It's usually easier for me to begin writing in a character's voice if that person is different from me in some significant way.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I'm much more comfortable speaking through my characters' voices than my own.
Voices have always been my way into a character. I usually approach the voice first.
When I'm writing, I'm writing for a particular actor. When a lot of writers are writing, they're writing an idea. So they're not really writing in a specific voice.
The voice is always the starting place for me with a character.
When I'm trying to find my way into a character, the voice and physicality are the first two things I do.
I feel it's very important to let individual writers' voices come through. But the character has to be consistent.
I find it an easy way into writing pieces is to think what the character's voice is like, and start from there.
I normally write in the first person, and my narrators are as real to me as any of the people I have worked with. They live and breathe in my imagination.
What I look for in any character, good or bad, is whether I can hear him speak. If I can imagine him that clearly, then I can write about him.
My preferred style is to write in first person, so I always have to play around with possible narrator voices until I find something that works.