Author Voice VS Character Voice

Sometimes people write such awful, villainous characters and people ask: ‘Is the author secretly a horrible monster to be able to come up with this stuff?’ George RR Martin and Karin Slaughter come to mind on my own bookshelf.

Other times, authors try and tackle delicate, depressing, violent or otherwise disgusting topics and just end up coming across like they are in favour of it. Instead of readers being awed by the villain, they’re just disgusted with the author.

So today, I want to talk about the character’s voice, VS the author’s voice. In the hope that you can avoid this particularly treacherous pitfall.

There is, hopefully, a difference between the beliefs and ideals of your characters and yourself, as the author. If all your characters believe what you believe—including your villains—you would struggle to have any conflict and it would, overall, be a very boring story.

However, if you are trying to write a racist character, how do you do it well without coming across, as, well, racist?

I just read this line in a story:

‘They had two of the most gorgeous children you will ever meet; a blonde haired, blue eyed dream of a girl and her strikingly handsome ten-year-old brother.’

Its narrative, not dialogue. So, its information from the author to the reader. Has the author ever met ten year olds? Do they really think ‘strikingly handsome’ is applicable to a ten-year-old? I’m not sure about you, but it makes me deeply uncomfortable, as I suspect I have just read a story written by a paedophile.

Creepiness factor aside, this issue has come up before in my writing group, where material comes across as racist, sexist or otherwise offensive and the author becomes incensed, saying ‘It’s not me, it’s the character!’

However, there is a huge difference between information we are given by the author and the character’s point of view, thoughts and feelings. If you want to make a character racist, sexist or controversial in some way, you want to make damn sure you know the difference.

Let’s take the above example. How would I take the same information and make it not weirdly sexualising of a child? Easily. Take out the sexualising words.

EG: ‘They had two of the most adorable children you will ever meet; a blonde haired, blue eyed angel of a girl and her cutely freckled ten-year-old brother.’

Okay, that’s much more comfortable. But what if we wanted the reader to be uncomfortable? What if the POV character is a paedophile and we want to show that without sounding like a paedophile ourselves? We looked for a deeper POV.

EG: ‘He gripped the chain link fence, watching the children swing higher and higher in the playground. She was the most beautiful little girl he’d ever seen, with her lithe, pale legs and short pink skirt. As the swing, peaked he’d catch a glimpse of blue panties.’

I feel dirty writing that, but you get the idea. However, if I strip out the POV elements, it’s even worse:

EG: ‘She was the most beautiful little girl, with lithe, pale legs and a short pink skirt. As she swung on the swing, you could catch a glimpse of her blue panties.’

Hopefully, you see the difference. Generally speaking, deeper character POV is better anyway, as it fosters a deeper connection between the reader and the character. If you are writing a villain like this, the deeper POV will make the reader much more uncomfortable, which is the goal.

Let’s look at another example:

EG: ‘Unable to fight, the women were all in the basement, where they would be safe.’

This is sexist, because it is implying the women are in the basement because they are unable to fight. What you need to do, is show the women are in the basement because whoever is in charge believes they are unable to fight.

EG: ‘Amid protests, Captain Greggory sent the women and children to the basement, claiming they would be safe there.’

Everyone is going to make a mistake like this eventually. Even my sweetest, most tolerant friends, and my fiercest social justice friends, have tripped up and misworded something in an unflattering way. If someone says, ‘this is racist/sexist/offensive’, don’t argue and explain why it’s supposed to be. Check the attribution, assign it properly.

Remember, give someone ownership of your offensive beliefs, if you don’t, to the reader, they’re YOURS.

Characters: Character Consistency and Driving Forces

Characters, Part 12: Character Consistency and Driving Forces

Do you ever read a book or watch a movie and completely lose your shit when the brilliant, tough heroine suddenly forgets how to take care of herself when a big strong man is around? Or when your favourite cold as ice villain does something so stupid it’s not just inconsistent, it’s like she had a full frontal lobotomy between scenes? Characters need to be consistent, or readers are left feeling annoyed and betrayed.

In most cases, the cause of character inconsistency comes down to three major causes:

1. The writer disrespects the character.

Disrespect for a character often betrays blind spots in our own prejudices. EG: You are more likely to disrespect a character's agency and personality if you are more likely to disrespect a real person from the same group. If you have a low opinion of lawyers, you may be more likely to forget your lawyer characters has an MBA from Harvard and have her do something stupid. If you think bikers are all criminals, you might not think anything of the having the Harley loving, leather jacket wearing father flirt with a teenage waitress.

