How to Write Character Voice *EFFORTLESSLY* and Stop Sounding Like YOU

Main ideas and lessons

• Effortless character voice isn’t about talent: Authors who write convincingly from a character’s perspective use specific, repeatable techniques to make the voice feel distinct.
• Character voice includes more than dialogue: It should shape every line of prose so the reader feels transported into the character’s mind—seeing and interpreting everything through their eyes.
• Voice comes from internal perspective, not just surface traits: It’s influenced by the character’s personality, gender, attitude, worldview, background, and values—especially by what they believe and how they experience internal conflict.
• Avoid stereotypes/clichés: Don’t rely on defaults like “female = feminine” and “male = masculine.” Instead, make both dialogue and prose reflect the character as a person.
• Target a POV character’s voice: Don’t force all characters to match your own writing “style.” Your goal is to uncover each POV character’s unique point of view and mental voice.

Methodology / techniques (detailed)

Step 1: Understand the POV character deeply (personality → beliefs)

Identify core influences on character voice:

• Personality
• Gender
• Attitude (can shift scene-to-scene)
• Worldview
• Background
• Values

Go beyond surface behavior:

• Don’t rely only on personality quizzes or how the character acts on the outside.
• Determine what the character believes, including:
  • their internal conflict
  • their life experiences
  • their values and priorities

Practical tool mentioned:

• Use the Enneagram personality typing system to match the character’s type/subtype.

Guiding formula presented:

• Personality + gender + attitude = voice

Example contrast (same external situation, different internal focus)

• Character A (Enneagram 7): playful, responsibility-shy, avoids negative emotions
  • Reacts to being late with excitement and upbeat framing.
• Character B (Enneagram 3): ambitious, driven by fear of failure
  • Reacts to being late with urgency, judgment, and performance pressure.

Step 2: Create “character voice cheat sheets” for consistency and distinction

Build a cheat sheet per POV character that specifies how they think and how they speak, including:

• Age
• Where they grew up
• Who they’ve spent time with
• What they do for a living
• Personality type
• Sense of humor
• How they see the world
• Hobbies/interests relevant to voice

Compare characters:

• After making multiple cheat sheets, compare them to find where to add more distinct differences so they don’t blur together.

Demonstration cheat sheets

• Monica: clipped, confident, calculating; dark humor; courtroom-closing-argument vibe + dry sarcasm; raised by lawyers in DC; thinks in motives/chessboard logic; into puzzles/logic games.
• Josh: loyal, chaotic, enthusiastic; “golden retriever energy”; wholesome background (homeschooled on a goat farm); expressive/hand gestures; interrupts himself; inner thoughts shaped by optimistic expectations; raised in a big affectionate family; quotes favorite movies with no context.

Writing test shown

Write the same interaction from:

• Josh’s perspective first (imaginative, enthusiastic metaphors, lots of emotional immediacy)
• then Monica’s perspective (cooler, tactical, controlled, cross-examination style thinking)

Key takeaway: even when the events are identical, POV voice makes the prose feel different.

Suggested exercise by the speaker

• Create two extremely different cheat sheets.
• Write a very short scene:
  • one paragraph from each POV character
  • don’t rely on chapter headings—aim for clarity purely through voice

Step 3: Make each character’s voice unique (not just “different”)

Ways presented to differentiate voice:

1. Use personality-driven quirks

   • Optimist vs. worst-case planner will naturally think/say things differently.

2. Integrate negative traits into thought/decision-making

   • Show weaknesses through how they interpret situations, judge others, and move through the world—not by stating them directly.
   • Examples given:
     • Suspicious character → constantly assumes ulterior motives
     • Oblivious character → misses time/day/appointments
     • Selfish character → centers what benefits them

3. Keep vocabulary and phrasing specific to that POV character

   • Create recurring:
     • exclamations
     • frustration phrases
     • nicknames
     • inside jokes
   • Ensure these aren’t shared across all characters; otherwise voices blur.
   • Nicknames and interaction habits are described as “shortcuts” to show individuality.

Step 4: “Listen to people who sound like your character” (voice-locking technique)

• Don’t steal a voice; absorb energy/attitude.
• Listen to:
  • fictional characters (movie/TV)
  • real people (podcasters, YouTubers)
  • real-life acquaintances
• Best match criteria:
  • similar personality and attitude
  • ideally similar accent/tone/speaking style

Use it as a “barometer”:

• After writing, check: Could I imagine this character saying that—or someone with that same “voice energy”?
• If not, revise the line(s) to better match the character’s tone.

Step 5: Listen to music that embodies the character’s vibe (character-mind, not scene-mood)

Instead of music that matches the scene’s external events, choose music that matches:

• who the POV character is
• their emotional lens and energy

Effect described:

• It changes the style and tone of the writing because you project the character’s internal emotion through the music.

Practical suggestion:

• Make a playlist specifically for that character so you can “lock in” quickly.

Other content / promotion

• The speaker invites viewers to a live training called:
  • “Elevate Your Writing: How to Find Your Style and Make Your Pros Shine”
• They also promote another video about writing characters unlike yourself using additional techniques.

Speakers or sources featured

• Speaker/host: Abby (the creator of the channel)
• Referenced systems/tools: Enneagram personality typing system
• Referenced character examples: Character A (Enneagram 7), Character B (Enneagram 3), Monica, Josh
• Referenced external media types: movie/TV characters, YouTubers, podcasters, music (no specific titles named in the subtitles beyond a song example)