Are You Listening?

I've just finished an epically long chapter in a novel of epically long chapters, 18k+ words from one of my three main perspectives. And to celebrate, I've been watching the British drama Broadchurch. Why is a gritty stone-who-done-it a celebration? Why, because of David Tennant, of course.

Oh rilleh?

I find it makes me more connected to my characters to imaging their every aspect. Some are easier than others. How they look and how they fancy themselves are some of the lowest hanging fruit. But have you ever tried giving your characters voices? I do a lot of work with dialect and accent as in-book reflections of region, race and class. In the region where the character I was just working with for so long is from, I've given the upper class especially a something akin to a heavy Scottish accent. To me, that sound is the sound of High Duke Alcander Brightland. It's a great feeling to have listen along with it in the background while I'm editing, and when I'm doing dialect work, there's no substitute for actually listening.