Writing 101: How to Find & Write Your Character’s Voice

Writing a strong and consistent character voice is one of the best ways to make your story stand out. A unique voice tailored to your character makes them feel real and more memorable to readers.

But voice is tricky to get right. Too little attention to this important aspect of storytelling results in all the author’s stories sounding the same because they’re written in their voice. And the characters fade into the background. A well-written voice, on the other hand, reflects personality, background, worldview, and emotional state, among other things. Together, they combine to create an individual voice that fits them perfectly.

Angela and I know how hard it is to nail the character’s voice, so we’ve curated quite a few posts at Writers Helping Writers on this topic. Rather than rehash what’s already been shared so well, I thought I’d gather some of those resources here, for easy reference. Hopefully these strategies will help you uncover your character’s voice and write it in such a way that readers will be hearing it long after the story is finished.

Character Voice vs. Author Voice

It’s easy when you’re writing a story to tell it in your own authorial voice. But the voice should reflect whoever’s narrating the story, showing their view of the world. Understanding the key differences between character voice and authorial voice will help you stay in your character’s mindset. This is especially important when you’re writing in a close point of view.

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Interview Your Character

To know how your character sounds, you have to know who they are. Interviewing a character—asking them detailed, open-ended questions—can reveal their emotional patterns, values, beliefs, and opinions. These insights reveal the lens through which they experience the world, and once you get a feel for that, their voice is easier to write.

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Know How They Talk

This is what comes to mind when we think of a character’s voice—their word choice, speed and cadence, patterns,and tone. How their speech sounds is a result of where they’ve lived, their education, and (again) their personality. More than just accents or slang, it’s about capturing the nuance of how they talk. Giving each character a clearly defined way of speaking makes them uniquely individual and provides readers with clues to who they are.

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Use Body Language to Show Voice

When it comes to voice, we typically think of speech and how the person talks. But that’s just part of the picture. Body language is a pivotal piece of how the character expresses themselves, and it’s dictated by their personality, emotional range, and comfort level with others. When you can show their body language, tendencies you’ve provided another piece of the voice puzzle.

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Understand Their Internal World

Your narrator’s inner dialogue—what they think and how they think it—will be played out on the pages as they tell the story. This key part of their voice will reveal their emotional makeup, self-talk, coping habits, worldview, and problem-solving behaviors. It also provides insight into how they process the people and challenges they’ll encounter.

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Your narrator’s voice should be revealing, providing clues to their backstory and character. Once you determine their speech patterns, how they move, their most formative experiences, and what’s important to them…the voice tends to write itself. At that point, it’s just a matter of writing it consistently to make the character believable and interesting to readers.

For more help writing character voice and understanding other key aspects of storytelling, visit our Other Story Elements page.

Other Posts in This Series

Dialogue Mechanics
Effective Dialogue Techniques
Semi-Colons and Other Tricky Punctuation Marks
Show-Don’t-Tell, Part 1
Show-Don’t-Tell, Part 2
Infodumps
Point of View Basics
Choosing the Right Details
Avoiding Purple Prose
Character Arc in a Nutshell

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Source: https://writershelpingwriters.net/2025/09/writing-101-how-to-find-write-your-characters-voice/