Because our own views and values are very difficult to change and we are often blind to them, we can be very resistant to feedback when we are told we are treating these types of characters unfairly. Admitting we are being prejudice to the character means admitting we are being prejudice to those people in real life.

This is usually the problem in all cases where a female character is being used to motivate a male character. EG: The love interest is kidnapped.

2. The writer is struggling to resolve a plot point or conflict and sacrifices character to fix it.

This is probably the most common reason for main characters inconsistencies. It's those points in the synopsis where you write 'major twist happens here' or 'somehow they escape'. Those plot elements you are struggling with when you plan, which, surprise surprise, you are still struggling with when you try and write. Because you never got around to planning them in the first place. Or, if you are a pantser, it will just be the scenes you find yourself a bit stuck on. You're looking for a solution. Any solution. And if after hours, days or even weeks of block you come up with some idea you're going to run with it. Even if it means one of the characters does something contradictory.

Don't let yourself end up in this situation. Figure out difficult plot points before you write. It will save you a lot of re-writes if you realise you have written yourself into a need to scrap a lot of the material. Also, when you are really struggling, having a writer's group or a close knit circle of writer friends can really help. Let them see your outline. Ask for their feedback and advice. Sometimes all you need is another perspective.

3. The writer is oblivious to the inconsistency, because they are so wrapped up in the character's perspective.

I've seen this problem in my writing group. We love our characters. We know their deepest darkest hopes and fears. We empathise with them so deeply, sometimes we are oblivious to their faults. As in, sometimes they can be raging, bullying assholes and we are oblivious because we are so deep in their POV that we don't notice what they are doing to other characters.

This is where you need to be objective. And listen to your critique partners without getting defensive. If they think your main character is an asshole or a bully and you are deeply wounded because you think she is PERFECT, you may be empathising too deeply. You have to reverse the situations. Imagine if your villain (or someone you hate) was doing the same thing, saying the same thing, to your best friend. If suddenly it's not so cute/cool/understandable, sorry, your main character is a jerk.

How To Avoid Character Inconsistencies:

Remember your character may change throughout the book. It helps if you know what their arc is going to be. Where they start and where they end up. What statements they believe at the beginning, that they will disagree with at the end. Know their turning points. Let them experience those turning points fully. However to fix author error:

Question yourself. Listen to your feedback crew. Go back to your character profiles and go through the book several times, asking yourself if your characters' actions clearly reflect the intentions you had for them. Sometimes characters take on a life of their own and that is okay, as long as they're consistent and it's not clear you were fighting them the whole way.

Be aware of your own prejudices, both the positive and the negative. Read your own work with an impartial eye.

Driving Forces: The Tail Wagging The Dog?

I talked about this in earlier chapters, but often people bring up the concept of 'character driven' VS 'plot driven'. Are your characters driving the plot or reacting to the events around them? I think you need both elements, but some writers will swear black and blue one method is superior to the other. The truth is everyone is right. Different genres tend to have different focuses.

Romance is often very heavily character driven. Most of the conflict is interpersonal. Thrillers and action are very plot driven, it is the events, rather than the characters, that are driving the story forward. In any story you are going to have a strike a balance between the two, but where that balance is will depend on your target audience.

Knowing what your target audience wants and expects is half the battle. Which is why it is wise to read broadly in your chosen genre, particularly looking at contemporary best sellers. Contemporary failures are fantastic learning tools too. Learning what not to do is arguably more important than learning what to do. If you didn't already have a sense of what was good, you probably wouldn't be a writer. It's more likely you are lacking experience in what's truly bad.

Conclusion of the Character Series!

And that concludes the character series. Finally. After over a year. Look, I got there in the end, people. If you have any suggestions for new series or blog posts, please let me know in the comments. I'm always happy to oblige.

You can read the characters series from the start, here:

1. Characters: An Introduction

2. Characters: Creating A Profile

3. Characters: Motivation and Conflicts

4. Characters: Designing Characters

5. Characters: Gender and Gender Roles
6. Characters: Conflict, Conflict & More Conflict
7. Characters: Motivation & Stakes 

8. Characters: Conflict Escalation and Resolution

9. Characters: Heroes - Part 1

10. Characters: Heroes – Part 2

11. Characters: Villains

12. Characters: Character Consistency

Characters: Heroes - Part Two

Character Series

Part 10: Heroes - Part 2

Finally, part two of the Heroes blog post, lets begin:

http://axl99.deviantart.com/art/Space-Mage-409550779

Relationships With Other Characters

You should use your profiles to map how different characters feel about each other too. Different dynamics between different characters are interesting. If everyone just likes or dislikes each other in the same way, characters lose their identity.

