Character Voice Exercises and You

One of the most challenging aspects of writing NORA, from the perspective of a writer and a narrative designer, is the fact that we’re looking at a closed environment with thirteen different characters, including the player character and the eponymous artificial intelligence. A ship needs a crew, after all, and even in the far future, these things still can’t pilot themselves with any sort of finesse.

That means that we have twelve men and women that the player can interact with. And because we’re trying to get the player to want to interact with these people, they have to be interesting enough to talk to and care about. More than anything, we want these characters to be memorable.

To that end, we've had to develop twelve characters who each have their own wants and needs. They have their own ideas. They have different backgrounds— they’re from different places across the galaxy, and they’re from a good range of socioeconomic situations, which means they’re all going to have different opinions and ideas. They’re all going to approach problems in distinct ways.

One of the ways we’re working to express that is in their voice. Not just how the actor reads the character, but in the character’s literary voice. How all the things about them shape the way they talk and how they react to other characters and situations. So we have to make sure they all don’t sound like the same person.

This is a common problem writers have when they’re first starting to develop the unique style that sets them apart. It’s difficult enough to figure out how you sound, let alone how make-believe people that exist only in your head sound.

One of the exercises that I have found helpful is to write out a character's personal history and some of the important aspects of their personality. Are they extroverted or introverted? What are their hobbies? Are they loud? Quiet? Funny? Thoughtful? Clever? Get it on paper (or a word processor, as the case may be), so it’s all in front of you.

Next, I make a list of things I want to figure out about the character. This is subjective, but I like to include some things such as:
Cadence: How quickly or slowly does the character talk? What is their diction like?
Vocabulary: What kind of words does the character use? Do they use a lot of slang? Are they well-read? Are there any personality traits that might affect that (An arrogant person might use demeaning language or show off their larger vocabulary, for example)?
Verbal Tics: Does the character have any verbal stopgaps (Um, er, uh), and how would their mental state affect that?

I find it’s also helpful to look at a character’s temperament or their thought process and how their language informs that. You could also look at how their language might change depending on who they talk to. You don’t talk to your professors the same way you talk to your friends, after all! Try and think about what you need to know about the character and extrapolate from there.

After all this is written down, I like to do a “dry run” and think up some monologues or quick lines of dialogue to see if I can write something that sounds unique to the character. It’s kind of fun to see how I can make sure all the things I just learned apply to their dialogue now.

The best thing to do is to make at least a few of these for different characters. While you go through them, keep in mind the other voices you’ve already developed. Once you’re done, you've got a bunch of people who all sound different from each other in natural ways.

These are exercises that have helped us while working on NORA. I recommend trying it out and seeing if it works for you. Hopefully, you’ll get a sense of the effort it takes to take thirteen people, place them aboard a ship, and make sure they all actually sound like individuals.

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Annie Craton, Design Lead for NORA