany and experimental	vs	controlled and reserved
plainspoken and simple	vs	ornate and elaborate

Vocabulary

Thor, in all his incarnations, maintains a vocabulary unique to his status and background.
From Thor, God of Thunder #7

There are a number of factors that can influence a character's vocabulary, among them personal background and upbringing, geographic location, and their overall personality.

Closely related to how their personal background affects the style of your character's speech is how this background affects what words they choose and how they use them. A highly educated, alpha-type aristocrat will most likely have a different vocabulary (and way of using it) from a boozing, spoiled millionaire who got his money through inheritance. Good dialogue will reveal the difference between these two characters without bludgeoning us.  It goes without saying that both of these characters will (most likely) talk radically differently than someone with a very different background, like someone who grew up on the streets.

Geographic location - either past or present - may also influence the vocabulary a character uses.  For example, you may wish your character to speak with the slang he or she grew up with. Maybe you want to accent the fact that they are from a particular city or region, and therefore want to flavor their speech with some dialect and slang.  (Do this sparingly - just a hint of flavor is enough.) On the converse side, you may have a character who is well-traveled and has lived in many different states or countries.  These will often have a more neutral accent/vocabulary. Somebody who studied psychology may very well use different words than someone who studied engineering. Etc.

The third area that can definitively influence vocabulary is a character's sensibilities - what kind of personality they have and how they express it. Some will choose to use euphemisms in place of bold cuss words, while others will be cussing every other line or word. Some will use common workhorse words in place of elegant words, and others will do just the opposite.  Whichever you choose, make sure that 1) you choose the vocabulary that precisely matches your character, and 2) you remain consistent throughout.

Sentence Structure

Sentence Energy

Believe it or not, the sentence structure of your dialogue is a key component in giving your character a distinct voice.  For example, some people speak in run-on sentences (they don't let you get a word in), while others speak in measured and thoughtful ways, their words coming slower, full of pauses. Yet others have an inferiority complex and think asking questions is safer than stating opinions. In each of these cases, the energy of each character determines the sentence structure.

This scene between Doom and Hulk is made comical by accentuating
the difference in intelligence as the two superbeings do battle

Sentence Style

Every person also comes with their very own sentence style:

• One person speaks informally with lots of contractions, the other avoids them as the pest.
• Some use the definite article the for every noun while others never do.
• Characters can use long, involved complex sentences or not.
• Some use irony or sarcasm, others use a question-and-answer format.
• Some people repeat a lot words or phrases.
• Some smarter ones favor simile or metaphor.
• Verbose characters might choose lush descriptions over sparse ones, while a military commander might do the exact opposite.
• Fairytale-type characters might go as far as using alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhyme, assonance and other typically poetic techniques.

I'm sure you get the picture.

Favorite Words and Catch Phrases

Do yourself a favor and give each character a favorite word or phrase they like to use. This can be something that typifies the character or serves as a running gag. Just make sure that the word/phrase is intimately related to the character. Be economical with how you use it, however. You don't want to desensitize the reader to it, but rather bring it back when the reader has almost forgotten it.

Some of the most famous character catch phrases that you could instantly attribute to your favorite character are:

D'Oh
Heeeere's...Johnny!
Yada, yada, yada
It's gonna be legen — wait for it — dary.

From New Avengers #27.

How to Put All of This Together

I tend to build a spreadsheet that asks key questions about every character. Amongst the many fields, I fill out fields that help me determine the background of a character. This sounds laborious, but it is an excellent method to deepen your character and get a better feel for who they are. You don't have to fill out every field for every minor character, but if you are stuck and only vaguely "feel" the character, going through a list of questions can help you determine who they are.