Changing a Character's Voice is Hard Work

Imagine you've typed along for weeks/months, building your world and populating it with unique individuals.  You've got a whole book.  Maybe more than one.  And suddenly, you realize this one character isn't as unique as you thought he was.

This hasn't been a problem for me.  Characters pretty much pop out of my head onto the page and I leave them as they are.  I haven't seen a reason to change any of them after they were already birthed onto paper. 

Then came Thomas... who popped into my head almost fully formed when I first started writing Ugly and the Beast.  But he was too much like another Thomas in another UF series.  So, he became Oliver.  And I wrote the whole book with Oliver being Oliver.

Except after I was finished and starting to write Cinder Ugly, I noticed a lot of other books had characters that were a lot like Oliver. 

Hit the brakes and hit the wall.

I'm too far along to completely change Oliver.  He's a cat.  He has to be a cat or there are several... tons... of scenes that don't work right.  He has to be a black cat - because I already paid for a cover with a black cat on it. 

Okay, I can do this.  In my head, I've reworked Oliver into Kazimir - an Eastern European aristocratic cat.  No biggie, right? 

Wrong.  I can't seem to get his voice to stick firmly in my head.  My head still wants him to sound like Thomas... err, Oliver.  And he's not.  He's Kazimir.  KAZIMIR.  Kaz-i-mir.  (Maybe if I keep saying his new name, it'll stick.)

I think I need to immerse myself in people speaking with that particular accent until I hear Kazimir talking in my head.  Right now, he's this bizarre snooty British/Russian/Geico Gecko with attitude and slang.  So, that definitely needs to change or it needs to be consistent.  And I need to make sure he doesn't sound too much like Grigori from the genie books. 

Gah.

Like I said, changing a character's voice is hard work.  But no one promised any of this would be easy.  And if they did... ROFL... right.

Now I just need to suck it up and move forward with this.  Maybe I'll sit down with my trusty notebook and have a little conversation with ol' Kaz on paper until I can hear him in my head. 

Ever have this problem?  If you're a reader, have you ever run across a case where the character's voice wasn't consistent?  Did it bother you as much as it bothers me?

Losing Your Voice

Back in 2004 when I first started writing seriously, I learned I couldn't read while I was writing.  Everything I read inserted it's voice in place of my own.  Fiction... non-fiction... it didn't matter.  If it had a voice, it was overriding my own.

So, I stopped reading.  At least while I was working on my own manuscripts.  And I'm talking years here.  I'd be surprised if I read a dozen books a year 2004-2006.

Slowly, over time, my own voice got strong enough that it could drown those other voices out.  But still, I couldn't read books of the same genre I was writing.  No suspense during, say, Dying Embers.  No paranormal anything during Wish in One Hand. 

Then I reached a point where it didn't really matter.  Yay.  I could read anything while writing anything. 

Until last week, when I read a book with such a strong voice, my own ran yipping into the barn.  I sat down to work on Ugly and the Beast, and suddenly it wasn't my voice spilling out onto the page, it was hers.  (Not that her voice wasn't awesome, but I kinda like my own, thank you very much.) 

Oh, it didn't take as long as it used to for me to get my own voice back.  Once I realized what was happening, I wiped that other voice out and got back to being me. 

So, when you hear someone saying they don't read when they write, don't be too hard on them.  They might be protecting their voice until it gets strong enough to stand on its own.  And if you find yourself unable to read while you're writing, don't be too hard on yourself.  Protect the writing.  Protect your own special, unique voice.  You can read after the new words are on the page. 

If you're a reader, have you read a book where the voice sounded almost exactly like another writer's?  If you're a writer, have you ever had to protect your voice? Or is it just me?