Hearing Voices

If anyone asks me what the most important part of a novel is, I almost always reply that it's voice. Granted, for most people it's a somewhat amorphous concept, that elements of storytelling, characterization, plot development and insight come together in some intangible way that is unique to the writer. But when it's there, clear and strong, it's a joy to behold. And not surprisingly, books that have an abundance of voice end up published and speak to many a reader.

For me, though, it's a little different: I actually assign particular voices to different characters, and the narrator gets one as well. It's not just amorphous, but specific. So I suppose that every time I pick up a book, I hear a litany of different--sometimes wildly different--voices in my head, an experience which is most often pleasurable but sometimes confusing as well. I'll explain this in greater detail after the jump.

When I read, I actually translate what's on the page into a recognizable voice, the kind that every person possesses in real life. So not only does a narrative voice possess all the characteristics I've mentioned, but it also makes use of specific pitches and tones, as well as different degrees of modulation.

I don't think this is accidental, because I spent much of my life training as a musician, first on piano, then as a singer. Aside from teaching me a great deal about discipline, composition, structure and order (much great music resolves dissonant chords; so too does crime fiction resolve chaos into order, but that's another subject for another day) music afforded me an intimate knowledge of sound and its pecularities. I also have perfect pitch so that adds another facet, in that even slight changes in pitch and tone means I'll perceive it as "wrong" or offensive to my ears.

I'm also sensitive to voices outside the musical realm. Although often I can block out conversations, say when I'm on the bus home from work and trying to read a chunk of the book I have in hand, certain voices intrude more consistently than others. A higher pitch, or a more abrasive tone. Particular rhythms of speech, or subject matter. I can't predict with any degree of consistency what I'll listen to, but these human voices then get filtered into my brain, and often emerge in surprising ways as I read.

It certainly makes reading dialogue a much more active experience; not only, when it's a good, quick exchange, enjoy the interplay between the characters, but I enjoy the juxtaposition of different vocal features each character posesses. Having said that, there's no real consistency in what voices I assign a particular character. Whether there's a description given or not, I can hear a specific dialect or regional accent. Sometimes, of course, these are suggested by the speech rhythms that the author's written in. But then I go a step further: is that voice deep, or reedy? Full-bodied or breathy? Akin to a specific person or something I've created solely in my brain?

The "specific person" part is of considerable interest to me, because unlike so many others, I couldn't care less who would play character X in a movie. But I do often wonder which person's voice would best suit. As an example, when I first read S.J. Rozan's CHINA TRADE (written from Lydia Chin's point of view) the voice I heard bore a suspicious resemblance to that of Ming-Na Wen (who at the time was starring on ER, a show I watched on a semi-regular basis.) I always liked Ming-Na's voice, with well-modulated low tones and a sense of wry humor that permeated her speech patterns. To me, that voice was Lydia's, or a lot like her.

But does Ming-Na look anything like Lydia Chin? I doubt it. She's too old now, for one, might even be too tall. But appearance doesn't matter to me: voice does.

Bill Smith, Rozan's other protagonist, I'm still trying to get a handle on. I think his voice is somewhat deep, but more of a baritone than a full basso profundo. There's a wistful quality to it which might cause his voice to rise somewhat, but mostly I perceive it as consistently quiet, mid-to-low range. And again, I have no clue what he looks like beyond whatever description Rozan has written in (although I figure he's tall.)

There are many readers, especially having heard authors read their work at booksignings, who assign the narrative voice to the author. Sometimes I do that--Lawrence Block's voice is hard to put out of the mind once you've heard him read from his books--but most of the time I create some filtered amalgam which produces either a generic voice (if it's a very serviceable one designed to move the plot along) or something more individual. It would be jarring, then, for me to hear a UK writer read from a book of his or hers that is set in the United States. It isn't even so much that the character dialogue would sound off; this is specifically related to narrative. Lee Child, for example, reads very well, but it's not his voice I hear when I read a Jack Reacher novel. That voice is flatter, maybe more of a typical midwestern flavor. Somewhat harsh, even guttural. It's not so well-modulated, perhaps because Reacher isn't that kind of character.

So having explained my reasons and given a few examples, I'm now curious: am I the only one who is this specific about voice, to the point of analyzing features and sound elements? And what, exactly, does voice mean to you?

Comments

[Ray Rhamey]

Very interesting notion, Sarah. I can't say I actually "hear" voices of characters, not in an audio sense, but I do somehow "experience" the differences. In my own writing, I work hard to tint every part of the narrative about a particular character with that character's personality and way of thinking--in short, voice.

