Character "voices"?

[Ireth]

I'm talking about the style of third-person-limited narration here, not dialogue. I've heard it said that viewpoint characters, especially in a novel with multiple POV characters, should have narrative voices that are distinct, especially from one another. I didn't have much of a problem with it in my first novel, which only has one POV character from beginning to end. My second novel has three POV characters which cover the two plot threads in the book -- the heroine's plight and the heroes' journey to find her. Though the third POV, that of the second of the two heroes, is only in there for one important scene while the first hero is asleep.

My third novel, however, has four POV characters, all of which I plan to give roughly equal pagetime. All four of the characters are in the same place at the same time, embarking on the same quest, so the multiple viewpoints are mainly there to offer a difference in perspective rather than switching back and forth between separated parties. (Though I may decide to separate them at some point after all.) For context's sake, the four characters are as follows, in order of their first sections of narrative: Ariel, a seventeen-year-old human girl; Vincent, Ariel's 39-year-old father; Lóegaire, a ~1000-year-old Daoine Sidhe of Faerie; and Dom, Vincent's 43-year-old brother.

In looking over the story now, I can't see too much distinction between the four narrative voices, except for a few instances of Lóegaire misunderstanding some modern technological terms ('my-crow-wave' instead of microwave, for example). Is this a bad thing, and what can/should I do about it? I can post snippets of each POV here for people to read, if it would help. Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[Kelise]

Does anything differ in their upbringing, or their parents?

Could one be better spoken than another, and another more casual?

Could one have a more positive way of phrasing what they say, and another more negative? Such as 'that will never happen' vs 'it would be good if that happened, however...'


ETA: I think I'm speaking more of dialogue here. I'm not sure how you mean to distinct otherwise, I guess.

 

[Ireth]

Well, with regard to his upbringing, Lóegaire is the most different from the others: born of presumably-Irish Fae parents and raised in Faerie sometime in the medieval era, whereas the three humans are twenty-first-century British-born and raised. As far as dialogue goes, Lóegaire speaks more formally than the humans, what with having a great deal of interaction with the royal court of the Unseelie King, Madoc Morfryn -- but as the first line of my original post states, this isn't really about dialogue, except the internal sort.

 

[The Din]

Internal dialogue (the italic kind) is the easiest way to differentiate between 'voices'. Concerning regular prose, I use quite close third person, so its pretty easy to show. Ie, An approaching soldier can be: 'the scary man', 'the metal bastard', 'the posturing dolt', rather than simply the soldier. POV means we're seeing everything through that character's perspective, so I try and skew every description depending on character's personal experiences. It helps if you jump in the POV's skin while writing his/her section.

You shouldn't haven't have any trouble differentiating between a 1000 year old and a 17 year old doing this.

 

[ThinkerX]

Ok...teenage girl vs older parent - from my own experiences. (your 17 year old girl vs 43 year old man or 39 year old man)

She paints her finger and toenails - something I found baffling then and now (she's a few months shy of 21).

She finds certain vehicles 'ugly' based on no criteria I can comprehend. 'Daddy, it looks like a foot!' 'Daughter, its a classic - a trans-am.'

In high school, she would get up an hour earlier to primp herself up properly. My day, it was a pell-mell dash from bed to breakfast to the door.

Romantic comedies vs thrillers - nuff said.

To her a cell phone is an essential, to me its barely comprehensible.

I worry about if it is practical / durable; her criteria is whether or not its 'cute'. (We both believe in bargain hunting,though.)

Also, younger people more active and more endurance overall; us older types...we feel the pain the youngsters miss.


Don't know if that helps or not.

 

[Saigonnus]

A person raised in a medieval setting wouldn't necessarily stumble over words like microwave or cellular phone if they have lived the whole time from then to now... watching as society changes and humans evolve. You'd think if they had interaction between humans in all that time, they'd pick up the new words here and there, even if they are of average intelligence.

I don't really know how to differenciate the different narratives to mark them as a certain person's point of view beyond using their quirks and traits to dictate how they respond to the stimuli you are giving them. Also you could consider within that context of what types of things they'd notice first, walking into a room. Maybe a mechanic notices the faint aroma of gasoline in the air walking in, and the nascar posters on the wall, while his geeky friend instantly notices the computer set up on the desk littered with mountain dew cans... I don't know as this helps, but it's what I consider when writing.

 

[Penpilot]

The distinction between character voices can be subtle especially in third person. Don't forget the writer's voice, your voice, shades things too. So before you decide to do anything drastic be sure there's actually a problem. If you go too far in the opposite direction, an overbearing character voice can distract from the story or worse. If a reader dislikes a specific character voice, they may dislike the book.

