Charcaterization in Dialogue

[SeverinR]

I have a take on this. What if you had two characters who were identical twins. Same upbringing, generally the same experiences, similar attitudes, etc etc.

What would be the one thing verbally that would differentiate one from the other if the only sense available to you was your hearing? As a writer you would need to think of that one thing.

I can only think of potentially two, timing and linked in with that, intonation derived from how they breathe between words, structuring their sentences accordingly. As a writer we can only apply pacing to the dialogue and perhaps that would be the difference.

What do you reckon?

They are identical and had extremely similar upbringing, so they would not have much difference in speech/dialog patterns, but they are two unique people. You would have to think of this when using their dialog. Usually one twin is more outgoing, one is usually the leader. They might even occasionally speak together as if one mind, but they would also have their own speaking style, very similar to each other but unique. It can be done, but you must make sure they are not two of the same person.

 

[Helen]

What tools do you use, as a writer, to define the distinctions between characters?

Archetypes.

e.g. a mentor has a different purpose than a shape shifter. Each defines the character's role and what the character will do and say. And also, when they'll appear in the story.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Archetypes.

e.g. a mentor has a different purpose than a shape shifter. Each defines the character's role and what the character will do and say. And also, when they'll appear in the story.

I was referring to the use of dialogue to add another layer of texture to the character, in addition to other methods like archetypes & background stories....distinctions that can be heard in speech and can add to or define differences between speakers.

 

[Helen]

Well,

a) Dialogue references underlying principles. For example, characters go through an awakening. And dialogue like "go to sleep" may seem innocuous but actually references that.

b) The arc you push them through would reflect their positions along the way. That would reflect through their speech (and lets not forget actions).

c) Trauma (in its many forms) will have been suffered somewhere, and that can reflect in speech and the correction of it, rather like the stammer in The King's Speech. Or, quite often, the learning or increasing expertise with language. Or some kind of verbal quirk.

But it all roots back to arc. In other words, you're not just making it up - it is a result of where your character starts and where you're trying to take the character, usually on the thematic level.

 

[Addison]

Dialogue is one of the three character-defining tools. The other two being thought and action. But dialogue is the most and better used tool. Everyone has a different way of saying something. They raise their voices to different things, they use different vocabularies, different slang etc.
In my WIP I have one character who doesn't know when to shut up, which gets him punched a lot by another character who says little but has a loud voice. If I was to give just a small paragraph of description for a situation near the end of the book I'm confident that, by dialogue alone, the reader could tell who was talking when.

Oh, one other tip, if your character has a southern accent or any sort of accent, don't write the dialogue to fit the words. jsut write, "He/She spoke with a thick southern accent." and write the dialogue in complete words. There is some space and times when you can exchange a letter for an apostrophe, as JK Rowling did with Hagrid's dialogue. But anything more than that will throw the readers.