Today I’m working on character voices. I will say this one thing I’m pretty confident in. I’ve had a lot of people tell me my characters have good voices. Then again, imposter syndrome likes to butt in- maybe that’s because they haven’t read enough of my characters and they sound good because they all sound like me? And on the other hand, I’ve done enough role playing and writing and reading that I feel like I understand what a character would do if I know them well enough.
So today I looked up a random picture for a story prompt and a random word generator for character prompts. The picture is below, the words I got are: “North, alcoholic, succeed, camera, fretful.” I’m using these as starting points but it’s going to wander so the story may or may not relate much by the time I’m done. I’m going to put on a timer and start writing in a moment. I’m only going to do half an hour timer this time. The other thing I’m doing is a dialog-only scene. This is usually recommended only as a writing exercise because it leaves so much out, although a few published books/short fiction stories have made good use of it. Here goes!
“Kieran.”
“What?”
“I’m sick of this whole thing.”
“Please Zoe? Just a little longer?”
“Kieran. We have been trudging through these woods for hours. Kieran. I am dying for a drink and you still haven’t gotten even a hint of that stupid bird.”
“Yeah, but it’s rare, you know. I told you we’d be out here for a while. I hope it’s still here. Professor Merrik said he saw one around here. Maybe we should go to the lake?”
“Kieran, if you decide to make my day that much better by taking me to a mosquito-infested bog while I’m wearing sandals, so help me, I’m never driving you anywhere again.”
“You said it would be fun? And technically I drove.”
“Never take anything I say seriously when I’m drunk. Last month apparently I told Mitchell it would be fun to go to the trampoline park after a pub crawl. Long story short we’re banned now. So no, I don’t take that as a binding arrangement.”
“Please Zoe. If I can get a few good pictures of this, it’s going to do wonders for my portfolio. It really means a lot to me. Maybe you could wait in the car while I keep looking?”
“Maybe. How long you think you’re gonna be?”
“I’d like to find somewhere to hide and wait where it might be feeding. So… still a few more hours probably.”
“Great. Fine. Perfect. Well, I guess I’ve still got most of my phone’s battery so I guess I’m set.”
“Wait. Kieran. Where did we park? Where’s the car?”
“I… we just followed the trail, didn’t we? If you follow it back you should see the car before too long.”
“What trail?”
“It’s- look, see the trail markers? We followed those out here. But when it joins back with the black circle path then you take a… left? Pretty sure we turned right to get here. Yeah, take a left at the black circle path and that leads back to the trail head, then you follow the stairs back down to the the parking lot.”
“Ghhhh Kieran I hate this. Come with me, I’m gonna get lost.”
“It’s just that way though, I promise it’s simple. I used to hike trails like this all the time with my family.”
“Good for you, you had a family who liked the outdoors. My family was normal and did things like watching movies and staying inside where there’s no bugs and the sun doesn’t stab your eyes out when you look the wrong way. Please walk back with me.”
“I… okay fine, I’ll walk back with you. But then I really want to… well, I guess there’s the little pond on the left from the trail head. Okay, come on.”
“Ugggh I will never understand why people do this for fun. My legs feel like someone used a meat tenderizer on them and my feet are burning. Ow, I stepped on something!”
“Yeah, sorry, look, take a seat here and we’ll check. Yeah, you got a burr in your sandal. I’m sorry, I tried to tell you even hiking sandals aren’t the best choice on this kind of terrain. Here, I have an extra pair of socks.”
“Why.”
“I always keep a pair of socks in my hiking kit. And, let’s see, bandaids, aloe, moleskin, antiseptic, spare batteries, a bit of change…”
“Why socks though.”
“Well, they’re good in emergencies, but mostly I use them if I step into a stream on accident. Way better than walking in soaking wet socks for the rest of the hike.”
“Huh. Guess that makes sense. Fine, come on, let’s keep going.”
“There we go, trailhead, just down the stairs and there’s the parking lot. We’re almost there. I will also note, it only took us like half an hour to get back, we haven’t been out here for hours yet.”
“Yet.”
“That was… ominous. Look can you get back to the car on your own?”
“I guess. I have water bottles though if you want one.”
“I brought mine.”
“Of course you did. sigh Come on, let’s just go home.”
“I… look, I don’t have too many days off work and usually they don’t line up with good days for taking pictures. Please can we stay a little longer?”
“I guess. I’m just worn out and want to go…wait. What color was that bird you were looking for?”
“Red and blue with a gold chest. Why?”
“Because. Look at my car.”
“…no. No way! Really?”
“What’s it doing to my window?”
“Ha, it looks like it’s starting a fight with its own reflection. This is amazing! Hold on, let me… yes! Let me see if I can get closer… Oh this is amazing. It’s like it’s posing! Brilliant. Oh wow this is fantastic.”
“I’m glad you’re getting good stuff. This means we can go home, right? I’m so- oh whoops, sorry I scared it off.”
“Ha, it’s okay, look at this shot I got of it flying!”
“That’s pretty cool, man. I- wait. Did it… Oh come on I just had this washed!”
“I’ll pay for a car wash on the way home. Thanks again for letting me haul you out here.”
“It’s fine, Kieran. Still though. Next time I’m just gonna let you borrow the car or something and I’m staying home where there’s air conditioning.”