Shoutout to the moment I realized I was killing my characters' voices

For like a year I wrote every single character with the same sarcastic, quippy tone because I thought it sounded clever. I didn't notice until my critique group pointed out that my grumpy old wizard and my bubbly teenager both used the word 'literally' in the same paragraph. That's when it clicked. I had been copying dialogue from my favorite TV shows without realizing it. Now I actually read each line out loud to check if it fits the character, not me. It feels like a huge weight off my writing. Has anyone else had that cringe moment where you realize all your characters sound the same?

3 comments

3 Comments

hart.ryan28d ago

Man I felt this in my soul lol. My first draft had a hardened bounty hunter and a shy librarian both saying "omg literally stop" in the same conversation. The bounty hunter also kept using the word "like" as a filler and I was sitting there thinking wow this professional killer talks like a 14 year old at a mall. Reading out loud is a lifesaver though, even if my neighbors probably think I'm losing it arguing with myself in different voices.

kim.emma28d ago

I actually don't mind when characters share some speech patterns because it feels more like real people do that. Like I know plenty of tough guys who talk like normal people when they're off the clock. A bounty hunter might use "like" or "literally" because they grew up around those words just like everyone else.

bettymurphy28d ago

Honestly never looked at it that way before but you got me thinking. Used to be one of those people who got annoyed if my tough characters said "literally" or "like" but you're right, people talk how they talk. My neighbor's a retired cop and he drops "literally" into every other sentence even when he's telling hunting stories. Makes me wonder if I've been writing fake versions of people instead of real ones all this time. Might have to go back through some old stuff and see how bad it actually is lol.