help me with the voices ~

some tips that hopefully help: depending on a character's general disposition, you can use more positive or negative phrasing in their speech. a lot of retail workers do this - for example, saying "i can put you on the order list and we'll have it shipped right to you as soon as we're restocked!" sounds a whole lot more positive than "oh, um, i'm so sorry, we're out of stock at the moment, but um, i can put you on the order list if you'd like to wait a month for the restock, or i can refer you to another item..."

oops ill write a paragraph for u in a bit, i have to go lol

It was late in the evening, but god, it felt like early morning. I was drained of energy, and even the coffee wasn't doing a lot to help. I frequented the little coffeeshop, and I always sat outside, hoping to gain inspiration for my writing from the passerby on the busy street.

Tonight, I was only half awake, stirring my coffee with a finger. The coffee was still rather hot, but it was helping keep me awake, although just barely. My companions were the three others who had been in the shop at the time. They were at the table to support me in my quest to melt off my index finger, but they were slowly starting to seem concerned by my mood. They had been listening to me summarize my story.

"I want to sleep," I remarked at last. "But I think the dialogue in my story is too bland."

Reginald shifted in his seat, setting down the newspaper he had buried his nose in. He folded it up nearly before meeting my gaze with narrowed eyes. "Something you may wish to consider is the background of the character," he suggested at last. "A well educated character may speak more formally than others."

"Younger characters are probably not gonna use super big words!" Emily piped up. "Or good grammar."

"Quite right," Reginald agreed, giving Emily a respectful nod. "The young lady makes an excellent point, but she's leaving out something of dire importance; slang. A modern or 'hip' character may choose to use certain lingo in regular conversation. Do not forget the importance of unique mottos or slogans, either."

"Like your strange hum before you say yes?" I asked. "Or do you think I should repeat whole phrases?"

"It depends on the kind of person the character is!" Emily twirled her hair around her finger, biting her lip as she looked for the right word. "Oh, and this is actually like, a really big one that people forget about, but make sure to use body language to show things about their personality, instead of just having a narrator say what they're like."

"And," Reginald began. "Your dialogue tags are crucial. You certainly wouldn't want to portray the wrong emotion by making a dignified character snap. Perhaps they would raise their voice or add an air of warning, but I don't think your main character, as you've shown her so far, would shout."

"What about accents?" I glanced to my left at Alrik, who had remained silent thus far. I had nearly forgotten him, he was so quiet.

The greying man set down his drink, meeting my eyes evenly. He spoke barely above a whisper, a small wheeze to his words. "Vell, you certainly do not vant to over do it."

"If you use too much phonetic spelling, your reader tends to get lost, tripping up over the words," Reginald murmured. "You don't want reading simple dialogue to become a chore."

"Word choice!" Emily squeaked, jolting upright in her chair. "Use fun words!"

Alrik slid his cup away from his hands to avoid knocking it over. He steepled his fingers, leaning forward. "On one hand, it is good to simply type out zee accent. But." He paused to consider, tilting his head to the side. "It is not bad to suggest an accent's presence vithout zee confusing letters." The German man sighed. "Let zee reader imagine one from experience. Let zee people think of zee voices for you."

"Mm, yes, splendid point Mr. Alrik." Clicking his tongue, Reginald clapped his hands close to my face, giving me a kind smile when I startled awake, realizing I had been dozing off. "Just remember that everyone experiences life differently. Emily may be thrilled by the topic of pets, while Alrik would be bitter, recalling the time his grandmother's cat scratched him as a boy."

"Oh," Alrik groaned, seemingly more to himself than the rest. "Der Metzger."

"And hey," Emily pointed out. "Uhm, uh, and ah are very different noises that match with the people. Like, the rarely-hesitates-when-speaking-but-uses-'ah'-dramatically kind of guy."

"Mm, yes, that too." Reginald checked his watch. "You wouldn't want to be late, now would you?"

"Oh, thank you," I offered a weak smile. "I better get to that story." I wanted to make characters unique enough that I'd be able to write group dialogue scenes without adding tags. "You're the best."

"Any time, girlie!"

"Thank you for joining us, my dear. I do hope you sleep well."

"Good luck vith zee story."

llavoie -- I don't want to clog up the thread, but I wanted to say thank you before I forgot to. It's the little things that keep me writing, heh.

I'm gonna get some sleep (waking up for school in 6 hours!) but I wish you the best of luck with the voices!

Demitraeus Dehlfvaen You know, that's something I haven't really thought of either. Now that I think about it, I do tend to write my characters (especially the backgrounders) from a solitary standpoint, and then I get frustrated when it sounds stiff and formal and bland. I need to throw them in some public situations, ones where they can interact with many people and other characters. Thank you!