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After having a first draft and into my rewrites, I’ve learned one of my major character’s doesn’t really have a voice.  She has a part but I feel it keeps getting underplayed.  She is the female lead.  She should never be underplayed.  I think it’s her voice I need to work on.

I give my characters traits.  This way like a real person they have things about them that are theirs.  An evil character might be wild and have unpredictable as a trait.  A shy character might be inward and have hesitates as a trait.  I pick words that a person would do that resemble who the characters are and call them traits.  Not sure if that is really what traits are at the moment but it’s what and how I do characters up.

I have characters who are evil.  Evil beyond belief.  They were easy to write and stand out due to how evil the characters ended up.  I have excited over-the-top characters who stand out as well.  Their traits created them.  They didn’t have much of a back story as they didn’t really need one.

It is making me realize if a character has a bold trait they will be easier to write and lack back story.  The characters with broader traits are harder to write at times and seem to need more back story for me to get them right.

My female lead has a back story.  I’ve done the sheets on her and yet she seems to lack traits on the pages.  I know what those traits are and I think I need to go back to when she speaks and make sure those are in there.  Maybe even look up how other writers give those traits a voice.  It might spark some ideas in me.  I am going to look up the traits I set for her and look up other words similar to those ones.  This way I have more ideas how to use the traits when she speaks.

Maybe a list with words on one side, actions on the other.  I guess traits would also be the actions the character would use or do in the story.  So far my lead female is lacking actions, voice… not part though.  She is in the story a great deal.  Just feel she will get overlooked by the reader as the others leap off the page better.

Terra