Story voice

I often worry that as I write almost entirely in the first person, my characters would end up becoming, to be honest, 'me' and all the same. It is a difficult one to judge, because in writing said lead role I tend to be doing it by the 'method'. Annie is me, Gillian is me, Steph shared more than a name while I brought her to life. What surprised me, however, was a remark at work.

Two of my colleagues are reading the dead-tree version of 'Uniforms'and one of them passed a comment after Chapter 2.

"Steph, I was thinking, this is good, this is quick fire, but I couldn't see it as written by you. Then a character pops up, and it's you, it's your voice, I can see you there"

Who was this person that immediately shouted ugly transwoman to my friend? Nope, not the lead character, not the transgendered person. It was the bloody CSM at Darwin, the one whose contribution finishes "And you will fix bayonets"

Thanks, Paul. Is that what I sound like? Arsebollocks.