Long time lurker, first time asker!
How do you keep different voices/characters in your fics so distinct? I'm writing my first longer than 2k word fic and it's... a time.
First, I'm going to link you the best essay I've ever read about How To Write Canon Character Voices—what's too much accent, what's too little, how to pay attention to word choice and the way they phrase things, etc. It's about Transformers but the skills are transferrable to other fandoms (or original writing). The original essay is down so all I can offer is the archive.org version, but it's worth it.
Second, I'm going to link you this post I wrote about how I study character voices. It's about Hazbin but it shows you the kinds of things I pay attention to when I'm learning a character voice.
Third, I'm going to offer you some extra general advice that isn't in the above posts:
Some people try to make characters sound like themselves by basically parroting their catch phrases or most common quotes. Do that and you're just gonna make your version of the character sound like a robot. (Note: if you're writing a character who only knows how to say a few quotes, that's okay lmao.) The readers already know what the characters said in canon, they're reading a fic to hear them say something new. Example: if you have Bill Cipher arrive on the scene and say "Did you miss me? Admit it, you missed me!" word-for-word, you don't sound like you're writing Bill, you sound like you're quoting Bill from That One Scene where He Said That Thing.
But... directly borrowing characters' quotes is kind of a stepping stone on the way toward figuring out how they speak. Think about things they've already said, but use those quotes as a guide for how to write them.
Example: from that quote above, we get that when Bill shows up around people who definitely did NOT miss him, he just... decides that they did and tells them so. This shows you a bit of his sense of humor (he makes jokes to annoy someone who hates him—it's not even a mean joke, just annoying), a bit of his ego (he knows he's clowning around, but even when he's clowning he's going to say something that makes himself sound popular rather than hated), his casual & familiar attitude with someone he barely knows, his tendency to just request people do what he wants (saying "admit it, you missed me" instead of something like "I know you missed me")... etc.
And I kinda already said this in the Hazbin post, but the most important thing you can do when you're struggling with a character voice is just rewatch their episodes and pay close attention to how they speak (or rewatch their movie scenes, or reread their chapters/comic issues—whatever you're writing about). If they're from a visual/audio medium (TV, movie, podcast, etc), then if need be, read transcripts to see how their voices look when written down. Type down the transcripts yourself if there aren't any—and that's also a good physical exercise to make you slow down and pay attention to how they speak. (You notice where they tend to pause in sentences when you're the one who has to decide where to put commas; you notice their accent when you're the one who has to decide whether that word sounds more like walking or walkin'.)
Pay attention to cadence, accent, interjections, sentence length, active voice, passive voice, preferred vocabulary, preferred slang, word choice, sentence length, sentence complexity, any phrases they're fond of (but again—don't overuse a phrase unless they overuse a phrase), how they tend to refer to the people around them (by first name, last name, any titles, any nicknames—and do they change in different contexts?)... Pay attention to anything you can think of. You want to be able to hear the character's voice clearly in your head—read everything you write in their voice, and if it doesn't sound like their voice in your head, change it.
This is gonna be so harsh but- Actually it isn't going to be harsh at all I thought this through a lot. It was gonna be harsh at first but ahn fuck it I'll still say it. Damn it really seems like everyone in Haruka's case was a bit negligent.
Like I'm still curious how he even got near the second kid to be honest since the details were scarce on that but this is mostly gushing about how good that video was and how it wrapped up mostly everything about this case.
Me reading the report on Haruka,
Born in 1997, in Nagaoka, Niigata. From an early age Haruka Sakurai developed more slowly than his peers. His overprotective parents would not accept that their child had developmental delays, and did not provide him with an educational environment suited to his needs. The gap in developmental achievements between him and his peers kept widening, so much so that when Haruka 15 years old, he could still not adequately read kanji.
It was around that time that his parents simply gave up, and they shift from overprotective to disinterest. From then forth, his parents acted as if Haruka did not exist. Haruka tried to regain his parents' attention by causing problems and disturbances, but his parents' attention was never directed at him again.
Haruka starts to kill animals in secret from around that time. He killed insects, he killed mice, he killed stray cats and dogs.
He felt relieved that there was life in the world that was inferior to him. Haruka's actions soon escalate, and he starts to kill pet dogs and cats as well.
The following day, as he witness the tormented screams of the people who had suddenly lost a life they so cherished, he has a deep emotional reaction where he feels for the very first time that he is indeed connected to the world. The neighborhood increased its security soon afterwards, and Haruka's unsophisticated crime soon came to light.
The police detained and questioned him harshly. Haruka experiences a heightened sense of excitement with all of this interest and attention directed at himself.
