What if a character can't speak?

[LightningTopaz]

Since last year, I've been building a fantasy story set in a world made of islands in the sky. Part of their religious ritual involves blowing up balloon-like crystals by special priestesses (these inflatable crystals are understood to be a type of protective and defensive magic in this world) The priestesses always wear the mouthpiece-like device used to inflate the crystals, and can only remove it in the strictest of privacy. This means they cannot speak, per se--they communicate with an elaborate sign language.

Have you tried to write a character without a voice? (temporarily or permanently) How did you pull it off?

 

[Persephone]

This is actually one of the most relevant questions to the Pokemon fandom specifically, since most fics involve a handful of minor characters per human character that have so little speech capabilities that they are functionally mute for the purposes of the narrative.

It has been a long time since I have wrote a fic with exclusively non-verbal Pokemon, but it's a definite challenge. I've found that while it's possible to build good non-speaking characters, and easier than you would think to build decent ones, it's very hard to build a great one. Since it seems as if the priestesses are somewhat minor in your story, that shouldn't be a problem.

Characters that don't talk obviously need a huge reliance on their actions and, when applicable, facial expressions. This is helpful since with the write description body language can easily convey emotion. It is even easier since you're writing a print story. You can use adverbs to describe emotions, or at least prime them in reader's observations, in a way that film and reality can't. You can gloss over miscommunications by having a few minor struggles because this isn't reality: you control the entire conversation and interaction, so you can put the correct guess in your speaking character's mouth as to what the non-speaking one wants. Just keep that in mind and be willing to use it. It's not often that literature has a clear advantage in portraying something (other than inner monologue) over film, so when it comes you had better use it.

 

[FullMoon]

The character could also speak through writing. I'm going to deal with a mute character at some point who carries a little sign with them so as to be able to communicate with people who don't understand sign language.

I also pretty much had to deal with a character being "mute" in my story already, since I did give a fair bit of emphasis on communication between human and Pokémon. It was even more complicated in my case due to the Pokémon in question being a Golurk, who's inexpressive by nature, so I had to rely mostly on gestures and actions to get his feelings across.

It can be very tricky to write a character like that, but I kinda find it fun really.

 

[Arkadelphiak]

Then you are dealing with an opportunity!

I have not tried to write a non-verbal person --however, I write all my Pokemon non-verbally aside from the occasional "EEEEeeek!" or something similar. I find that talking Pokemon can come across as gimmicky, because they often delve into incessant talking in order to seem "cute" or something. Aside from my stylistic opinions, making a non-verbal character allows your story to focus on the narrative at hand (simplifying dialogue significantly), and lets the actions speak for themselves. All actions of said non-verbal character become critical. The readers pay tenfold more attention to the littlest movements, because they are the only form of "speech" given off. That lets the reader fill in their own ideas of what said character is saying, and that is a very powerful tool.

Ooookay . . . but yes, I have written quite a few. I wrote out a sociopathic Metagross, which is one of my favorites.

 

[Silverwynde]

This can be pretty difficult, as you have to rely on other means to express emotion or get an idea across. I'm working on a Transformers movieverse fic and the main character is Bumblebee, who has been mute for quite some time. Sure, he can use his radio but sometimes that won't accurately express what Bee's feeling. I've had to rely on his body posture, he gleam of his eyes, whether his door-wings are held high or drooping, etc.

In an AU movieverse fic that I was working on, Sam--who happens to be a girl--actually teaches Bumblebee sign language to communicate when she realizes that he can't speak. The two will engage in long sign language conversations that often leave the other Autobots completely baffled, since they haven't had the time to learn ASL.

But yeah, it can be pretty tough.