Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A Ensuring that character dialogues sound like they are coming from different people

I am wondering if I should make the female characters speak in a different way compared to male characters, and I am wondering how to make sure they all sound different. What are some strategies, ...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by repomonster‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T10:46:38Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/41865
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar repomonster‭ · 2019-12-08T10:46:38Z (over 4 years ago)
I am wondering if I should make the female characters speak in a different way compared to male characters, and I am wondering how to make sure they all sound different.

What are some strategies, techniques, and ideas authors use to make character dialogues sound unique? I feel one way is to show a character's idiosyncrasy by saying things like "I will drink until I pass out", "I want beer!" and the like, but it feels cheap and like bad style. You could also make a character really dumb, but that also is really bad style and most good novels really don't do that.

How do you make it so that each of the 100 characters in a novel doesn't sound like a crazy person having a monologue with himself in a asylum (dark humor)?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-02-02T18:13:39Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 14