DAE realize they were writing dialogue wrong after reading a script from a play?

I was working on this short story for my writing group and kept getting feedback that my characters all "sounded the same." I couldn't figure out why. Then I picked up a copy of Our Town at a garage sale and noticed how every character had like... a different rhythm. Like the Stage Manager talks long and rambly, but Emily says real short sentences. I went back and looked at my stuff and every single one of my characters used the same sentence length and vocabulary. Felt pretty dumb honestly. Has anyone else had a specific moment where you saw how a pro did something and it clicked?

2 comments

2 Comments

emery1023h ago

Yeah it's like we spend all this time trying to make characters act different but forget they gotta sound different too. Reading a real script is basically getting hit in the face with how obvious it should have been all along. I mean who knew that a teenage girl and a grumpy old man probably don't talk exactly the same way, ya know?

wendy_lee481d ago

Oh the "sounded the same" feedback hits hard lol. I had a similar moment but with a totally different thing. I was reading a script from Doubt and noticed how Sister Aloysius talks all clipped and formal, but Mrs. Miller uses these broken, hesitant sentences like "I don't know what you want from me." And I realized my characters all sounded like I was just having them talk in my own voice basically. Like my tough guy character would say "I suppose that is troubling" instead of "That's messed up, man." It took reading that play for me to finally see it.