Character Voice

sspunisher · Jun 26, 2005

One of my main problems when writing is that I tend to mesh dialogue tendencies between some characters, leaving a "universal voice" among some of my characters' dialogue. I'm American, so obviously there's a writing bias (for lack of a better term), in my dialogue, and I find these things sneaking in my dialogue every now and then.

Obviously if some actors were to ever pick up my script, the voices would be much more differentiated on screen, but I'm trying to differentiate them just a bit more on the script so it's an easier, more realistic and enjoyable read.

Any books or websites out there you guys reccomend on a topic like this?

Or some personal experience you'd like to share in hopes that I might figure out how to approach this problem?

dpaterso · Jun 27, 2005

I don't know if this is any help...

Do you visit screenwriter Bill Martell's website? Bill shares his knowledge and experiences generously. The site provides a "daily tip" that's often worth remembering because it comes from Bill's clever analysis of movies and scripts, and there's also an interesting bunch of permanent articles, plus many of Bill's numerous produced scripts. Mr. Martell can tell you exactly why something works so well, and point right at the things that don't work and can cause a movie to fail.

There have been a few daily tips on dialogue. One that sticks with me was a trick of Bill's where he gave a character an unusual catchphrase which was a funny variant of "bullsh!t". Every time the character said this it defined the character as well as tickling the audience's funny bone. I similiarly try to think up a particular way my character(s) might say something that's not so blatantly weird it might raise eyebrows, but is certainly unique to them, so that if you turned the lights out and they said it, you'd know who was talking. Shrug, just an idea.

-Derek
Derek's Web Page - stories, screenplays, novels, insanity.

maestrowork · Jun 27, 2005

Good suggestion, Derek.

The "universal voice" problem is common in both screenwriting and novels. That's when we say, "all the characters sound the same" or "they're cardboard cutouts." The problem is when the characters are not themselves -- they are just there to move the plot along and spew information. This problem plagues a lot of writers, from novices to pros.

You really need to know your characters and liste to how they talk (and I'm not talking about stereotypes like racial or ghetto speech patterns). I'm talking about rhythm, word choices, nuances. When you're out, listen to other people's conversation and how they talk. When you're here on AW, read how people "talk" by reading their posts, and you will find many different voices and personalities. Great dialogue starts with great characters. So you need to really get to know yours.

Also, read your script out loud, and if the characters all sound like one person, or worse, sound like YOU, then you know you have a problem. Sometimes screen writers also use actors to read their scripts, so they know how the dialogue's going to sound coming from an actor's mouth... it can be rude awakening when the the dialogue is stilted, homogenous, or flat.

There are good books on dialogue. I really like "Writing Dialogue" by Tom Chiarella.

Character Voice

sspunisher

dpaterso

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maestrowork

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