Descriptions of Characters' Voices

[Twook00]

Today I am doing some analysis on how to describe characters' voices, specifically during dialogue exchanges. I'm doing this partly out of curiosity, but also to expand my own descriptions of voice since it's something I use frequently during dialogue.

An example of this would be:

"I do not like green eggs and ham," boomed Sam in a voice like thunder. "I do not like them, Sam I am!"

For my first search, I went through the first 7 chapters and prologue of "The Eye of the World" (about 100 pages) and found the following uses of the word "voice."

a raised voice
His voice was iced iron
a scratchy voice
a voice pitched low
an aggrieved voice
a low voice
a bluff voice
her voice was tart
in a deep voice that sounded in some way larger than that of an ordinary man
His voice was still deep, but the resonance had gone, replaced by scorn
a too-calm voice
his voice once more seemed to reverberate in a great hall
his voice was almost a chant
a softer voice
wishing his voice were steadier
in a strong, angry voice
sadness filled his voice
in a voice like a bullfrog
a small voice
in a smoke-hoarse voice
her voice emotionless and firm
his voice broke
doubt in his voice
the calm of her voice–not gentle, exactly; more firmly in command

Many of these were repeated (such as "raised voice"), but I was somewhat surprised by the diversity here.

Anyone else find this kind of thing interesting?

 

[Caged Maiden]

I do find it interesting.

For me, I describe voices on occasion, not overly much. Here are some of my examples, when I really want to get across something more than "said":

“My apologies.” His accent, well concealed normally, revealed itself. “I’ll remember to knock the door next time.” Yvette actually found it endearing, the throaty beginning of remember and the way he pronounced the as de.

“Fourteen,” his opponent said, thick accent sliding through crooked, yellowed teeth.

In a gravelly voice, he said, “Not my first choice, but private enough for our purposes.”

She recognized Bastiano’s low baritone, but not the other voice. It wasn’t Marcello’s gravelly rumble or Vioni’s robust intonation.

“What’s happened to your manners, Thorne?” Her raspy voice cut the sweet music like a dull knife put to warm bread.

So there's a few I used. I like to try to cut adverbs, but sometimes they creep in because I'm not perfect. Said gravely, for example. I'm not sure how to fix that one. Something like "said excitedly" turns into " she said, excitement creeping into her voice..." but sometimes I use adverbs if it's important to setting the scene.

This thread is really interesting . We've had several threads about using "said" or other words like "shouted", "proclaimed" and "ejaculated", but never to my recollection, about the tone of the voice itself.

 

[Feo Takahari]

For normal human characters, I tend to hit just one adjective, like "husky" or "quavering." I go for something longer when I really want to establish that something sounds unusual, e.g. "a voice like wind through a canyon."

Edit: I found one I'm proud of:

Price knew this voice. It was the one she used when she spoke to herself in her head. But it echoed as if it was at the other end of a long tunnel, and there was a cold sorrow to it that she’d never heard before.

 

[Aidan of the tavern]

I find voices very interesting, and how we perceive them, both in writing and real life. Maybe you'll find this interesting/useful:

Wordnik: voice-descriptions

 

[Twook00]

And then compared to Stephen King's "The Stand..."

she cried, and the distraught tone of her voice cause Baby Lavon to burst into fresh tears
something so sure in his voice
Her voice seemed to come to her from down a very long canyon.
tuned Hap's voice down to a meaningless drone
his voice high with excitement
a sudden strong voice
a subdued voice
the watery weakness in his voice
Her voice began to remind him of the prospective agents he heard over the telephone.
Wayne's voice suddenly dropped into an amazingly good parody of Larry's own drawling voice
her voice was so natural and so mildly-rightly-pleased
his voice slightly hoarse with emotion
deepening his voice to Bill Withers level and smiling
His voice switched from topic to topic, mellow and soothing
his voice was metallic and clipped, devoid of all human quality. It might have been a voice coming from one of those video games, like the one that said "Try again, Space Cadet" when you f'd up your last go.

 

[skip.knox]

Very nice lists, just to see how this gets handled. I am guessing most of this is how these authors expunge adverbs from their "said" catalog. It often happens that the words the character speaks in themselves don't communicate the mood or tone sufficiently, so we have to go outside the quotation marks to add something. Sometimes that can be an action, but often it winds up being some modulation of voice.

 

[Ophiucha]

I like knowing what a character sounds like, in general. We always get about a hundred descriptions of what they look like, so why not? Gets another one of the senses into the writing. I think it can be a little like adding a bulky adverb when used too often; there is little difference between "he said gruffly" and "he said in a gruff voice". But mix and match, use the 'with a _ voice' thing to add some character or history (an ex-smoker might have a more gravely voice). I like it, overall, but it does get used often as a way of avoiding the said alternatives/adverbs without really avoiding the problem they caused in the first place.

 

[SM-Dreamer]

I think it can be useful to help describe voice; like Ophiucha said, we hear how a character looks but why not how they sound? We do recognize people by their voices as well as their appearance, and our voices do convey emotion, so I think it's valuable to use.