That moment I realized all my characters sounded the same

I was critiquing a story for a friend 2 months ago and she goes "every single one of your characters talks like you do in real life." I read back through my last 3 pieces and yeah she was totally right. I had been using the same slang and sentence patterns for the hero, the villain, and a 70 year old grandma. Has anyone else found a trick for breaking out of your own voice when writing dialogue?

3 comments

3 Comments

kai_park2mo ago

Wait, so you're telling me my 70 year old grandma character shouldn't talk like she just got back from a skatepark? Who knew.

park.abby15d ago

Ugh honestly it's a whole mood though. Ngl I've accidentally written a grandpa character who sounded like he was about to drop the sickest beatbox routine. Tbh it's a struggle trying to figure out what "old person slang" even is, especially when my only frame of reference is memes and my own bad life choices. I guess we all just gotta embrace the chaos and let our characters be cringe in peace.

willow_morgan2mo agoMost Upvoted

Wait, is that actually a bad thing though?