For voice authenticity, I determine who my number one choice for actor would be for each character I am writing. I tend to stay out of trouble if I envision that actor and only that actor delivering the line.
Further to the point about not having all the characters sound alike, is that if you do keep running into that problem, it might be a sign that; 1. Those extra characters do not serve much narrative purpose in the scene 2. Those samey sounding characters could probably be combined into one character 3. You keep writing scenes without much conflict and tension, so the characters keep converging on the same emotional baseline
Those characters might still be necessary for the overall plot. If you have stated that a room is guarded by three guards you can't combine them into one character, although you can have two of them be silent.
My number 1 is when writers make siblings constantly call each other “bro” and “sis”. Like dawg, that rarely ever happens. That’s something you call a friend, not your actual brother or sister. It immediately makes me think “the guy who wrote this was an only child”
Or someone from asia. We call our brothers and sisters like that (and sometimes with their name too, if you've guessed. But, if you want to call sth endearing but not their names (or nicknames), what do you use? Dear? Darling?
me and my brother call each other that, and my best friend and i also do that. it kinda depends but i generally don't like when "bro/sis" is used in dialogue... it's cringe...? idk
I think one time when characters would call each other bro or sis is when dealing with very young characters. Like a pre-schooler character might call their older sibling, Big Sissy or Big Bro/Brother. When I was in college I babysat I four year old that called her big brother, "Big Bobo!", it was very cute.
@@curerose0630 I'll second that, but that's usually younger siblings to older siblings. In localizations, the younger siblings might use first names on their older siblings.
Drying the dishes with a fresh towel while someone washes is one of the greatest bonding tasks... emotional subtext rich with germs and good stuff for human psyche immunity 😊
another banger! your advice is so practical, I love it. I think the point I can apply the most immediately is the point about people talking for too long. I usually break up those too-long dialogue chunks by instinct but I'll have to take a look at that 3-sentence rule.
thanks so much, glad this was helpful! honestly, that trick has helped me immensely to be more succinct/to-the-point and to have dialogue that sounds more banter-like and organic
Also keep in mind that this won't apply to every character or person. It's probably fine for neurotypicals but does not apply to me at all. If people ask me something, I'm honest. I'm not gonna tell someone what I think they want to hear. Neurodivergent characters (like us real NDs) are also likely to skip small talk or if we are subjected to it, will likely be uncomfortable.
thats a great point to call me out on, i should have mentioned that it doesn't apply to every character, but it depends on their personality & so much more
That’s actually what made this super useful for me, I’m autistic as are a good chunk of my friends and family so there’s definitely a struggle with writing dialogue that doesn’t sound. Well. Very autistic 😂
Yeah, same thing with monologuing rather than dialoging. For some characters, they do talk non-stop without letting other people get a word in, it's just part of their personality. My own RL sister is like that.
i was about to comment this! like, sure, some people *are* that way of “dancing around topics” and being “passive aggressive”, and some don’t have great self awareness, but that by no means applies to everyone so it shouldn’t be seen as “just a human thing” 😭 speaking as an autistic person, it genuinely makes no sense to me why people are so roundabout with communication and then call *us* the poor communicators when we’re being direct and to the point 💀
That's not offense towards the creator, but I think sayings like "nobody's talking like that" are always so ableist. It's often neurotypical people, who can't imagine others would talk and think "alienating" in their eyes. I sometimes got criticism of "nobody reflects their feelings so mechanical", this sounds too "dry" etc... well, I do??
Right? But even culturally none of this makes sense to me. We don't lie for the sake of "politeness" or passive-agressiveness. Being anything but straight forward is considered a waste of time. You will even get called out for it. Small talk? That's for when you need to kiss up to your boss, otherwise don't do it. Be genuine or don't say anything at all. That's exactly why I'm struggling with interactions with English-speakers (without autism). My brain always goes "Do they mean what they say? Was I "polite" enough? How do they want me to react? Why the hell do I have to put those unnecessary sentences into my work email?" ARGH I'm not saying people here never lie, but still, on such a large scale? I'd be exhausted.
@@juliab3326 Oh yeah, 100% relate to that. Social interaction is quite the hell because of all the weird, convoluted guidelines you have to dance thru. At this point in my life, I've simply just given up and just go for 'pure politeness'. But then I get labelled as 'disingenuous', which I find to be ironically hypocritical from the NT world.
