The distinct way a specific character speaks and thinks, shaped by their background, personality, and emotional state.
Character voice is the unique linguistic fingerprint of a fictional person - their word choices, sentence rhythms, slang, verbal tics, and the thoughts they leave unsaid. It goes beyond just dialogue; in a first-person or close-third narrative, character voice colors the entire narration. A retired marine and a nineteen-year-old art student would describe the same sunset in completely different ways, and that difference is character voice at work. When done well, readers should be able to identify who's speaking even without dialogue tags.
Distinct character voices are one of the fastest ways to make a cast feel real and memorable. If all your characters sound like slightly different versions of you, readers will struggle to tell them apart and the story will feel flat. Strong voice work also does double duty - it reveals personality, education, class, and emotional state without you having to spell any of that out.
Janie's voice shifts between lyrical internal narration and dialect-rich dialogue, reflecting her dual existence between inner dreams and outer community.
Alex's invented Nadsat slang creates one of the most distinctive character voices in fiction, immediately immersing readers in his worldview.
Piranesi's earnest, wonder-filled journal voice tells the reader everything about his character before the plot reveals anything.
Voice should permeate everything - the metaphors a character reaches for, the details they notice, the rhythm of their thoughts. A mechanic thinks in mechanical metaphors. A dancer notices how people move.
Use a light touch with phonetic spelling. A few well-chosen regional words or speech patterns suggest dialect more effectively than mangled spelling throughout.
Write the same two-paragraph scene - a person waiting for test results at a doctor's office - from two different characters' perspectives. One is a nervous teenager, the other a retired surgeon. Don't name their backgrounds directly. Let their voice alone reveal who they are through word choice, thought patterns, and what details they notice in the waiting room.