Yet deeper than character, or even place, is another concept: voice. more than any other doorway to the imagination, i find this one the trickiest to open—and the hardest to close. for a character's true voice is heard, its tones, cadences, and ideas are long remembered. the ancients [people from ancient history] used anima, in fact, to describe breath as well as soul. that is wholly appropriate, for in the breath—the voice—of a character lies its essential spirit. if the writer can truly hear the voice of a character, so will the reader. what does the author explicitly say can be found in the voice of a character? doorways place ancients spirit