It’s not merely ableist. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve spent in my 40+ years of life just being a “fly on the wall” and people-watching/listening to random conversations (or parts of conversations). I tune out private conversations, but picking out snippets of casual ones among strangers (or watching friends interact) has been very telling. Author advice often features that line “people don’t sound/talk like that” … I assure you, no matter what the “type” of dialogue is that they are referring to, odds are there *are* people who sound like that, be it overly direct, overly campy, overly expositional, etc. (I’m using the term “overly” in a conventional sense.). A lot of people just tend to lack self-awareness or awareness of anything that’s not “important” to them personally.
What I’m trying to work on is making character’s distinct ways of how they talk, like their mannerisms and all. I’m a little scared that I might give all of my characters the same way of speaking out of me self-projecting how I talk and my humour by accident- so this is really helpful! I honestly think it’s admirable when people can write characters with distinct ways of communicating, makes them loads more entertaining and makes them more of an individual in my opinion!!
I see some people commenting about autism here regarding the honesty of emotions, and I wanted to add to the dialogue as someone who is not autistic but is actually bipolar 2 and is very emotionally aware, as it's a skill I had to learn to keep myself from having mental breakdowns every other week. I check in with myself emotionally multiple times a day to make sure we're good to go, like if you're driving a car and every once in a while check your mirrors, see if the car is overheating, see if you should stop for gas, etc. Sometimes I don't know /why/ I'm feeling a certain way, but I'll know /what/ I'm feeling, and if it's anything but "happy" I instantly make a game plan for how to get myself there or at the least how to make it through the night mostly in one emotional piece. This I think is probably the difficulty I have most of the time with dialogue, as I've gotten to the point where I feel it's illogical to /not/ be honest about your emotions or put some effort into figuring out what you're feeling, because things get messy when you can't just tell someone how they're making you feel. Sometimes that's what you want in a story, but sometimes it feels like I'm handicapping my characters by making more than just a few of them be emotionally clueless. If this is a skill I can learn, then why can't they? So I've gotten feedback of "why is he aware of what he's feeling? that's not real life" and it always makes me feel like people are saying it's unrealistic to be me. I agree that it's usually an earned skill (I certainly earned it, I wasn't born knowing how to read my emotions), but I think emotional awareness should be seen as just another character trait. Maybe not every character has it, but if no character has it in a book I tend to find /that/ unrealistic and not the other way around. Just my 2 cents. Great video though! That was the only note I had. (Sorry if this is a little rambly; today has been a VERY emotional day so I'm not the most eloquent right now. Still just wanted to get my thoughts down, though)
oh i totally agree that if a character is a certain way (painfully honest, straight to the point or really emotionally smart) then it is just a character trait and should be treated as such. its sometimes with these types of traits that break the status quo that we have to be a little more deliberate and clear with on the page so that the reader can tell this is who the character is (easiest way to do is just have other characters acknowledge or notice it too, maybe by contrasting them with each other). i have a super honest no bull character in one of my novels and the protagonist is the opposite (struggles verbalizing or recognizing any emotions) so he's typically jealous of how easy that comes to her!
I love these new long-form videos so far! You present a unique perspective on things and give non-generic tips and tricks, and I find that much more useful than the advice you usually find in the mainstream... What makes it all the more impressive is that you are doing this despite having adhd - a close friend of mine has adhd so I have a good idea on how much of a struggle it can be... Hats off to you, Char! 🙌🏻 I especially loved the tip you gave to write down descriptions for multiple characters in a similar situation - haven't heard of that one before!
I have watched a couple of your videos now, BUT I DIDN'T KNOW YOU ARE CROATIAN! I am 1/4 Croatian! I know it's nothing like being full-blooded, but I think that is so cool.
Loved the 5 tips, would be great if you gave examples too. I’m a first time writer and don’t alway fully understand the advice in the way it’s intended 😊
Honestly, my “strategy” is just letting the characters speak for themselves. Sometimes I start a scene with a specific destination in mind, they start arguing and then I’m looking at the last five pages and thinking “How the hell did we get here?..” Sometimes they just start insulting each other in circles, which *is* very realistic, but unfortunately, doesn’t make for a good read. In that case, I’m forced to completely scrap the entire scene and start from the beginning.
What I find frustrating is when I finish a book or movie and my first thought is the whole situation could have been avoided if the characters were honest with each other, and said what they meant.
Thank you, while watching this ive actually written down the wrong order scene in word, it was so much fun to get how my MC would react and behave in this situation, rly helpfull! I need to do other mainish characters too !!
They should have unique voices from the start. So if you're still working on your first or second draft, go back and edit their dialogue from the moment they enter the story.
