5 Epistolary Elements For Finding Your Character’s Voice

When lacking primary source documents for clarity… create your own!

I love epistolary novels so much I wrote my undergraduate thesis on them. While the spirit hasn’t moved me to do a fully epistolary story in years, the unique opportunity for character-development via their primary source documents remains a vital part of my writing process (and my reading preferences). Sometimes, these elements make it into the final draft. Sometimes, they remain as brainstorming content in the background that I might trot out eventually as bonus content.

Regardless, including epistolary elements in character design is more than a gimmick.

First, some questions to ask yourself

1. What primary source documents does my character create most often?
   1. Are they a list-maker or a sporadic out-of-context sentence recorder? Do they write letters longhand, or uphold a years-long email correspondence with a friend? Do they prefer email or Slack/Microsoft Teams for work communication?
2. Do they use proper punctuation in texts, or slang and abbreviations and emojis?
   1. For my historical baddies- what’s their handwriting like? Sloppy and rushed, elegant and measured? Do they use a fun sign-off when sending letters, or stick to a classic “Yours”?
3. How might I contrast what they say/record in private versus what they’re thinking?
   1. And, even better, what they say/commit to writing that others will see versus what’s kept private? Much character can be found in the contrasts!

Next, some epistolary prompts

1. Journals, diaries, or private blogs
   1. A classic for a reason! These can be an unfiltered goldmine of insights about your character, their thought process, what they feel is useful to record, and how they’re feeling in the moment. The trouble is that most adults don’t keep these, certainly not in contemporary, so your prompt may be- if they kept a journal, what would they be talking about in it?
2. Recent text history
   1. Think back to the character interview prompts we talked about earlier in the month, and your character’s community in particular. What are the last 2 or 3 text conversations they’ve had? Are they purely practical, like letting a neighbor know they accepted a package for them, or a thread that’s just “Happy Birthday! // Thank You!” twice a year with no messages in between? Do they have a group thread where they share their Wordle results? Is their mom texting them incessantly, to crickets?
3. Lists
   1. What’s on their grocery list, or daily to-do list? What calendar events appear in a typical week? Are they hyper-specific about their lists, naming quantities/brands/flavors, or do they make do with “milk & breakfast stuff”? Do they have a bucket list, or New Years Resolutions they’re working through? Do they actually follow these lists, or just make them to feel in control and then forget all about them?
4. Calendar/Daily Planner
   1. Are they so anal about their calendar they even schedule in bathroom breaks, or is this more a place to generally remind themselves when they’re meant to be somewhere? Do they meal plan and have what they’re eating listed here? Are there recurring reminders of some kind (“Tuesday- Take Out Trash”)? Is it color-coded?
5. Goodreads/Letterboxd
   1. What are their recent reads & watches (or favorite reads/watches of all time) and, if they’re inclined to share this sort of thing, what were their reviews? What media are they consuming, and is it because they sought it out or because someone recommended it to them/dragged them to something?
      1. Side note: if you’re writing a male character whose favorite book is Infinite Jest or whose favorite movie is Fight Club, I do consider that a red flag

If there’s a place for this in your final manuscript, great! I’m always going to be in favor of epistolary flavor. But even if there’s not a natural place in your writing style to slot in a letter, crafting these documents as a brainstorming exercise will tell you so much about your character, their voice, their priorities, and their point of view, all of which are things you’ll need to figure out anyways.

Want a full template with even more unique prompts for character development? Our paid subscribers at Substack get all of our templates included – past and future!

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