A single narrator can carry a whole novel, but a book with a lot of dialogue comes alive when the characters sound different from the narrator and from each other. Casting voices is part creative decision and part bookkeeping: you have to choose voices that contrast, then mark which lines belong to whom. This guide covers when a cast is worth the effort, how to choose and test voices, how to mark speakers, how to handle thoughts and letters, and how to check the uncertain lines. The last section shows how Quillen detects speakers automatically and lets you correct them with a colored highlighter.
The short answer
Give the narrator one voice and each speaking character another. Pick voices that are easy to tell apart, test them together on a short scene, mark who speaks each line, and fix any line the software was unsure about. In Quillen, choose Cast of voices under Export, Audiobook. It finds speakers from your dialogue tags, assigns different voices, and lets you recolor any text to give it to a different character.
Is a cast worth it?
A cast helps when:
- your book has long stretches of dialogue between several characters;
- characters are clearly distinct in age, sex or temperament;
- listeners will otherwise lose track of who is speaking.
It helps less when the book is mostly narration, when it is first-person with little dialogue, or when you do not have the time to check the marking. A cast also has a cost: voices that sound too alike, or that swap mid-scene by mistake, are more distracting than one steady narrator. If in doubt, make a single-narrator version first and add a cast later.
Step 1: List your speaking characters
Write down everyone who speaks, and rank them by how much. Most books have two to four characters who carry most of the dialogue. Give those their own voices and let the narrator cover the minor ones, which keeps the cast manageable.
Step 2: Choose voices that contrast
Choose by contrast, not by taste. Differences that listeners hear easily include pitch (higher or lower), pace (quick or measured), and tone (warm or dry). Two characters who speak to each other often should have the most different voices. Keep the narrator's voice distinct from every character, since the narrator and the characters alternate constantly within a paragraph.
Step 3: Test them together
Run one short scene with two or three characters and listen to it start to finish. The checks:
- Can you tell who is speaking with your eyes closed?
- Does any voice grate over a long passage?
- Does the narrator's voice get lost between characters?
Step 4: Mark who speaks each line
Most speaker marking is mechanical: lines with a tag like Mara asked or the guard said tell you the speaker. The work is in the exceptions:
- Untagged dialogue. Long back-and-forth exchanges often drop the tags. Someone has to decide who says each line.
- Thoughts and inner voice. Decide whether a character's thoughts are read by the narrator or by the character's voice.
- Letters, signs and recordings. A letter read aloud in the story may be the writer's voice, or the narrator's.
- Group speech. A crowd or several people at once is usually best left to the narrator.
Step 5: Check the uncertain lines
Whatever method you use, go back through the lines where the speaker was a guess. A wrong voice for a single line is jarring, because the listener hears one character speak with another's voice. Read the dialogue scenes with the audio playing if you can.
Common mistakes
| Mistake | Result | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Voices that sound alike | Listeners cannot tell characters apart | Pick voices that contrast in pitch, pace and tone |
| Casting every minor character | A bloated cast and a lot of checking | Give minor characters to the narrator |
| Not testing together | Voices that clash or blur in one scene | Run a short scene with all main voices |
| Skipping the unclear lines | A line spoken in the wrong voice | Review every uncertain line before exporting |
| Leaving inner thoughts to chance | Thoughts spoken by the wrong voice | Decide a rule and apply it throughout |
| Forgetting a series | Characters change voice between books | Keep the same voice for a character across books |
Do it in Quillen
Quillen's cast mode works out speakers from your text, gives each a voice, and lets you correct the marking by coloring text. Your casting is saved with the book, so you do not have to redo it.
- Open your book, click Export, and choose Audiobook.
- Under Reading style, choose Cast of voices. The note says: "A narrator, and a voice for each character. Colour the text on the right to say who speaks."
- Pick the Narrator voice and press the play button beside it to hear it.
- Look at the Characters list. Quillen finds speakers from your dialogue tags and lists each with a count of their lines, a color and a voice. In our test book it found Mara (3 lines) straight away. Choose a different voice from the drop-down for each, and press its play button to hear it.
- Add anyone it missed. Type a name under Add a character and click Add. In our test the guard was never named in the text, so we added "The guard" by hand. Quillen gives the new character a voice different from the narrator's.
- Read the page on the right. Highlighted words are read in that character's voice and plain text is the narrator. Grey-dotted dialogue has no speaker yet. Amber underlines are guesses worth checking.
- Fix the marking. Choose a character in the Colour with row (or Narrator), then select any text. It takes that color, quoted or not, so inner thoughts or a passage in another voice are as easy as dialogue. Use Undo if you slip.
- Click Next line to check to jump to the next uncertain line. The number in brackets counts how many are left. In our test, coloring two lines for the guard took the count from four to two.
- Choose the files and export. The rest of the dialog is the same as single-narrator mode: see our guide to turning your book into an audiobook and to exporting audiobook files.
Checklist
- Main speaking characters listed; minor ones left to the narrator.
- Voices chosen to contrast, and tested together in a scene.
- Narrator's voice distinct from every character.
- Unnamed or untagged speakers added and colored.
- Inner thoughts and letters handled consistently.
- Every grey-dotted and amber line reviewed (Next line to check at zero).
- The same voice chosen for the same character in every book of a series (casting is saved per book, so note your choices).
Common questions
Should I use a cast of voices or a single narrator?
A cast suits dialogue-heavy books with distinct characters. A single narrator is simpler and steadier. If unsure, make a single-narrator version first and add a cast later.
How does Quillen know who is speaking?
It reads your dialogue tags, such as 'Mara asked' or 'the guard said', and assigns lines to speakers. Lines it cannot place are shown with grey dots, and lines it guessed are underlined in amber, so you can check them.
How do I give a line to a different character in Quillen?
Choose the character in the Colour with row, then select the text. It takes that color and is read in that character's voice. Choose Narrator to give text back to the narrator.
Can I add a character who is never named?
Yes. Type a name under Add a character and click Add, then color their lines. Characters you add by hand are remembered with the book.
Is my casting saved?
Yes. Quillen saves the narrator, the voice for each character and your coloring with the book, so corrections are remembered.