The voice of a novel

The voice of the novel tends to be the voice of the narrator, but what if a writer could merge the voice of a character into that mix? Ah, that can be magical. And it doesn't have to be in the first person, to pull it off. Use the prose to mimic the otherwise inarticulate speech of a character - - read for it, look for it. You'd be surprised how effective such an indirect discourse can improve your writing, and how much more the reader can "feel" the character. It may, in addition, help you eliminate the pesky habit of overusing dialogue.