Timeline for avoiding making all your characters sound the same
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 29, 2021 at 19:34 | comment | added | Jay | @SF Slang gets dated very quickly. The slang that would make you sound trendy and contemporary when I was a boy in the 1960s is mostly not in use today, and if you used it, people would say, "Wow, he sounds like he's from the 60s. Groovy, baby." I suppose if you're story is firmly set in a particular time period, using slang from that period would help to establish that, but if you're trying to make it more timeless and generic, that would be a problem. Also, as a 62 year old man I'd be careful about trying to use contemporary teenage slang as I'd be likely to get it wrong and sound silly. | |
| Jan 29, 2021 at 19:30 | comment | added | Jay | @hszmv RE British vs American: Sure, and there are many cases of different words in the two dialects. I saw a mystery story once where a British character said, "I have to make a long-distance call to my lawyer", and I thought, wouldn't a British person say "solicitor"? As it turned out that was deliberate. In the end the Brilliant Detective reveals that that statement tipped him off that this person was really an American impersonating whoever it was he claimed to be, because, the detective said, a Briton would have said "I have to make a trunk call to my solicitor." | |
| Jan 29, 2021 at 19:25 | comment | added | Jay | @hszmv On a side track, but yeah, I'm always amused by "un-" style words where we never used the positive version. Like if a cruel person is "ruthless", then is a compassionate person "ruthful"? Etc. | |
| Jan 29, 2021 at 13:32 | comment | added | hszmv | @SF. Or the use of "whelmed" in Young Justice (Robin had a dislike of words with prefixes when the unprefixed version was not used in vernacular. "Whelmed" is an actual word and does mean the opposite of overwhelmed. Astor is not the opposite of disastor, but he mad it a word anyway.). | |
| Jan 29, 2021 at 12:40 | comment | added | SF. | @hszmv Oh, that largely depends on what slang you use. “Our pockets were full of deng, so there was no real need from the point of view of crasting any more pretty polly to tolchock some old veck in an alley and viddy him swim in his blood while we counted the takings and divided by four, nor to do the ultra-violent on some shivering starry grey-haired ptitsa in a shop and go smecking off with the till’s guts.” - ‘A Clockwork Orange’ | |
| Jan 29, 2021 at 12:25 | comment | added | hszmv | I would also add that if you have a British and American character, try and show off that the Brit speaks with the "British Spelling" of the words while the American uses the "American Spelling" in his dialog. | |
| Jan 29, 2021 at 12:23 | comment | added | hszmv | I would avoid slang when possible as it comes off as "Totally Radical, Dude" when tried, acording to Tvtropes article. That said, keep in mind some slang has been around for a long time. Wikipedia has a wonderful time line that shows the use of the word "cool" as in stylish has been in U.S. Vernacular dating back to the 1600s. And I once pointed out to a roleplay group who's story was set in 1899 that calling a cop a "Pig" shouldn't be used then because in 1899, that was your grandpa's slang (it wouldn't come back until the 1960s). | |
| Feb 27, 2020 at 0:45 | comment | added | Tasch | Dude you're a master | |
| Feb 28, 2013 at 1:46 | comment | added | Souta | Oh, how I love your explanations! | |
| Feb 1, 2013 at 0:47 | comment | added | Natural30 | I just registered to upvote this post, because I enjoyed it. | |
| Jan 15, 2013 at 14:27 | vote | accept | Jay | ||
| Jan 2, 2013 at 22:07 | history | answered | SF. | CC BY-SA 3.0 |