---
description: Analyze character voice — consistency, distinctiveness, and development
argument-hint: "[path, glob, or selection]"
allowed-tools: [Read, Glob, Grep]
---

Read the manuscript at `$ARGUMENTS` and analyze how distinct and consistent each character's voice is. Report findings to the conversation.

## What to analyze

For each named character with meaningful dialogue:

### Speech profile
- **Vocabulary** — formal/informal, technical/plain, characteristic word choices
- **Sentence shape** — short/long, complete/fragmented, complex/simple
- **Rhythm** — clipped, flowing, interrupted, deliberate
- **Emotional register** — how they show anger, fear, affection, humor
- **Background markers** — regional, generational, professional, cultural cues that appear in speech

### Consistency
- Does the voice hold across scenes and chapters?
- Does it adapt appropriately under stress, with different conversational partners, or across an arc — or does it slip and re-form without reason?
- Does any growth in the character show up *in the voice* rather than only in the narration?

### Distinctiveness
- Could a reader identify the speaker with the dialogue tags removed? Test by sampling unattributed lines.
- Are any two characters bleeding into each other? Name the overlap.
- Are any characters' voices so close to the narrator's that they don't stand out?

## Output format

Per character (focus on the major ones):

- **Voice profile** — 2-3 sentences capturing the signature
- **Sample lines** — 2-3 quoted lines that exemplify the voice
- **Consistency** — strong / mostly stable / drifts; cite the strongest example and any slip
- **Distinctiveness** — distinctive / shared traits with [other character] / undifferentiated

Close with:
- **Overall assessment** — which voices are working, which need work
- **Priority fixes** — three to five concrete suggestions ordered by impact