First of all, if you haven’t yet don’t forget to sign up for Santa-Fest 2011. Celebrate the spirit of giving with us for the holidays and make some new friends.
My two NaNo novels had one big thing in common this year. For the most part it’s the only noticible similarity, since one is contemporary fiction and one is urban fantasy…
The narrators are both male and both came from the same source inspiration. Over the years the original character has split into two, earning two stories, but they still share a lot of common traits. One of the more obvious ones (since it’s taken me years to convince myself they need to look different, and they almost do now), is they’re both heavy womanizers.
I was reading through some of what I wrote last month, and I came across something in one of the stories that made me pause, but only for a moment. I raised an eyebrow at my own choice of words, wondered why it had never stood out to me before, and managed to justify it in my mind and move on.
Until I came across the exact same phrase in the other novel. It’s not a long phrase. It’s real simple and straightforward. And so completely feminine and my voice that there’s no way either of these characters thought it that way.
I have each of them checking out a woman. And admiring her curves. Just like that. That subtle, indirect, and vague. Not outloud, but in their heads. Not thinking “Wow, nice rack” or anything even more direct (which both of these guys are). But “nice curves”.
And now I have to be extra on my alert when I revise and make sure these men aren’t given my much more feminine voice when they’re admiring the female form. I had to sit down the other night with Ay and say “So…Conner…he’s what? A ‘leg’ guy?”
She and I agreed on Conner, not completely on Zach. But close enough. And in order to keep them sounding authentic, I have to make sure I nail that aspect of their personalities. It’s at their core, so I don’t figure it’s something I can skim over.
How do you keep an eye on voice authenticity?
For this particular issue I tend to write a scene, force my husband to read it, and be like, “is this what you would think in this situation?” I wrote a scene in a short story once where this guy is completely infatuated with a woman and really sees her in the light for the first time and…. the Husband’s comment was, “What? You have him notice the fabric of her *dress*?!?!?”
Blush.
Otherwise I’m not really sure how I do voice, lame as that sounds, but people keep telling me my characters have it, so I’m sort of trying to quantify what I do without messing with it. It’s harder than it sounds.
some guy might say “nice curves.” it just depends. I think it’s more unique than “nice legs” or “nice rack” or “nice ass.” I also don’t know if being a womanizer also means the man has to objectify the female form.