@@ashes-h4m this is the kind of stuff that you ignore in your first draft in my opinion. Just write the first draft completely as it comes to you; at the end of it you'll know your characters better and you'll know where they end up/what they ended up facing. Then in your second draft it's easier to consider motivation and personality, and also add some foreshadowing if needed.
Ah I see you're a Gilmore Girls fan. So am I! Anyway thanks for the great video. A novel I am working on right now has a HUGE word count (the 4th in a series) and I am desperately trying to cut it down (it was originally 162k and I've got it down to 157k but I still need to cut more because wow it's gonna be expensive to get edited!), and there was a scene where all the MCs were having a conversation while getting their breakfast and I thought about cutting out the bagel toasting and cream cheese spreading, etc, but your advice about them doing an activity while talking is spot on so I think I'll keep all that in. Thanks!
For the part of characters being to transparent I think about the what the character specifically might say like if their a honest person or did they learn to lie while growing up and stuff like that.
Ngl I talk like some of these but I do agree, this definitely wouldn't work with a majority of characters 😅 Yeah, I'm also pretty guilty of giving characters the same voice. I'm an over-describer, so what I like to do when I'm struggling is write my usual generic character voice description, then go back and rewrite it
I noticed this dialogue problem in that League of Ungentlemanly Warfare movie I hate that movie for a bunch of reasons, and the dialogue was one of them. All of the men have the same “good show, old sport” way of speaking and being. Aside from slight accent changes, they are essentially the same person. We are TOLD their personality traits, not ever shown. It’s so annoying and I hated watching those characters “interact”
When I write things I usually end each chapter with a summary, and then the next chapter begins. The main passions of the main characters are described in the first sentence. This tells the reader what is going on. I put myself into the editor´s shoes - does he want to read about deep sea dragonfish managing a fantasy role playing setting? Does he want to read about a near endless rain of hippos, causing chaos and destruction? Does he want to read about Haruki Murakami switching identities with an Icelander? These are terrifying prompts which give people nightmares. Editors can be sensitive so I prefer ending each chapter with a summary and picking up the right editor to read - someone who is not sensitive. The next step is put yourself into your character´s shoes. For example, did your dad work as a mechanic on board a ship? Then you can write characters who have deep knowledge about the ocean. Is your home physician knowledgeable about psychiatry? Then you can add extra dimension to your characters and make them very convincing. Is one of your best friends a truck driver? You might have a unique twist about Mesoamerican history here. Sum everything up when the right moment shows up to make the story interesting to your reader - learn what being an editor who reads other peoples´ fiction is right. Thanks for your video. Best wishes from Iceland.
I'm not sure that it's good advice to keep the length on your character's lines short. If we look at the classics there is tendency for monologuing that we can't really pin as bad writing. Even in my experience I've noticed that in conversation people will talk in that manner, not everytime but it's more common than not. It really depends on the situation and the context. Dialouge doesn't need to be like passing of a ball all the time. Sometimes we talk and others interrupt, build on top of that, etc. I think that this writing habit of shorter and to the point prose is more common in american authors and not so much in europe or asia. Great video nonetheless
if there is a need for the character to have longer dialogue or get stuck into a topic then of course you should do it! but its when i edit novels that i find these types of long monologues are often very repetitive and COULD be said in a much punchier way. (also im actually european, just learned english from a canadian xD)
I think it depends on the character! To flip it, short lines might be ill-fitting on a mentor or royal figure. Think about how weird it would be if Dumbledore said, "Oh yeah, let's kill some Horcruxes."
I'm curious how you define a subplot, based on your example on avoiding static conversation around the 8-minute mark of the video. My idea of a subplot is very different from the example you give, but since I'm not a native english speaker, I have had troubles before interpreting writing jargon before.
oh, i think that's just my own thing tbh! i call it a 'scene subplot' specifically, or a 'scene thread' in other cases. but it's basically a mini narrative within a scene, and i find it particularly useful when writing a convo-heavy scene. for example, if the scene is happening in a canoe, like one of the examples I gave, you can create a scene subplot from it, where you foreshadow the canoe tipping by one of the characters making it unstable, or continously leaning too far out, and as the conversation gets more heated, it climaxes with the canoe tipping, which ties up your scene subplot. you can do this method with pretty much any conversation, just using props or setting or activities.
