What Is Narrator Voice?: 5 Elements That Bring It to Life

Rosemi Mederos: 00:01

If you have plot bunnies coming out of your plot holes, it's time for a writing break.

Welcome back, word sligners. Last episode, I told you that a story's voice is the narrator's personality. Of course, just saying, "give your narrator a personality" might sound sound, but it's vaguely vague.

So, we're going to operate on your literary larynx, and lungs, and articulators to see what makes up your narrator's voice.

But first, some publishing news. The Writing Break cafe is open, and it's much too hot outside, so let's head inside.

In recent weeks, Russian drone strikes destroyed a major book distribution center in Ukraine and with it, an estimated eight million books. That's roughly a third of Ukraine's entire annual book supply, and it includes about 600,000 school textbooks meant for the coming school year.

Throughout the war, the Russian military has repeatedly targeted Ukrainian cultural infrastructure, including libraries, publishers, and printing facilities. Ukrainian publishers have shown remarkable resilience, continuing to print and distribute even from cities under regular bombardment, but a hit like this is staggering.

Several international funds and relief organizations are accepting donations to help rebuild printing and distribution capacity, but all I ask if that you keep putting pen to paper and fingers to keyboard. Keep writing, reading, and sharing ideas. The world needs your story in your words. And, of course, read to your kids at least 10 minutes a day.

We've covered book challenges for years on this show, and hearing about them never gets easier.

A federal court has allowed a new Arkansas law to stand. This law makes it a crime for librarians and booksellers to distribute material deemed "harmful" to minors, with penalties of up to a year in prison.

th in overall education for: 2026

Vague laws don't get applied evenly, and for authors this means that this law will be applied to the books someone finds objectionable, and historically that means books by and about marginalized communities first. Don't think someone they won't come for your book if they get the chance. And when booksellers and librarians face jail time, the response is to over-comply by pulling anything remotely risky, which means entire categories of books are pulled from shelves without a single formal challenge. Following this law, supposedly harmful content would likely include classics like Romeo and Juliet, contemporary romance novels, and puberty and sex-ed manuals like “Our Bodies, Ourselves.”

in the: 2026

[newspaper]

And finally, a bit of good news for self-publishers. Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing has finally expanded its 70% royalty tier for ebooks. The old band ran from $2.99 to $9.99, so if you priced your book at $10.99, you'd get knocked all the way down to a 35% royalty. That ceiling had been in place for years, and authors have complained about it for years, especially as inflation pushed book prices up across the board. Well, KDP has now raised the cap: the 70% tier runs from $2.99 all the way up to $12.99.

I haven't said this in a while, but I dislike, nay, I hate, this point 99 pricing because it's just a glaring reminder that they think we're stupid. They price things like that because they think that instead of thinking of it as $3, we're going to see 2.99 and think, oh, two dollars. And this goes for all sellers and products, not just Amazon and ebooks.

I need a refill on my coffee, so I'll meet you on the Overthinking Couch to discuss your narrator's personality.

[swan lake]

Last week we started our series on voice and I explained how style and voice are two separate things. So, when we talk about voice, we're talking about the narrator of a particular voice. All right, if voice is personality, what does personality consist of on the page?

Voice shows up in five places.

First, vocabulary, or word choice, or if you're swirling cognac, you might call it diction. Yes, as in dictionary. Does your narrator say "cops," "the fuzz," or "law enforcement personnel"? Do they use swear words? Do they use words wrong on purpose? One person’s cottage is another person’s shack, and the words used by your narrators are all telling us things without having to be boring about it.

The second thing that adds personality to your narrator is what the narrator notices. Put a hitman and a nurse in the same room. The hitman notices the exits and which guest is carrying. The nurse notices medic alert bracelets and which guest is coughing. But if the nurse is married to a hitman, then maybe the nurse also checks the exits but doesn't think about who might be carrying. What your narrator pays attention to adds to their personality.

The third thing that adds personality to your narrator is what the narrator judges. This is a big one authors tend to miss. A flat voice reports events, and the book ends up sounding like the narrator is giving a witness statement or testifying under oath. A living voice tells you the events but also has opinions about said events.

Fourth, is what the narrator hides. Does your narrator admit they're scared, for example? Things like denial, self-justification, and flat-out lying to the reader make up voice as well. We'll talk about unreliable narrators later this season.

Fifth, is rhythm, which might by my favorite aspect of voice. Clipped, panicky sentences. Long, rambling, nostalgic ones. A narrator who interrupts themselves. This all adds to personality and is just one more reason to read your draft aloud to yoursef.

So when you put all these five things into your narrator, your reader is going to have a much better time reading it than if you have your witness statement narrator.

Last week we also discussed voice and tone and discussed how they are not the same, and they do not change together. A cynical narrator could have a tender scene. The personality of the the cynic stays, while the tone shifts into tenderness for the scene.

So, here's how to figure out if you have a clear sense of the narrator in your work in progress. If the narrator walked into your kitchen, would you recognize them before they spoke? From the way they look at your dishes, the thing they'd comment on first, what they'd deliberately not mention? Do they head to your fridge immediately for a cold beer? Do they go to the pantry for snacks? If you can imagine your narrator walking into a room in a way that's unique to other characters in your book and other people in your life, that's voice. If no, if it could be anyone standing there, keep revising or reach out to me for a manuscript assessment.

Now here's your overthinking prompt for the week: imagine someone spills coffee on a stranger. Write it or overthink it with three different narrators. You can pick whatever three voices you want, but if you need some ideas, one narrator could be drowning in guilt over having spilled coffee on a stranger. The second narrator might think it's funny. And the third narrator might be furious at the stranger, at the coffee, maybe even at the concept of mornings. If all three narrators sound like different people, congratulations, you've got the hang of it.

Our next episode will be about first person versus third person. Does a close third narrator get their own voice, or are they just the protagonist in a trench coat? We'll find out together.

Until then, thank you so much for listening, and remember, you deserve this break.

Writing Break is hosted by America’s Editor and produced by Allon Media with technical direction by Gus Aviles. Visit us at writingbreak.com or contact us at podcast@writingbreak.com.