Attitude is broader than emotion. It is the long-term, more or less permanent view toward life, grown out of habit and experience, reflecting the character's philosophy and beliefs. It is with the character from start to finish, and will usually not change much. It may help to think of it as the style of delivery (e.g., straight, hard- hitting, folksy).

If your book uses the first person point of view, you will have to adopt an attitude and stick with it through the entire book, whether the character is in the action or or narrating.

If you follow the precept of show not tell, you won't have a lot of words in your book that describe the attitude of a character. Instead, it will be unstated, to be uncovered by the reader as he learns how the character acts and responds to situations.

If any side of a character will be hidden, so that it later comes as a surprise to other characters, you will have to work hard to include it in the general makeup of the character so he is self-consistent, but hold it back. We have all seen B horror movies in which the nice friendly neighbor suddenly becomes the horrible villain. It usually doesn't play well, because there is no indication that the person had these personality traits. We see people on on the news, after a neighbor has been arrested for some outrageous conduct, saying “I can't believe it, he seemed like such a nice person,” but ask yourself just how well they reall knew the neighbor.

Don't forget your main character: the narrator. Regardless of the point of view, your narrator has an attitude. It is reflected in the style you chose to use when writing the book. If the style is staccato, hard-boiled writing, then you will narrate that way. Capturing and being able to express the attitude of your narrator is a most worthy goal.

Don't substitute or interject your own attitude or personal bias for that of the narrator, even if you agree with everything your narrator is saying.

You can't alter your character for the audiobook, but so long as it is consistent, liven up your characters by adding a bit of attitude that shows up even when there is nothing in the story calling for it. You may get reactions like “I read your book, but I never realized Bob disliked women that much.”

Although attitudes are long-term, a character can hold more than one. For example, we all have good days and bad days. Another important attitude shift occurs when someone is tired: some people become extremely irritable when short on sleep, others become demanding. Another cause for a change of attitude is drug or alcohol use.

As exercises, pick three attitudes from the list below and read one of the passages you selected three times, once for each attitude. Don't be concerned that the attitude is entirely wrong for the content. Make a recording and play it back. Notice how the way you emphasized certain words differs, how your pace and control of pauses differs, depending on the attitude you bring to it.

• High energy
• Punk
• Know it all
• Demanding
• Confrontational
• Angry at the world
• Optimistic
• Depressed
• Tired, stressed
• Tired, sleepy
• Preoccupied
• High-classed, above it all