I recently read The Recognitions by William Gaddis. It is notoriously one of the most difficult books to read ever written written, right up there with Faulkner and Pynchon. Took me 4 months to get through it. But my point is that this is an example of dialog done a bit TOO realistically, in my opinion. Characters drift off in the middle of sentences, or change topics without warning. They make obscure references to events and people without specifying who or what they are, because they know that the people they are talking to will understand. They say nothing when that is what's called for. It reads EXACTLY how people really speak, but it is extremely difficult to follow. (Oh, and don't get me started on how he uses em dashes to introduce dialog instead of quotations marks). My point is, your characters should speak like real people, but only up to a point, unless you want your readers to tune out because they can't follow the dialog.
Comment on your no subtext thing... I agree with you in regards to writing most characters, but if you have a character whose whole thing is that they have a strong moral code that they invented for themselves and they highly value honesty and maybe they have a psychology background of at very least having taken a college class or two on the subject of psychology then everything that you're saying is bad might be good when talking about this one specific type of character that I'm describing. Because this isn't how most people are, but some people are the opposite of most people on at least one thing and some people are like the character I've described above.
totally! none of my advice should be applied as an umbrella over everything, and as always -- when you do something with purpose or make any creative choice and you know WHY you made it, then it can't be wrong or a mistake! i have a super blunt/honest character in my novel as well, but it's made obvious that that's just how she is and always has been and it's one of her best quirks that the protagonist is actually jealous of
“No one talks like that” Monologuing. You’ve never met a narcissist. 😂😭 Gets to the point “how are you feeling?” “Fine”. I don’t think you’ve met neurodivergent people, either. Gets to props.
FIRST-If one is handwashing dishes, then DO NOT DRY THEM! That is what dish racks are for. This is basic kitchen hygiene that everyone should know by now. It will only cross-contaminate all of your dishes with a variety of nasty things. (If you are having your characters dry the dishes so it later sets up a whole dinner party getting sick, then that's fine.) Now, realism & dialogue... People want 'realistic' dialogue, by which they mean, nothing even remotely close to how people speak to each other in real life. I've commented on this before, so I'll leave it there. For the most part, these are good tips; although, I don't think a gumshoe running down leads is going to be putting a lot of emotion into his words. Use everything with a grain of salt (much like showing & telling: use both, shake things up). Keep up the good work. I wish you well.
Use a clean dish towel each time you do a batch of dishes. Not the same bloody one for a week straight. No one has ever gotten sick from hand dried dishes. 😂
@@kanashiiookami6537 And that is how cross-contamination occurs. one little spot of salmonella then gets transferred to every dish in the sink. Then you have Death standing about, pointing a skeletal finger saying, "It was the Salmon Moose."
No, not so much. Not everybody is passive-aggressive. Some people actually say precisely what they mean because it saves a great deal of time and effort. You are projecting.
True. That is why so many people are labeled as extroverted or blunt or even as assholes. They say what they gotta say. I'm one of those. And I don't care what people say. We are all different. It is what it is. Not everyone hides out of fear of not fitting in.
Okay so let’s say for the sake of example that you as have killed your friend, if your friend’s death were to come up in conversation would you immediately admit to it because you say what’s on your mind? Probably not, I think she means characters dancing around embarrassing, shameful or otherwise emotional subjects that they’d not want to share. Not immediately telling someone the whole truth and nothing but the truth doesn’t make you passive aggressive, passive aggressive would refer to pointed remarks, questions etc.
@@Levitatingmarsipan depends on whether or not "I" (character in story) was a sociopath, a psychopath, a religious or political zealot, etc. There are plenty of types of people who would proudly announce their culpability (see zealots), redirect (sociopath) or possibly not even remember having done so (psychopath). Yes, there is subtext. Yes, some characters dance around uncomfortable situations. Yes, parents tell each other things they can't tell their kids (at least until they're older). Yes, one does not tell one's parents the same sort of details one tells to drinking buddies. Yes, there are exceptions. That's actually my point. Her statement was pretty much a blanket for all people everywhere all the time being mealy-mouthed and dancing around stuff in a passive-aggressive way. Not all people do. Some people IRL or characters on the page will actually come out and say precisely what they mean. People on the autism spectrum will often be painfully direct, assuming they're willing to talk at all. It is more characteristic of women to do a complex form of dancing around a subject. It is more characteristic of men to look someone in the eye and tell them exactly what's on their mind. In order to write convincing dialogue, you need to understand the nature of the character speaking. Oprah does not talk like R. Lee Ermey. Having Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger dance around a subject like a high school girl attempting to negotiate the nuances of a new clique would simply not work unless it was being done for comedic effect. The point remains: not everybody is passive-aggressive and not everybody dances around the subject. "Hell yeah, I shot him. If he said to you what he said to me, you'd have shot him first and we wouldn't be having this conversation."
