How a character
speaks tells us who they are. Hence, no two characters should sound alike in
your story.
Dialogue is the
writer’s chance to give the character a unique voice, so it’s imperative that
the characters speak uniquely. This means the tone of the words (think the
temperament of the character—angry people would sound crisp while gentle people
would use kind words), and the style (such as gang slang versus Wall Street
uptight) and the pacing (fast or slow, choppy or elaborate) should feel
one-of-a-kind.
Maybe the hero
has a drawl so he cuts ‘ings’ off verbs and speaks in short sentences, often
using idioms (such as “Clothes don’t make the man” or “Waste not want not”).
While the antagonist speaks using British English phrases and long, proper
sentences that sound stiff.
Even when there is no dialogue tag or narrative
introduction of the characters, we should be able to distinguish the characters by
their dialogue alone. That’s good characterization through dialogue.
Consider Context to Build Characterization
Consider these
examples of how the context of a character’s life (authors should list
these for each character) also affects a character’s dialogue, both in style
and tone, and thus build characterization:
Career: A detective character will not
choose the same words as a farmer.
Relationship: A mother doesn’t speak
the same as a daughter when they are together.
Situational: A perp doesn’t speak the
same as a victim, together or not.
Gender: Men do not speak the same as
women, especially when together. Overall, women use more pronouns (I) and
articles (it, them), while men use yes/no more often and name people, places
and things directly.
Religion: Buddhists monks don’t speak
the same as Christian priests. Unless it’s a bad limerick.
Race, creed, nationality, or color: An
African American does not speak the same as a black African. Please avoid
misspelling or abbreviating words to show ethnicity, as it often backfires or
is inappropriate.
Historical: A medieval knight will not
speak the same as a modern English Baron, despite being raised in the same
country or even county of origin.
Medical: Grandparents with cancer do
not speak the same about their disease as children with cancer.
Perspective: A depressed character will
not see the same tree like a jovial character. This aspect is key to revealing
the heart and mental state of a character.
There are so many
more potential contexts, too many to be listed here. The point is to consider what makes each
character unique, and apply these differences to their speech via word choice,
phrasing, tempo, structure, tone and style.
For example: Especially in YA
or where young characters are represented, consider
hopes and dreams and expectations. Basically, think of who the character
“expects” to be when they grow up as equally important to their current
background. Adults look at where they’ve been to self-define. Young people
self-define themselves based on how they WILL surpass their parents (or at
least not repeat their parents’ mistakes). It’s this hopefulness, and often
haughtiness, that elevates their sense of promise and self. I’ll leave it up to
you to decide if that’s a good or bad characteristic.
The same could be used for any character experiencing dramatic shifts in personality or situation. With the shift to another creature, such as a shape-shifter, typically comes emotional resistance. The vampire hero who refuses to feed off humans. The werewolf heroine who won’t hunt. Why not mix it up? A vampire or werewolf who loves to be a predator might be a refreshing change."
So go forth and forge individuals in your story, my little author angels, not carbon copies of each other. Otherwise, you might as well say "ditto" in dialogue instead of anything interesting.
Yours truly,
The Editor Devil