I've put up a couple of takes on the subject, the way I see it, anyway, on Flogging the Quill. The URLs are below.

http://www.floggingthequill.com/flogging_the_quill/2005/01/make_sure_your_.html
http://www.floggingthequill.com/flogging_the_quill/2004/12/i_say_flavor_ex.html

Best,

Ray

[Jim Winter]

Interesting you brought that up right about now. I'm currently finishing up Bill Pronzini's UNDERCURRENT, the third Nameless novel. He doesn't have to mention Nameless's hacking cough or the "thing in my lung". And Pronzini was pushing thirty when he wrote this. Nameless, though, sounds old, tired. You can hear a slight rasp in his voice, a rasp that becomes a growl when he raises his voice. (I've never met Pronzini or talked with him online, but I'll bet he could pull off that voice effortlessly these days.)

OTOH, I also just finished Moe Prager and THE JAMES DEANS. Moe's a Brooklyn Jew married to an Irish woman. So naturally, he sounds like Charlie Stella in my mind. Like a lot of writers, Lee Child esp., Reed Coleman doesn't sound a thing like his character. Reed, when I met him, had a quiet, rather low voice that didn't match Moe's in my mind.

Now, a guy who most likely sounds like his character (and one of the PointBlankers will have to confirm this for me) is Ray Banks. THE BIG BLIND and the Cal Innes stories, even with the protags' widely varying personalities, sound in my mind the way Ray's blog entries sound in my mind.

So who's jarring for me to listen to? Robert Parker. He doesn't sound like the way I hear Spenser (and I hope that's not Sunny Randall's voice. :) ) I realize that Parker has probably invested more of himself into Spenser than most writers might their protags, but while Parker has Spenser's sense of humor, I always heard a more modulated voice for Spenser. And this predates the TV show. (Ironically, he sounds a lot like Lee Goldberg. Hmm... Now I'm going to have to get a copy of MY GUN HAS BULLETS to check Lee's voice out.)

[Bob Tinsley]

Damn, Sarah. I'd go nuts if I had to listen to multiple voices when I read. I hear enough voices that aren't there as it is. I do, however, hear accents. When I read Rick Riordan's books I hear Trey's buddy Ralphas speaking with the lilt of a Tex-Mex accent. When I read Sherlock Holmes, I hear an upper-class English accent. When I read Ray Banks I hear a mush-mouthed Brit yahoo that never heard of the word "enunciation." Right, Ray?

[Gerald So]

That's a great talent, Sarah. It strikes me as useful when writing your own fiction.

I'm a big fan of sound and its power to engage the imagination sometimes better than sight can. I'm reading Rozan's STONE QUARRY now, so it's neat to get your take on Lydia and Bill's voices.

I try to let my characters talk to me so I can get into their voices, but I don't hear them on the level you do.

[Megan]

My handle on characters' voices tends to be the same as my handle on their appearance: not particularly specific. I sort of have a space in my head that's devoted to that character, and amorphous blob that is by definition "right" but difficult to look at closely. It works that way for characters I write as well as those I read. And the people in real life, come to think of it. I can certainly identify people by their appearance or voice (provided it's not on the phone; there I'm hopeless), and I can call up fairly specific memories of same, but I typically don't. There's just the space that is X. I guess that makes me either open-minded or solipsistic.

[Aldo]

When the story is good not only do I hear different voices for the characters, I can see and sometimes smell the scenes. If the bookis poorly written, then I can be distracted and its all black and white and very monotone.

[Jenny D]

I too am obsessed with voice, though not actually in this way, more as a question of style and diction (like making sure the English characters in my novel speak with the words and word order that they would have if they existed in real life); for me diction always trumps accent, so that it's more a question of intonation and word choice and sentence structure than actual pronunciation. I think one reason I so consistently prefer first-person narration to third is that it's really, really hard to get a good voice for third-person narration, whereas often the first-person voice is a modified version of the author's own essay-writing or speaking voice and more likely to have the complexity and consistency that make prose rewarding. One difference between fiction and academic prose is that the voice is the second is usually so much less rich and complex, so that when I read academic prose by somebody I've actually heard give a talk--or, even better, know quite well--I can often hear how what might look like relatively neutral diction on the page actually sounds in my mind's ear FAR more like the person's speaking voice than I'd have realized reading it cold. i.e. there are small peculiarities of diction and turns of phrase that in my head literally SOUND like the author though you really wouldn't notice if you didn't know them. This is less true for some writers than for others, but there are any number whose apparently impersonal critical prose embodies itself in my head with extraordinary fidelity to their real speaking voices. I am not sure whether this is ultimately a strength or a weakness--as a fiction-writer, I'd have to say that I wish more academic writers would find prose styles (like those of the best personal essayists) that would sound in my head like a speaking voice whether or not I've ever heard the actual author actually speak....