Haruka Metamorphosis of the Weak 2:55s,
"It felt so strange warden...! Warden-san, you forgave me so, so much, it felt like a whole lot of people had accepted me! Ahh... It was the first time I've ever felt something like that!"
When he saw the faces of his parents, who were called in for him and him alone, that heightened excitement reached a fever pitch, and he fainted.
The day he was released, Haruka committed murder. The victim was a small child, clearly much less powerful than himself. It was the day of the fireworks festival. He targeted the child who had strayed away from her parents.
Haruka weeps, as he clumsily hides the body,
"This child's life was probably much more valuable than my own." "A future much brighter than mine was probably awaiting this child."
Haruka Metamorphosis of the Weak 2:30s
"It is. I felt uneasy about it this whole time... Someone as worthless as me having killed someone to gain attention, and a person who surely had more worth and more of a future than me, at that..."
"Why did I end up like this?"
Haruka cried, night after night after that, and repented.
He thinks about the future of the child he murdered, and claws at his chest. When he comes to, he was strangling the neck of a second child.
I really love the implication here that he wasn't cognizant of his attack on the second child.
When he comes to, he was strangling the neck of a second child.
As well as the report just saying he strangled the other kid. Yes this kid is still a victim but he was not murdered like the other girl. Milgram has been making it a note since the trial three commencement to not call anything outside of murder, murder. Something I really love with how ambiguity has been used over the course of the series to claim anything outside of murder can be murder if stretched far enough.
Not specifying murder with the attack of the second child like with the case of Shidou and Amane in contrast to Haruka and Mahiru's cases to me highlights that the second incident did not escalate to murder. Because if it did they would have added clarification which Milgram has been great at doing in other cases. So this is more than likely just assault and not even attempted murder because as the report states Haruka was not cognizant when he was doing this.
Outside of that- I'm about to say some shit that sounds like victim blaming but hear me out all the way it's not that I swear.
The first incident was also a byproduct of parental negligence. Certainly the report tries to blame the child for wandering off from her parents. Like ahn well she wandered off but like she was with another child and her parents brought her there to the event. I mean it is the responsibility of the parent(s) or guardian(s) to watch the child when at a crowded public event venue where one is not sure of the intentions of all parties present.
I'm sorry I feel bad for her parents and this truly was a traumatizing and life destroying event them losing their child. However, my father wouldn't let me as a child walk around a fireworks show alone or with friends without him like a little ways away. This was contributed to by gun issues in the US but at the same time, the size of crowds at those sort of events, and how easy it is to lose a child at big events or in crowds. Yeah no he was not letting go of my hand when I was seven to high school actually.
Hell Haruka's mom does that and we have documented proof of his parents negligence now.
However, I'm once again proposing that possibly the neighborhood Haruka grew up in/around was simply so gated and peaceful residents could not comprehend, imagine, or even anticipate anything like this happening within it.
Making this less willful negligence on the girls parents part and back on Haruka's parents.
Because they knew their child was just released for killing animals. Of course at this point Haruka was a grown man he was in his twenties. One could be excused for believing what he did was now beyond his parents control. However he was still to his own admission with no information claiming the contrary provided by Milgram in the report,
Q.07 Tell us your family structure.
Haruka: My father and my mother and me.
A dependent of and living with his parents. To take it further despite being an adult when taken to be questioned by the police- The authorities called his parents in. Even if Haruka was lying about still living with his family which I highly doubt. His parents were both called in, made aware of his behavior, and still continued to do nothing to intervene or seek help for him.
Furthermore, they neglected to warn anyone of the risk he posed to others in their community animal or person. Then the authorities released Haruka and instead of even attempting to better supervise him his parents to Milgram's admission continued on as though he did not exist,
Haruka tried to regain his parents' attention by causing problems and disturbances, but his parents' attention was never directed at him again.
This allowed him to just go out completely unsupervised by his parents or restrained by the law which led to a child's death. Now I'm not gonna blame the authorities they more than likely kept Haruka for as long as they could considering the severity of his crime. They even reprimanded him for his actions and informed his immediate family and guardians of his behavior. At best probably went,
"Sir and madam we are releasing your son back into your care after this horrendous incident please move forward with getting him proper help and treatment as not to repeat this."
The Sakurai parents in response to this information and possible reasonable request. No he can just wander outside alone still actually. He's a disappointment he'll never get it-
Let's speak on his parents real quick.
Anyone else remember when the mom was just getting blamed for this and no one wanted to even take a crack at the internalized bigotry and ableism parents (and people in general) carry in them when it comes developmental delays and disorders.
It was just abuse and neglect not anyone going,
Let's discuss how parents in particular behave as though having any mental health difficulties or diagnoses is a death sentence. How they behave as personally ashamed that their child is experiencing these setbacks. As well as on some level have internalized that their children having these issues reflects poorly on them genetically and as parents.
