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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41875
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41875
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

 **By treating each of your characters as individuals.**

Gender is an important characteristic, but it's not the only one. If all your female characters speak one way and all your male characters another, that is going to be one boring novel.

Many characteristics will change a person's way of speaking: age, level and place of education, field of work/study, social class (both current and childhood), immigration status, number of languages spoken (and which ones), amount of travel in life and to where, and so many more I can't even list them. If it affects personality, it affects how you speak.

Spend some time hanging out in places where people talk but don't mind if you're there listening. Coffee shops, college dorm lounges, parks, playgrounds, supermarkets, bars, etc. Pay attention to how people speak and what they say and take note of what differences you can figure out about them (at least what you can see: ethnicity, gender, age, etc).

Spend time talking with friends, family, and people you don't know. Even among people with similar characteristics, there are differences in how they talk. Take note of them. Imagine if your aunt was one of your characters and your sister another (or any two people you know well). How would they each speak? Different from each other, right?

Imagine each character as a fully-formed human being in a particular stage of life. Ask yourself, what are their life experiences? their hopes and dreams? their disappointments? Once you know their personalities, their ways of speaking will be clearer as well.

Original score: 5