 

[Ireth]

The Din: Thanks, that's quite helpful. I do a lot of text-based roleplaying, but it can sometimes be hard to really get into my characters' skins, even ones I've played most often for the longest amount of time (why hello, Hawk family).

ThinkerX: Thanks for your input as well. Story-wise, my characters have lots of other things to think about besides their appearances, cellphones, movies, etc.; the first one especially, as all four POV characters go through the bulk of the story (about three weeks) in the same outfits, having been snatched out of Vincent and Ariel's house with no warning at all. Soon after, they are forced to go on a journey through a realm that is close to 100% forest, with adequate food and supplies, but only the clothes on their backs (acquiring more that would fit them would take more time than those overseeing the journey would like to spend). Ariel is therefore stuck in pajamas and a bathrobe for the whole three weeks.

Penpilot: That's a very good point. I'll keep thinking about this (but hopefully not over-thinking it) and make sure I'm not just being paranoid or something. Thanks!

 

[ThinkerX]

ThinkerX: Thanks for your input as well. Story-wise, my characters have lots of other things to think about besides their appearances, cellphones, movies, etc.; the first one especially, as all four POV characters go through the bulk of the story (about three weeks) in the same outfits, having been snatched out of Vincent and Ariel's house with no warning at all. Soon after, they are forced to go on a journey through a realm that is close to 100% forest, with adequate food and supplies, but only the clothes on their backs (acquiring more that would fit them would take more time than those overseeing the journey would like to spend). Ariel is therefore stuck in pajamas and a bathrobe for the whole three weeks.

::tries to envision daughter spending three weeks wearing the same clothes - fails::

But, even so, I can see the teenage girl declaring something or someone 'cute' that both of the older men would view as suspicion. I can also see her actively looking for clothes, commenting on the wardrobes of those around her, ect, given any sort of opportunity.

Now the men...they might not care so much about wearing the same clothes for three weeks straight. But it'd drive a teenage girl batty.

 

[Kelise]

I'd like to add that not all teenage girls think everything is cute nor are concerned with clothes (or even notice them) however.

 

[gavintonks]

a voice develops from the personality and by thinking like the character, I make a list of emotional ques the character would embody and then choose words that embody those emotions, this I find helps create a distinctive voice. I also find highlighting the emotion the reader must feel also separates the voices or lends them uniqueness

 

[Amanita]

I can't give you any advice specific to your story because I don't know your settings and characters well enough. A few general things though: Different characters react differently to situations. Imagine a male character who likes to look at pretty women and a heterosexual female character meet an attractive woman. He'd probaby notice the features that make her attractive to him, which may or may not cloud his judgement. The female character won't be attracted to her. Either these features won't matter to her at all and she might notice other things about the new character or she might feel jealous and inadequate compared to this other woman. Maybe she's actually feeling resentful because she likes the male character too and realises that he's looking at this other woman. There are many more ways to react to this situation of course, but I think you know what I mean.
Your characters will have different up-bringings, different experiences and different interests. That's why they're going to notice different things about their surroundings and other people, feel differently about the things that happen to them and react in different ways to the situations at hand. The same situation might look very different from the point of view of different people. Just a simple example: A stray dog is running towards to people, one of them has grown up around dogs and trainemd them all her life, the other never had a dog of her own but has been bitten by one in the past. It's obvious that the situation will look very different to those two.

To use this to your advantage, you have to know your characters well. I've made small biographies for all my important characters which was quite surprising to other people I've told about that. For me, this is much more useful than filling out character charts or anything of that sort because it makes me see how different aspects in their lives are connected to each other. It's no use to know what the character's greatest dream is, if it's no clear why. Some people might call this wasted time better spend on writing though. To each their own.

If your writing one quest from multiply points of view but all of them sound similar, you can consider switchting to a single point of view as well though. If the characters' world-views aren't different enough to cause interesting tension, this might be the more effective option but only you know your story well enough to decide that.

 

[Cassia]

Agreed! I'm ten years old, that younger than 17 but probably closer to it than any of you all. I have some friends who act like that but i don't really care. I would MUCH rather go on an adventure than be the cutest girl at school...just saying

 

[ScipioSmith]

A character who is more romantically (in the romantic poet sense rather than the love sense) might use more metaphors and similes in chapters from their POV, while description from a shallower character will focus more on pure physical appearance. Try to think about little things like that and how they might effect the narrative.