[Trey]

Interesting topic, and even more so, Sarah's musical analysis of voices. I am a hobby musician and have been for twenty plus years, but my main intstrument is percussion. While I do work with notes, mostly my thing is rhythm and timbre. So when I write, both dialogue and narrative, my sentence structure tends to take a more percussive bent. Also, I love short, staccato phrases.

As for when I read, I do not hear most voices in the fairly realistic way Sarah does. Some voices, those that are particularly interesting to me, such as Crumley's Sughrue or many of Thompson's protagonists, I do hear more aurally. But most I simply hear as white noise unless there is something jarring. In the case of voice, it's usually something that doesn't fit the situation, either writing or character word choice or something along those lines.

With the larger 'voice,' I hear it as i see paintings. Van Gogh had a particular style, James Lee Burke has a particular voice. That type of voice is what brings me back to particular writers book after book, even if the stories tend toward a sameness; I like that voice. It is also what sends me trolling for new writers. I dig discovering new voices.

[Mary]

I have a mixed take on this. For many books I have an indistinct voice in my head. But its distinct enough that if I hear a book on tape I'm thrown off if the voice isn't right. Then there are books that have such stellar narrations on tape that the voice just sticks with you. My most vivid example of this is Barbara Rosenblatt's reading of Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody series. But Barbara is so good that Elizabeth says even she hears those voices in her head when she writes now.

I guess my take on Moe is a bit different. I met Reed before I read the book. So there's a lot of Reed in my picture (and voice) of Moe.

Just wait until Donna's book comes out. Lord only knows what voices I'll be hearing.

[Graham]

I'm a big fan of voice as well, both the narrative "voice" and individual character's speaking voices. When I'm working on a story I can't really pin down a character until I have an idea what his/her voice sounds like.

I'd even go so far as to say I prefer books that may not be as slickly written but have a voice with a lot of personality than books that are more "professional" but sound more bland and anonymous.

[Dave White]

I think voice is extremely important, but I don't know who's voice I hear in my head. I assume it's a variation on my own, but I'm not concious enough of it when I read. When I talk about voice though, I mean the flow and style of the narrative. Lehane's Kenzie books had a great voice because it pulled me along. There are certain voices I don't like, T Jefferson Parker's springs to mind, though I continue to read his books. Parker's novels mean because the voice doesn't flow as well for me, I have to work hard to stay with it. But Lehane, or Connelly or Robert Parker I don't have to work as hard, the voice drags me along.

[Charlie Williams]

Voice is it, for me. If I'm in a pub and the guy mouthing off at the bar has something in his voice, I'll listen. No matter if he's bullshitting - if the voice has the "it" factor, I listen. (Don't ask me to explain what "it" is. Maybe it's a choice of words or turn of phrase that betrays an experience of life's shit. Maybe it's a huge self-awareness, or lack thereof.)

But if the voice doesn't have that "it" - maybe it's droning or slightly too nasal - fuck him. He's a bullshitting wanker.

Same for fiction.

[Donna]

I hear voices too....oh, wait, you mean in books? Yes, that too. Like Mary, I hear Reed in Moe's voice. And I hear Charlie Stella's voice in his characters, and Munch Mancini sounds like Barbara Seranella. As Trey said, some voices are particularly strong and Crumley's Sughrue is one of those for me. A lot of characters sound like actors, even if I don't particularly envisage those characters in the part. Also, some characters make me think about particular songs, so there's not only a voice but a soundtrack in my head (it's a very weird place to be). I associate The Mark Lanegan Band's Methamphetamine Blues with Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor, so Jack sounds like a mixture of Ken and Mark Lanegan in my head.

And I feel like a right twat for saying stuff like this but the characters in my book all have voices that I can hear really well. A character who was only supposed to have a small part, but ended up coming back, and being one of my favourite characters, is a mixture of two people I met on the bus. I can hear all the characters but I'm sure what I hear will be different from what anyone who reads it will hear (she says, optimistically assuming that there WILL be people who read it). I just hope that readers WILL be able to hear a voice.