How Haruka's parents felt this way so much about what Haruka having these delays and possible diagnoses would mean about them as parents/people and for Haruka and his future that they decided like a lot of parents do they were just not gonna think about it. No instead they were just going to pretend everything was fine, there was no problem, their son was fine and did not need any extra help or accommodations. He was just like every other child because he had to be because if he wasn't what did that mean about them.
If Haruka doesn't catch up that's a personal failing not something they could have prevented because he's fine, he just needs a little extra at home attention, he isn't having those sorts of serious problems. He's not a weakling he doesn't have weaknesses or delays when it comes to his growth and education. He's a good kid.
Love that they added this line to allude to the fact it was definitely his parents being like that,
His overprotective parents would not accept that their child had developmental delays, and did not provide him with an educational environment suited to his needs.
Like I love that they note they were overprotective at first here.
That the series even implies that it was Haruka's parents' overprotectiveness and possibly fear of having their kid labeled as one of those kids that led to them not getting him accommodations that would have allowed for him to thrive. Because that is usually what causes that. Many people who are ruining their kids futures due to deeply rooted and unchecked ableism think they're helping them. They do not get up and think I'm about to ruin my kids life for no reason.
They get up and they think what many people think,
"Oh no if it's that then my kid will get bullied, my kid won't be able to get a job, my kid will have to carry this stigmatizing label on them for the rest of their lives. I'm not going to do that to my kid. Because I know how people who are different get treated. We can just figure it out in the home. If I put in a little more work the problem should fix itself. They're just a little behind it's not that big of an issue. They just move at their own pace we can work through it at home."
People who think this way truly believe that they are making their child's life easier by having them be in the same classes as everyone else their age, that their making sure that their kids don't stand out negatively for being different, or actively being shown getting treated different.
Leading to the kid seeing that they can't keep up with their peers, falling behind, and internalizing that they were just born wrong. All the while the parents who know there's a problem but don't want to put a name to that or admit that become more and more frustrated going,
"If you just apply yourself then you can get this. I know that you're smarter than this. Are you really trying. You can do x just fine so why can't you do y? Are you just being lazy? Or do you just act like you don't know to get this extra attention from me. We've been over this a million times. It's not that difficult."
Then they just go cold they just distance themselves entirely. Because they begin to associate the child being bad at school as another form of attention seeking behavior and believe that if they stop coddling them like they have been up until that point they'll figure it out. Because the world isn't going to be easy on them so better to be tough now.
Also this all definitely puts a new spin on that trial one question and answer.
Q.14 What’s an event that’s stuck in your memory?
Haruka: Fireworks
Haruka cried, night after night after that, and repented. He thinks about the future of the child he murdered, and claws at his chest.
This also explains why Weakness was like that. He wasn't saying yes it was me to get more attention he was admitting that the reason this girl was missing or found dead was because of him. Something that only makes sense now given the tidbit about him hiding the body. He was literally confessing.
Haruka weeps, as he clumsily hides the body,
Just all around really good stuff in this report. That wraps everything up so well.
((Part 2 here since tumblr only allows 30 images per post!!)
I would've added some more characters, but they'd just kinda be reiterating the same thing (also I got lazy)
Spamton is a very interesting character. Anybody who had payed attention to Deltarune after chapter 2 would know this. And his sheer popularity makes sense. His odd way of speaking, the perfect mix of quirkiness and terrifying insanity, the tragic backstory. The elements are all there to make a insanely well written character. But uh- I'm not here to gush about how good of a character Spamton is. (I mean, technically I am) I'm here to look at his character specifically through the lens of him being a spam bot.
Despite what the addisons said about Spamton being "like the rest of us," I think Spamton always was meant to be a little different. The way his appearance is very similar to the addisons but not quite the same - I'm pretty sure his marketing tactics followed the same principle. Whether it was because he was simply a bit more pushy with his advertisements, or that there was something a bit unnerving about his character even before gaster/the mysterious entity came into play, I'm sure there was a reason the customers ignored him. Just like how people ignore real life spam emails. They're annoying, unsafe, weird, stupid. Spamton was always meant to be ignored. To be that one email guy popping up at people with advertisements on the streets. People just DON'T LIKE SPAM.
Then the mysterious entity came into Spamton's life. Somehow, defying all logic, they made spam emails popular. They made Spamton popular. But they also gave him knowledge on the nature of their world. That everything is controlled by the plot and other such unseen forces, and that nobody can truly make their own decisions in this world. With this, Spamton knew his popularity really wasn't supposed to have happened in the first place, but everybody already loved him, (well, the addisons left him- but that was just because they were jealous! He didn't need them!) and he'd ride the wave as high as it'd take him.
