There are many things to consider when writing a story. Plot, characters, and story structure are but a few vital things one must think about when coming up with all of that. But unlike the first time I said this statement, there are other details one must call attention to.

Character voices are very important to me—very important. I focus on them so much in my writing that I pride myself on them as much as I do in my ability to write descriptions. As such, I've grown more capable of "detecting" them in other people's writing almost all the time.

But what do I mean by character "voices"? If you've read my Pokéfic Heart of Steel or any other of my newer works, then you probably know what I'm referring to.

If not, I'll explain.

Imagine having a character who spoke very formally and properly with a character who slung slang around like it were nobody's business together. You'd be able to see the contrast between their "voices" immediately.

Here's an example from HoS. The conversation presented here is taking place between Steven Stone (the MC) and a major supporting character. Pay attention to how they speak. The passage I have chosen even brings up a similar topic like the one I'm talking about right now.

Does it make more sense now? Character voices work a lot like character representation or keeping that person "in-character" while writing a story.

This approach can also apply to your OCs as well. In fact, creating a unique (or at least somewhat different) way of speaking for them is something I encourage greatly! It makes your characters even more your own if that makes any sense.

Now to the real problem. OCs are one thing, but canon characters are a whole other Ultra Beast. If you haven't already guessed, 90% of people don't do this. And if you did guess, you're right. Mostly. I'm not gonna knock you for not adhering to every canon character's speech pattern verbatim—that would be ridiculous. But I will take issue if it's a character who has a very specific way of speaking.

I think it's appropriate that I bring up HoS and in turn to Steven Stone here because he's actually the main character of a certain story that inspired me to talk about this.

Like HoS, this story was about Steven's own Pokémon journey and his rise to the Champion position. The problem? Besides the many other mistakes I won't mention, the one that bothered me the most was how Steven spoke. It's not that the author didn't try to replicate how he speaks. No, they tried, but they failed miserably.

   All the writer did was take otherwise normal dialogue for a 14-15 year-old and remove the contractions from words, so you'd get sentences like "Hey guys! I am here and I am going to do this okay?" It was atrocious!

I know you might be thinking "Well, teens already don't talk in either of those ways," and you're not...completely correct. Like with all habits, you begin them at an early age. And even if you wanted to go all James Gatz/Jay Gatsby and make yourself sophisticated later in life, it'd still be uncommon to assume that Steven would have spontaneously wanted to speak that way, especially considering who his father is. It makes sense that he most likely would have grown up speaking like how he does in the games.

Another Pokémon character that tends to have his "voice" screwed up is N. The thing about him is that he tends to weave scientific terms and comparisons of things to formulas into his dialogue. I've only ever read one story featuring him that does this. It's admittedly one of those minor things that can be overlooked, but if you're a huge nerd of Gen 5 like I am or a fan of N in general, its absence is something you might pick up on.

Another thing that I've never seen mentioned is that N is a fast talker. Like Sanic-Rollin'-'Round-at-the-Speed-of-Sound fast. The only time this is noticeable is in the games. No matter how fast or slow your text speed is set to, N's dialogue will always scroll faster. The point is that this is a key part of his speech that isn't acknowledged.

Like with time-period-relevant things and correct medical facts, research a canon character as much as you can before featuring them in a story...Unless you're willing to do a logical retcon of a character's backstory to justify their behavior or new "voice." And it just makes things more interesting! I love reading dialogue that I can tell who it came from without having the names be coupled with dialogue tags.

   If you want to try this for yourself, then here are some simple but effective ways to differentiate your characters' ways of speaking.

1) Have them speak with no slang
You could say that this means that they speak "properly," but to me, speaking "properly" is how I wrote Steven's dialogue in the earlier example.

2) Have them speak properly
Now that fancy dialogue comes into play. It definitely takes a bit of work to not only write that sort of "voice" but to also keep it consistent. However, the payoff is quite nice for those looking for a decent challenge in intriguing dialogue. (See what I did there?)

3) Slang it up!
Make it a point that the character prefers to say "gonna," "yeah," "ya," etc. over "going," "yes," "you," etc. But don't go overboard with it. Like I said, the character should prefer to speak this way (unless their background says otherwise) because continuously throwing out slang might get a little annoying!

I hope this article has helped you in some way. And if it doesn't, then I hope it at least made you aware of this issue that affects so many stories.

Thank you for reading!

Article written by ImberLapis  Author of 2017 PWA winner, Heart of Steel and PWL Judge (4/29/18)

Edited by kristenay , Cora-chan , &  NaivEevee