The day I realized my characters all talked the same

I was reading back a scene last weekend where two characters were arguing and I couldn't tell who was saying what without the dialogue tags. That's when it hit me: I'd been writing every character with my own voice and vocabulary for years. I sat down and gave each one a specific word they use too often or a habit like interrupting, and suddenly the scenes came alive. Has anyone else had that wake-up call where you realize a bad habit was staring you in the face the whole time?

3 comments

3 Comments

craig.john24d ago

Clients all expecting the same thing until you really watch them.

taylor.sean24d ago

I get what you're saying but I actually see it a little differently. "Clients all expecting the same thing" kinda nails it for me but in reverse. I think most people have pretty distinct speech patterns already, you just gotta pay attention when you're stressed or excited to catch them. Like I had this buddy who always says "basically" before every other sentence in real life but I never wrote it in his dialogue until someone pointed it out. Once you start noticing those little quirks in how people actually talk, it's harder to make everyone sound the same lol.

grace_campbell24d ago

You know, this actually connects to something bigger I've been noticing lately. Like how people really reveal themselves through their filler words or little verbal tics, especially when they're not paying attention. I've got a coworker who always says "you know" at the end of every sentence when she's explaining something complicated, and another guy who drops "honestly" before any opinion he actually cares about. It's kind of wild how these patterns show up across different situations too, like if you watch how someone orders coffee versus how they talk to their mom on the phone, you'll hear totally different versions of the same person. Makes me wonder how many of those little marks I've got that everyone else picks up on but I'm totally blind to.