Phlegmy Voices, Mellow Voices and All Sorts of Others (Writer’s Phrase Sheet)
DISCLAIMER: None of these excerpts belong to me. They’re drawn from my reading and are meant to jog your imagination, so please do not copy them.
Image credit: Danny Pavlov: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/3oD1YJ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app
VOICE FIGURATIVE EXAMPLES
“Nana clucks her tongue, and although she doesn’t raise the volume of her voice, she uses an argument-in-a-restaurant tone that’s downright poisonous” (Paul Tremblay)
““Is she lying down?” / “Don’t know,” he said. He did not add, Don’t care, but it was there in his tone.” (Joe Hill)
“It was the blunt, almost impersonal efficiency in his voice. He might’ve been discussing store policy with a new employee” (Joe Hill)
“My father killed her.” / It was the way he said it, casually, with a vague hint of disapproval, as in, “My father wouldn’t let me have a dog” or “My father sold my favorite pony.” (KJ Parker)
“he said in a stage whisper”
“he had a voice like a gelded goat”
“Her voice made the stone bench we sat on seem warm and soft by comparison.”
“…a voice have been at home on a battlefield”
“It’s Gorst,’ sneered one, as if he had been expecting a king and got a pot-boy.” (Joe Abercrombie)
“Speaking to her in the low, gentle voice he reserved for skittish horses, and steered her inside”
““Wire,” Furio’s dad replies, as though he’d just asked for the philosopher’s stone” (KJ Parker)
““Hares.” A sort of awed wonder, as if they were talking about dragons” (KJ Parker)
“Right,” he said, as if I’d just told him he was really a girl.
“Come along then,” she said briskly, like I was the family dog
“You’re returned.” It wasn’t clear from her tone how she felt about it.”
““How nice,” Julia said, but her tone implied otherwise”
“His tone putting the name into the same category as rheumatism”
“Her tone suggested that admitting as much might be the last thing I ever did”
“Not the same one,” he says, with the sort of patience on reserves for people who are being particularly stupid but don’t deserve to be told that to their faces because they’ve had a hard day.
He said, with the air of a man who _.
“_,” he said, in the tone of a man (“she said in the tone of a woman who usually gets her way.”
“Enoch Soames,” repeated Rothenstein in a tone implying that it was enough to have hit on the surname.”
ROUGH VOICES
Phlegmy
Raspy
Gruff
Wheezy
“Deep grating voice, like granite on a grindstone”
“He’d about the deepest, most gravel-throated voice Shy ever heard, and she’d given her ear to some worn-down tones in her time.”
““in a voice croaky with phlegm.””
“in a voice like sand on glass”
Throaty (deep and rasping | “chuckle”)
Guttural (produced in the throat; harsh-sounding |
“said a new voice with the gravelly scrape of age.”
“His voice was the very opposite of Gorst’s. A gravelly whisper, harsh as millstones grinding.”
“Voice a weak rasp”
Husky voice (low-pitched and slightly hoarse
“Did he burn them?” Idomeneos asked, his voice like the noise of a galley being dragged across pebbles.”
DRY/HARD VOICES
“flint-dry voice”
“Yaarike’s words were dry as dust.”
Hardened his voice
Leaden (“laden tones of Death”)
Stony
LENGTH
““Well,” elongating the word by vibrating the tip of my tngue against the back of my front teeth”
““Bullshit.” The word was four syllables, broken by his labored panting.”
NEUTRAL/DISINGENUOUS
Insincerely
Offhandedly
Tonelessly
Neutral
Solemn (formal and dignified; not cheerful or smiling)
Flatly
Emotionless
Hollowly/hollow voice
“His voice was hollow as a dead tree”
PLEASING/LIQUID VOICES
“This was a new voice: deeper, darker, low, and controlled, oiled and polished as ceremonial armor.”
Smooth
“His voice was every drop as oily as I expected”
Mellow voice
“voice was honey poured over thunder.”
Rich/richer
“in a voice as hearty as plum pudding”
Dulcet (sweet and soothing)
“In a voice as smooth and creamy as vanilla cake frosting”
Suave (especially of a man [charming, confident, elegant])
Refinement (voice accent)
Countrified voice
“His tone was casual, but it carried the polish of an orator’s training”
Orotund ([of the voice or phrasing] full, round, and imposing])
COLD VOICES
“If you said anything like that to me,” the Lord Righteous replied in a tone that could freeze beer, “you would be a liar.”
Chill edge
Coolly
Frosty (“He bowed with frosty formality.”)
“Crisp as winter’s first frost”
QUICK VOICES
“She spoke in a rush…” | rushed his words
Hurriedly
“Said in a hurried whisper”
“Sped up his words”
BROKEN VOICES
“Passion cracked his voice as violently as his face.”
broken voice
Strained
Unevenly
Unsteady
Voice was fractured
shaky/Shakily|
Wobbly/voice wobbled
Injured tone
Brittle voice
ANGRY/SHARP VOICES
“Voice lost its angry edge”
Acidly
Tartly/bitterly
“Her voice sharp enough to cut glass”
Sharply
Crossly
Bite in his tone
“Neutral mockery edged Lythande’s voice”
_ heating his voice (anger/anticipation)
“_,” he said, his voice taking a _ edge.
“There was a curt finality in her tone, an edge that threatened to cut if Tam dared to press any further.”
Firm tone
Forcefully
Curtly
Clipped (“clipped and precise”)
Terse (sparing in the use of words)
He said tightly
SHOUTING VOICES
“The Queen of Thorns screeched in a voice ten times her size”
Pitched his voice high | “Ronica Vestrit pitched her voice to carry”
“_,” he said, pitching his voice higher than usual
_ was building in his voice
Heatedly/heated conversations
Hotly\
“Raising his voice to clarion pitch”
QUIET VOICES
His voice sank/lowered
Faintly
Pitched his voice low
Voice dropped to a (“croak”)
dropped her voice to
Small voice
Undervoiced (whisper | “undervoiced argument”)
Low-voiced _
Hushed tones
Undertone (low or subdued utterance; quality underlying utterance)
Quietly
“His voice shrank to a whisper”
“His voice softening to a whisper”
SOFT VOICES
His voice was as light as a wisp of cobweb on the air
“her voice like a feather over skin”
Gently
Thin
Soft-spoken
Meekly (quiet, gentle, and easily imposed on)
faintly
