The Voice Experiment

[Kissmequick]

It's fairly simple really. All you need to do is pretend you're someone else -- and then post using their quirks.


As exercises go, it can be quite useful, because it makes you see what makes up voice.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

It reminds me of me with the commas. Should it? Hex, no not Mouse.

 

[Glitch]

You could always pm your response to a thread to someone else and get them to post it. Now that could be confusing

I guessed springs and mouse, but none of the others. Perhaps they talk too much

Edit: And I see someone is getting close to posting in the critiques forum

 

[Mouse]

Glitch, shh!

In case anybody was interested, this is what I PM'd kmq:

K, so I don't spoil it for others, I think:

1 & 6 is Hex. She tends to use lots of -- and the cat one just sounds like her humour.

2 & 9 is me. I sound like a div and I use lots of !

3 & 10 is amw. Cos she sounds older than she is, and also vaguely American even though she's a Brit.

4 & 7 is hope. She always sounds a bit loopy.

5 & 8 springs. She doesn't always use capital letters. And also what amw said - she rewrites a lot.

(I always tell amw to stop using Americanisms, though she pulled me up on it the other day. And loopy's a good thing. )

You know you're my Writing Goddess.

Get out of it!

If I was to write like this person -- I'd love to, they're fab -- I would use way less semicolons. Only, I like semis - gah!

Hex, I reckon. I don't do the -- thingies.

*gives springs a big, warm hug and skips out, waving delightedly to everyone*

Hope.

People are going to get confused muchly, missus.

Now that just made me spit out my tea.

It's fairly simple really. All you need to do is pretend you're someone else -- and then post using their quirks.


As exercises go, it can be quite useful, because it makes you see what makes up voice.

Top one Hex, second one... amw?? (The thing I did realise is that I thought Hex and amw sounded quite similar but I can't tell you why.)

And uh...

You know, I can't think of anything to say as anyone else!

 

[Hex]

The thing I did realise is that I thought Hex and amw sounded quite similar but I can't tell you why.

One thing I noticed is we tend to be less linear than other people -- so our thoughts are sometimes punctuated by twiddly bits and asides. Parenthetically.

---

Hard to do someone else's voice and i don't know i can but maybe it's punctuation that makes the difference; worth a go i think.

 

[Mouse]

Hard to do someone else's voice and i don't know i can but maybe it's punctuation that makes the difference; worth a go i think.

springs.

 

[allmywires]

Too tired to have a go myself but agree with Hex about non-linear thoughts. I use ellipses a lot...(see?) also I get distracted very easily. Hence the ellipses. And the disconnected thoughts. Ooh, a shiny thing...

 

[Hex]

... gosh, yes. Pretty.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I had it pegged as the same five under discussion before reading any of the responses, but I would have to study harder to determine which is which. That's not surprising, because I frequently have a hard time telling or remembering whether it was springs, hope or amw who posted something! Those three are very similar voices, as far as posting goes.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Tres interesting... I found Hex easiest to get, but I have read a lot of hers - as she has, evidently, of mine. Mouse I often don't get, partly cos we are quite similar in prose. Alc, had he been in here, I think I would have struggled with, despite knowing his stuff well, but he is very tight, I might have got that. Or the humour. Hope I usually pick up, AMW less so. If harebrain had been here I think I might have got him. And Boneman.

Ps Hex, that wasn't me, the possesive was right! tsk...

 

[Mouse]

I frequently have a hard time telling or remembering whether it was springs, hope or amw who posted something! Those three are very similar voices, as far as posting goes.

That's interesting because I think hope has a pretty distinctive stream-of-consciousness stylee going on.

 

[hopewrites]

Awe thanks mouse!
You know what I always wonder, if the voices I hear you all as in my head at all match the timber and intonation choices you make when speaking? Ie, do you sound like the voice I hear when reading you.

I'm kinda proud of the fact I've only met two people (so far) whose voices didn't match what id heard in my head.


Edit : this is a greatful thread for compliments. I'm gonna bookmark it for that as well as for the fun excercize it is.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Apparently I am somewhere between Ulster (think Liam Neeson, only female) and Surrey/ posh English. This is not entirely true, but I can almost guarantee I don't talk like any of you imagine.

The only two chronners I have spoken to sounded much as I expected. I would expect Mouse to have a fairly mellow West Country, and AMW to have a sort of London-esque/accent. Hope... I have no idea. American. hopefuly drawly, I like drawls but don't know the nuances of area/accent. Heck, I don't even know, really, where you are in that big bit on the map....

 

[Mouse]

I would expect Mouse to have a fairly mellow West Country, and AMW to have a sort of London-esque/accent. Hope... I have no idea. American. hopefuly drawly, I like drawls but don't know the nuances of area/accent. Heck, I don't even know, really, where you are in that big bit on the map....

I've been told I sound like Samwise Gamgee from LotR (complete with my mates doing a 'Get of the road, Mr Frodo' impression at me) and Solomon Kane from the film of the same name.

I should point out that I don't, in actual fact, sound like a man.

 

[hopewrites]

Lol I don't often get local axents *shakes fist as spell chek* as clearly as I get timber and use of intonation.

I hate the conceited way it comes off when I say it, but I've been told so too many times not to discribe my voice as angelic. I do tend to morph my vowles and phraseology the longer I talk to someone. But can only impersonate an acsent for a sustained length when singing.
*decides to stop arguing with spell check all together and hopes people can read the words she made up*

 

[Hex]

I've only spoken to two Chronners and they both sounded much less like me than I'd imagined.

I sound vaguely Scottish.

 

[allmywires]

I sound posh... An unfortunate affliction. Less posh these days of course as i spend 6 months a year in Saaffampton.

Other people...well I just read everyone's posts in my internal voice so you all sound like me in my head!

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Other people...well I just read everyone's posts in my internal voice so you all sound like me in my head!

No, they don't, they all sound like me! Of course, you sound like me, too, so I suppose you're right -- they all sound like you, too.

 

[hopewrites]

Maybe its my super power then.
"Hey hope. What your super power?"
"I hear the internet" *spooky musical sting*