In my Lifesphere Inc series, each book is written from the perspective of a different protagonist and they all have very different feelings about each other! The first book is from Eli's POV and he is fiercely loyal to Squall, bored with Cain, threatened by Aquillis and suffers an intense dislike of Locke.

Book two is from Squall's perspective and she is also fiercely loyal to Eli--however she is also aware of his flaws and how they're holding them back as a team. Despite the fact Eli dislikes Locke, Squall and Locke are excellent friends. Likewise, Squall spends a lot of her time with Cain and enjoys his company. She's infatuated with Aquillis and not very comfortable around him.

I have to remember who's head I am in all the time. I can't let Eli's feelings for Locke show when I am writing Squall's point of view. I also can't let MY feelings for characters affect how they interact with one and other.

Failure & Empathy

A character who does everything easily and always succeeds is both unrealistic and very boring to read about. If you find yourself writing those characters, you are probably creating a kind of wish fulfilment for yourself—writing about the sort of person you wish you were, without taking reader’s interests into consideration.

Maybe you are worried your character won’t seem ‘cool’ or ‘impressive’ if he fails. When you fail, you feel ashamed or embarrassed and you imagine a reader will look on failing character with scorn. However the deciding factor in a reader feeling intense empathy or scorn for a character is not in their results, rather, their motivation for taking the action.

Let’s say we have a young boy and he attempts to steal money. He is caught and imprisoned.

How do you feel about that?

What if he was stealing the money because his mother was dying and he wanted to buy medicine. He’d never tried to steal before, but he had run out of people to ask for help. It was a desperate, last ditch effort and his failure will cost his mother her life. While he waits in the cell, he knows she is dying, alone.

How about if he stole the money because he wanted a new phone? His old phone is fine, but the dorky kid in his class got a better one for his birthday last week and he can’t stand a dork having better gear than him. Thankfully, his father will come and bail him out of the cell. He should be home by dinner.

As you can see, it’s not the actions or the failure that alters our opinion, it is the MOTIVATION. Failure can make a reader empathize a lot more, after all, we all fail at times. Its only human.

Darkest Moments

What is a darkest moment? The darkest moment is when your main character has failed, everything looks lost and it seems there is no way the book can have a happy conclusion. Emotionally, it is the lowest point of the novel. In most emotional arcs, it will happen between the middle and final third of the book, with everything afterwards focusing on the final rise to conclusion. It will also likely be your villains highest point--they believe they have won. Secondary characters may have their lowest point at other points in the story, however your protagonists lowest point should be the worst, the one the reader feels the most deeply.

How dark can you go? You should make your darkest moment as dark as you can, while still bringing the reader back with you to the conclusion. The more skill you have as a writer, the darker you can go. You want to push the reader to their emotional limits (within the context of the genre and target audience), but you also need to be able to bring them back up and have them where you want them for the final scene. If you can't bring them back up and leave them feeling satisfied, they won't put the book down eager to read your next work.

Your character's darkest moment may also be the point they make the wrong choice. They do the selfish thing and walk away from what matters. Again, how badly they fail may depend on how skilled you are at redeeming them. Though not all heroes have to turn their back and do something evil to make a darkest moment powerful.

The most important thing to remember is the darkest moment is a turning point. It's the first step in redemption.

The difference between a hero and a villain:

A hero may do the wrong thing, but he does it for the right reasons. Maybe in his darkest moment he does the wrong thing for the wrong reason—or the right thing for the wrong reason—however at the critical moment the hero makes the right decision. He grows, he sacrifices, and he is selfless.

The other difference between the hero and the villain is that the villain has more resources. If your hero is more powerful than your villain, he's not a hero. He's a bully. The hero has to be the underdog in some way.

If I steal candy from a baby it's not a great victory, I'm just an asshole.

NEXT WEEK, we look at villains and how to craft one that will have your readers squealing for more.

The previous parts of the character development blog series can be found here:

1. Characters: An Introduction

2. Characters: Creating A Profile

3. Characters: Motivation and Conflicts

4. Characters: Designing Characters

5. Characters: Gender and Gender Roles
6. Characters: Conflict, Conflict & More Conflict
7. Characters: Motivation & Stakes 

8. Characters: Conflict Escalation and Resolution

9. Characters: Heroes - Part 1