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When you sit down to write a story you probably already have a character in mind for it. Male or female, young or old, nice and friendly or nasty and sharp-tongued, this person can be anything. You need to know who this person is, inside and out in order to proceed with the story. You need to decide all that before you can develop a distinct voice for your character.

How to develop distinct voices for characters is second nature to some writers. They can actually "hear" their characters in their heads as they write and develop them and their voices as the story progresses. Many writers claim to be like J.K. Rowling who insists Harry Potter walked into her head fully formed. Lucky them! If your characters do you the great service of doing a "Harry Potter" just strolling into your mind intact then half your work at developing a distinct voice is done for you before you even get to your computer or to pen and paper.

Others, however, don't have it that easy and must use creative means to develop a distinct voice, one never heard before. A tall order, to be sure, but if your story is to stand out amongst the deluge of stories and characters out there, you must try to make your characters as unique as possible. To do this you need to create and develop your character before you can assign a voice to him/her. Doing the following will help you in developing distinct voices for your characters.

Nationality.

Your character will sound completely different if he is born and raised in Italy or if she is from Egypt and raised in Russia. Dialects, accents, inflections and culture all come into play to make this person real. Narrow it all down to a particular place in the world, or out of it if you're into Sci-Fi, and use that to create the character's unique voice.

Personality.

You need to know what makes this person tick. Is he a psychopath or meek and mild, friendly or stand-offish, angry at the world, happy as a lark or defeated and sullen? Is she sexually promiscuous or a prude, shy or flamboyant, quick-witted or dumb as a box of cornflakes? All these thing will give the character a distinctly different voice.

Profession.

Your character has to have a profession. If you make her a famous brain surgeon you can be certain she's a bit brusque, forceful and possibly arrogant in her speech and mannerisms. She doesn't have time for idle chit-chat, you see, and needs to get to the heart of the matter swiftly and concisely. On the other hand if she is a mousey, bored housewife that likes

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