This is some of the best, maybe the best, advice I’ve ever gotten about character.
It’s a neat little question to ask whenever a character does it says something. Why does this matter? Which for me is like asking “Why am I telling the reader this? What happens later that makes this salient? (That’s a concept I owe to George Saunders and his wonderful essays in “Story Club.”
Great breakdown. I have just found you and am astounded this, as well as some of your other posts, haven't gone viral. Thankfully I have a long international flight leaving in 3 hours and can immerse my self in your quality tips. Who needs inflight movies when there is quality writing available.
I, too, have struggled with trying to make characters sound different, especially from similar backgrounds or socioeconomic levels. One thing I'm working on is diving into how their character strengths or weaknesses affect how they speak. So if one character is a hot head, they might interrupt others. Or if another character is a good listener, then they speak last and sum up everyone else's points. Thinking about how personality affects speech, not just the actual words used, but how it's employed in a situation has helped me create characters that sound distinctively like themselves. What do you think?
I think this sounds perfect! It's such a strong way of developing your characters so that readers can see what they're like – much better than you just saying 'he was a hot head' IMO.
So true! One of the reasons I like Kindle unlimited is that I get a chance to read books that need work…found this example in a recent romance. "The two sexy men prowled across the room. Jaden moved like a panther. Axe moved like a predator.”
And I was like, really? You're just going to tell us this about them and not develop it through organic interactions that draw us in? It's like writers want to put a stamp on the character's forehead with a label…
Another great post, Abi, you're so good at this. I think I need to come back and reread this in a day or two. There's so much to think about and process.
Just wanted to pop back and say I've reread this and I realise I still need to tinker with my characters' speech. Some of them sound a bit too 'samey.'
One thing I was unsure about at first - much of my plot is set in a language school where students, inevitably, make mistakes ('I must to go toilet, teacher!') but I think I've got a good beat on how to not overdo and make sure the mistakes are serving a purpose and aren't just for pure gimmicky effect.
That is particularly hard, but definitely agree you don't want to overdo the mistakes so it feels like a gimmick! Sometimes you might need to smooth over the speech so it doesn't have the mistakes that they might in reality – because it might feel gimmicky or hard to read – but still use very simple language/vocab to subtly show they are not quite fluent yet. Such an interesting case!!
This is some of the best, maybe the best, advice I’ve ever gotten about character.
It’s a neat little question to ask whenever a character does it says something. Why does this matter? Which for me is like asking “Why am I telling the reader this? What happens later that makes this salient? (That’s a concept I owe to George Saunders and his wonderful essays in “Story Club.”
Great breakdown. I have just found you and am astounded this, as well as some of your other posts, haven't gone viral. Thankfully I have a long international flight leaving in 3 hours and can immerse my self in your quality tips. Who needs inflight movies when there is quality writing available.
Thank you so much and I'm pleased my posts are helping you!
I, too, have struggled with trying to make characters sound different, especially from similar backgrounds or socioeconomic levels. One thing I'm working on is diving into how their character strengths or weaknesses affect how they speak. So if one character is a hot head, they might interrupt others. Or if another character is a good listener, then they speak last and sum up everyone else's points. Thinking about how personality affects speech, not just the actual words used, but how it's employed in a situation has helped me create characters that sound distinctively like themselves. What do you think?
I think this sounds perfect! It's such a strong way of developing your characters so that readers can see what they're like – much better than you just saying 'he was a hot head' IMO.
So true! One of the reasons I like Kindle unlimited is that I get a chance to read books that need work…found this example in a recent romance. "The two sexy men prowled across the room. Jaden moved like a panther. Axe moved like a predator.”
And I was like, really? You're just going to tell us this about them and not develop it through organic interactions that draw us in? It's like writers want to put a stamp on the character's forehead with a label…
Another great post, Abi, you're so good at this. I think I need to come back and reread this in a day or two. There's so much to think about and process.
That's so lovely to hear, thank you! I'm pleased it's helping you.
Just wanted to pop back and say I've reread this and I realise I still need to tinker with my characters' speech. Some of them sound a bit too 'samey.'
One thing I was unsure about at first - much of my plot is set in a language school where students, inevitably, make mistakes ('I must to go toilet, teacher!') but I think I've got a good beat on how to not overdo and make sure the mistakes are serving a purpose and aren't just for pure gimmicky effect.
That is particularly hard, but definitely agree you don't want to overdo the mistakes so it feels like a gimmick! Sometimes you might need to smooth over the speech so it doesn't have the mistakes that they might in reality – because it might feel gimmicky or hard to read – but still use very simple language/vocab to subtly show they are not quite fluent yet. Such an interesting case!!