A critique group told me my characters all sounded the same

I posted a character lineup in a feedback thread last month and someone pointed out that every single one of them used the same sarcastic tone. I didn't see it at first but when I read the dialogue out loud I cringed. So I went back and gave each character a specific speech pattern. One talks in short clipped sentences. Another rambles. It made a huge difference in how the piece reads. Has anyone else had to rework their dialogue after similar feedback?

2 comments

2 Comments

rosepark11d ago

Kurt Vonnegut had this rule about giving each character at least one verbal tic or habit. I read it in one of his essays years ago and it stuck with me. Your fix sounds like exactly that - good call on reading it out loud too, that catches everything.

ryan_hart3810d ago

Yeah that verbal tic trick is gold @rosepark, really makes characters feel like actual people instead of just words on a page.