Donna

[John Rickards]

I'm like Dave - I don't hear individual character voices at all. In fact, he stole everything I wanted to say, the cunning devil.

I'll pick up on mannerisms and suchlike and I certainly know and appreciate good dialogue, but otherwise I don't 'hear' it at all. Come to that, it's all more or less a subconscious thing - if I start thinking about what I'm reading then I stop reading (if you see what I mean - breaks the flow).

[Bryon]

What Dave said and what John said, damn I hate having to work during the day, I can't comment early enough. All of the voices pretty much sound like me like Dave said and like Dave (Argh I hate saying that) I hear intonations and mannerism of speaking more than a voice. This is also one of my biggest problems writing dialogue, all of the characters sound like me. If I wasn't such a witty and entertaining guy I'd be screwed...

[Graham]

B. Quertermous: "...damn I hate having to work during the day..."

Quick! Someone get a violin!

[Karen Olson]

I agree with Dave and John that I don't "hear" voices at all when I read. The way a writer uses his/her words and punctuation can either turn the book into a page turner or make me stop reading. When I write, it just comes out, there's no thinking about it or "hearing" it. It just is.

[Jennifer Jordan]

I have whole conversations with characters. They help me do the laundry and keep me company while I drive.

I wish they'd stay out of the shower, though. They visit there and in bed, at twilight, most often.

Sometimes I threaten to kill them off in order to keep them quiet. It works about half the time.

The writing of others is more like a movie in my head and the voices are there but not like when I write. I notice expressions and background more.

I had a problem when I'd watched a lot of Japanese anime one weekend and then read the book version of the Ring. The characters all spoke in that exaggerated, mouth moving while the face is still manner and it drove me nuts!

I agree about L Block. Once you've heard him speak, his voice seeps into the books and ruins the narrative.

[Rebecca]

I'd agree with Megan, with the slight caveat that I'm more likely to "hear" characters than to "see" them. Basically, when I read or write I hear a single narrative voice QUOTING the characters' dialogue verbatim....so I'm very annoyed by false dialogue, or when all the characters sound the same, but I don't actually "hear" specific voices.

A question, to all those of you with auditory hallucinations (oops, I mean vivid imaginations): what do you do about "hearing" characters like Barbara Nadel's Inspector Ikhmen, or Qiu Xiaolong's Chen who are speaking a foreign language? Do they do the 1940s movie thing and speak English with a "foreign" accent? Do you transpose their accents to English equivalents? If they're speaking a foreign language you're familiar with (e.g. French, like Cara Black's Aimee Leduc) do you mentally translate what they're saying back into their native tongue, and assign it a voice there?

[Sarah]

Good question, Rebecca. At the risk of sounding like a suckup (but in my defense I did post my blurblet before you commented) I'll use your new book as an example.

Although THE WATCHER IN THE PINE is (obviously) written in English, it's set in 1941 Spain and presumably everyone is speaking Spanish, albeit there might be differences in dialect or accent or whatnot. Occasionally I'd let my brain pick out the translated Spanish phrase if I actually knew it and then transposed it onto the English equivalent as spoken by a particular character, but most of the time the characters took on a more generic style of voice. I never understood the movie practice of having people speak in accented English to denote a foreign language, so it doesn't really come into play when I read, either.

I do wonder, though, if that's not a subconscious problem with books in translation and people's resistance to such--there's so much energy potentially spent on trying to figure out if the translation is true or the voice is true to fully enjoy the work for its own sake.

[Donna]

Good question Rebecca. Books set other than US are OK, and books in translation are a special case for me and if I DO hear voices then I'm likely to assign to them anyone from that country. In Arnaldur Indridason's Jar City (a very good book), set in Iceland all the men sounded like Magnus Magnusson (ie clipped British accent) and all the women sounded like Bjork (ie slightly mad), since they're the only Icelandic people I know. Sometimes I don't hear specific voices though, just an atmosphere. In Stuart Archer Cohen's The Stone Angels, set in Buenos Aires, none of the characters spoke like Diego Maradona, but I heard a lot of tango music in my head (damn, how weird do I sound here?)

As several people have said, it's not a conscious thing and if I thought about it while reading, it would end up sounding strange. And it doesn't happen with all books, or all characters. And I'd like to point out that the voices don't stay with me after I've closed the book :o)

Donna