Character's voice

Hi, so I am trying to figure out how to describe my evil character's voice. I know her intentions, who she is, and how she sounds, but my problem is that when ever I give her a dialog I keep describing her voice as a shriek.

Don't get me wrong that's how I want her to sound, but every time she comes into the picture I always describe her as ear piercing or squealing and that is not how I want her every single time. It seems repetitive. I just cant find another way to describe her.

Furthermore, I always have a hard time trying to get from one place to another. I know how I want my story to start, I also know how I want the middle to go and how it is going to end, I am just not sure how to get from one place to the next with out giving to much away at once think you can help me?

Answer: It makes a difference whether you want your villain to be scary or a little comical. Only you know the tone you are aiming for. (It's already sounding a little absurd that everything that comes out of her mouth is a shriek.)

However, you might try varying your description. For instance, instead of using an adjective or noun, you could indicate the quality of her voice in other ways. For instance, can you use actions or other characters reactions? Do people start getting headaches whenever she talks to them? Does the water in the glass start vibrating? Do pigeons fly away?

Does her voice always come out as a shriek, or can you describe the process as it builds? What happens when she tries to whisper, or when she really gets angry? How do babies react when she tries to sing them a lullaby? Is she lucky to have a tone-deaf pet? Do people complain that they can't hear the kettle whistle over the sound of her voice?

After you've introduced the character, and described her voice once or twice, your reader will expect her voice to be a shriek. That gives you the freedom to play around a bit more. You don't need to use the same adjectives to describe her voice each time. You can show someone's reaction to the voice and the reader will infer the cause.

As for plotting, think of your plot as a series of events (events being irreversible changes that send characters in new directions). If you know your major events, there are a few approaches that might help to fill in the transitions.

One approach is to break down your major events into sequences of smaller events, so that each one has an inciting event, a complication or conflict event, a crisis, and an outcome event.

Another approach is to consider whether your story is driven by action or decision.

In an action-driven story, the inciting event will be an action. The aftermath of that action will cause a character or character(s) to make a decision, and that decision will set in motion a chain of events leading to the next big action.

In a decision-driven story, the inciting event will be a decision. The aftermath of that decision will cause a character or character(s) to take action, and that action will set in motion a chain of events leading to the next big decision.

You can then map out those chains of events that will take you from one big event to the next.

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