Using Vocal Cues to Show Hidden Emotion

writershelpingwriters.net/2022/03/using-vocal-cues-to-show-hidden-emotion

One of my favorite scenes comes right at the

beginning: the Unexpected Party. There are
a lot of reasons it works so well—one of
which is everything Bilbo is not saying.
When the dwarves arrive (and keep
arriving), he wants to know what they’re
doing there, but instead of asking, he puts
on his Happy Homemaker face and gets to
work being hospitable. As it gets late, he
doesn’t show them the door. He refrains
from telling Thorin to get off his high horse
and show some gratitude for Bilbo funding
his little reunion, though you know that’s
what he’s thinking.

The interactions between Bilbo and the

dwarves ring true precisely because of all
the subtext—the contrast between
what the character says and what he’s
really feeling or thinking. This subtext
is a normal part of most real-life
conversations; for this reason alone, it “My Precious”
should be included in our characters’
conversations. But it’s also useful because whenever a character is hiding something, there’s
inherent emotion involved. Emotion is good for our stories because well-written, clearly
conveyed character feelings will often engage the reader’s emotions, pulling them deeper into
what’s happening. So subtext is good on a number of levels.

But writing hidden emotion is challenging. Authors have to show the character portraying
one emotion to the cast (pleasure, in Bilbo’s case) while showing his true feelings to the
reader (confusion, frustration, and indignance). It’s a tall order, but this is where vocal cues
can come in handy.

Vocal cues are shifts in the voice that happen when someone is feeling
emotional.While we may be able to hide our feelings by masking our facial expressions and
minimizing certain body language giveaways, the voice is harder to control. In a written
scene, these vocal fluctuations act like signposts, leading the reader to the conclusions you
want them to draw about the character’s true emotional state.

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So when you need to show that a character is hiding their feelings from others, consider the
following vocal cues.

Pitch
Does the voice get high and shrill or go low and rumbly?

Volume
Does the character move from a moderated level to almost yelling? Does the voice drop to a
near whisper? Is it clear that they’re struggling to maintain a reasonable volume?

Tone
Does a clear tone turn breathy or husky when someone is aroused? When the character is
close to tears, does the voice become brittle or cracked? Does it lose all expression and
become flat when anger hits?

Speech Patterns

Does your verbose character suddenly clam up? Does her timid, verbally stumbling
counterpart start running at the mouth? Might poor grammar appear in a well-educated
character’s dialogue? Does a stammer or lisp announce itself?

Word Choice
What words might slip into a character’s vernacular when they’re feeling emotional that they
wouldn’t normally use? Profanity and slurs? Words and phrases from their first language?
Pat clichés?

Nonspeech Interruptions
What sounds begin to pepper your character’s dialogue? Um, Hmm, Uhhh, throat clearing,
and coughing can be signs that the character is uncomfortable and needs time to pull him or
herself together.

For your character, consider which of these cues might be a possibility, then write it into the
story when their emotion changes. Used consistently, they’ll signal the reader that the
character is hiding something or that a certain emotion is in play.

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Granted, for this to work, you need to first establish a baseline. Figure out your character’s
normal speech patterns and habits and write those consistently so readers will get used to
them. Then, when a vocal cue is used, they’ll know to take a closer look to see what the
character is hiding.

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