In episode sixty-four of the Life Writers Vlog, we dive into my book, Eating an Elephant: Write Your Life One Bite at a Time.
Today, we explore bite #40, “What Do They Sound Like?” which encourages writers to characterize people in their stories by describing how they sound.
Include unique voices, tones, accents, sayings, and more to make your characters more than names on the page.
Remember, the only way to do this wrong is to not do it at all. Happy writing!
If you liked what you just watched, sign up to be notified of future vlog posts, Sunday stories, and upcoming events, and use the buttons below to share this episode on social media or with a friend who might enjoy it.
I joined in to listen and learn. Guess what? Patricia’s mouth was running but no sound! Go figure But anyway, I reloaded and everything turned out well. Good points. Thanks Patricia.
My father-in-law used Reklar for regular, and Batry for Battery, and often replaced J with CH, so Johnny sounded like Chonny. Every now and then, he’d end a sentence with “don’t cha know.” My wife sprinkles the phrase “you know what I mean?” in her speech. Mom had some very Emily Post vibes. Her standard response to questions like “why can’t I wear jeans to church?” was “It just isn’t done,” as if that was definitive. For me, the gestures are the hardest to remember. In later years, Mom didn’t want to do video calls, so I couldn’t see her,… Read more »
Thank you again for this post. It made me think about one of my aunts who had a quirky way of getting a story out. She repeated “you know” and “Okay?” as a question with a lilt at the end of her telling something, almost constantly. I went back and read a raw transcript of an interview I did with her, and could feel her personality as I read it. I need some practical tips on how to write her story’s dialogue so that her voice comes through while still making sense. That will be an editing challenge – the… Read more »
You know, I was thinking the same thing. I was reviewing a story with the read-aloud function and came across some dialogue. I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to hear the dialogue with distinct voices? Then I thought, actors probably have something for reading and practicing lines. Sure enough, there is an app for that. I’m thinking about trying it out on dialogue sections. I plan to use it as a tool to tweak in a trial-and-error method. You know, run it through, tweak, run it through again. I can’t think of another way right now.
I am interested – how can an actor speaking written dialog be a tool for writers. My mind ponders…
an AI actor. I think my idea is to make the dialogue as realistic as possible. Let’s say you’re working on a bit of dialogue in a story, but you aren’t sure it sounds “real” or the way you remember it. So I thought: what if you could hear or witness the conversation as it was spoken? Let’s say you had a conversation between you and your mom. You make two copies of the text, and give them to two friends, then ask them to each take a part and act it out, or read it out. Would that help… Read more »
Ah! Now I understand. That sounds like a fun experiment! Let us know!
Frightful thoughts raced through my mind—Coach has more first-rate ballers than Hef has playmates. Other than as a minder for keeping his star quarterback out of trouble, he doesn’t really need me. Having failed in my primary job, I feel no-count on his depth chart. Why’m I responsible for being Kenny’s babysitter, anyway? Now, you see, back in high school, I hadn’t been the class brain. To be frank, our country school couldn’t afford one. But I had risen a far piece up the roster from the dunce. Guess it began there. I recognized I was better than average at… Read more »