But it all came crashing sooner than even Spamton expected. Without the entity's help, the world corrected itself, and everybody went right back to hating spam emails. Spamton would go back to being that forgetful email guy. No, it was even worse now. At least back then he had some people that were friendly to him. Now... he had nobody. He didn't even have a house.
He was always meant to be this way, wasn't he? No matter how hard he tried, the world simply wouldn't let him be a big shot. Spamton absolutely hated that. He wanted to fight back against this cruel world. Now, he didn’t just want his popularity back, he wanted freedom. To escape the confines of this story and his role as a personified spam bot, to become something… more. To truly become a [BIG SHOT]!
But that didn’t change the fact he was still a spam bot. And what do spam bots do? They just keep sending emails to as many people as possible, just in the off chance somebody will click that link. That’s exactly what Spamton does to try to gain his freedom. He latched on to a ray of hope- that robot in the basement- and repeatedly attempted to sneak inside the queens mansion to get to it without regard for exactly how good his plans are, in the vain hope one of those attempts would succeed at one point. He just kept trying. Over and over and over… slowly losing his mind even more in the process. There is evidence that he tries multiple times to get inside the basement, with Sweet Cap’n Cakes mentioning a “funny little man” asking them for help to sneak in the mansion, and Swatch mentioning an impersonator- which is probably Spamton. Which uh… the image of the tiny dude dressing up as this huge bird guy and thinking it’s a clever enough disguise to get past everybody in the mansion in a funny thought- but kinda sad at the same time. Seriously- did Spamton really think there was a chance that’d work??? But I digress.
Even with his repeated unsuccessful attempts to infiltrate the mansion- there was one attempt that worked. When Kris and the player came into the picture. But even with the help of a lighter and a literal god-being on his side helping him with his plan… he still failed. That neo robot didn’t do anything for his situation. He was still trapped. And so he turned against Kris, and by extension the player, in a last ditch attempt to get his freedom. That was what fully solidified his utter failure. He was going against us. But even if he hadn’t attempted to fight the player, he would’ve have failed in any other attempt anyways.
From the very moment Spamton decided to oppose the rules of this video game world, to try to become something more than a spam bot, he was destined to fail. Even if he managed to get Kris’s soul. Even if he somehow became as powerful as Asriel in undertale, he still wouldn’t get the freedom he wants. Because he is a character in a video game, and he will never become anything more than that.
autistic folks when their routine gets disrupted, and they don't get alone time when they're supposed to get alone time
Ok, since some people really liked that scene with Zack talking about how he met Gray (wich you can read here, if you haven’t yet), I decided to take more screenshots of scenes that Makoto Sanada never used in the game, but are in the project.
Some are silly, but whatever. This is only in episode 2. On episode 3 there wasn’t much. I only remember a weird room? Nothing important, really.
So, here we go.
Keep reading
When violent characters are gentle and tender & when gentle characters are violent and unhinged
Random Strange Facts:
Papyrus is the only character to speak without an asterisk
Papyrus’s dialogue shakes on a consistent basis when no one else’s does
Papyrus is described as “forgettable,” something only mentioned elsewhere in context with Goner Kid and Gaster
Papyrus seems to be able to see what the player is looking at when he calls them (”THAT BAG OF DOG FOOD LOOKS FAMILIAR…”)
Papyrus seems to know that MTT has eyes before MTT becomes MTT Ex
Papyrus has a total of 2184 lines in the game—more than any other character, and almost as much as the narrator of the game, which is at 2418 lines. The next closest character is Undyne, with 1268 total lines.
Similar wording is used to describe Papyrus as it is to describe Gaster. (It’s rude to talk about someone who’s listening)
Papyrus’s theme, “Nyeh heh heh/Bonetrousle,” is used in all of the trailers of the game
Papyrus and Sans break the 4th wall in the stream greenlight trailer, which shocks Toriel
Papyrus flies/breaks the laws of physics casually and seemingly on a regular basis
Papyrus is one of the few characters that refers to gameplay mechanics (“PRESS [C] ON THE KEYBOARD FOR DATING HUD!” “HOLD UP LONGER TO JUMP HIGHER, JEEZ!”)
Papyrus says himself that he knows nothing about his hands because he always keeps his gloves on.
There is nothing, nothing known about his past before his showing up to Snowdin. By the end of the game and after some research, you can basically know more about Gaster and Sans than you do about Papyrus, despite him having the most dialogue in the game besides the narrator.
Papyrus has such control over his magic in his fight, that he can make his attacks do zero damage because he refuses to kill the human.
You are healed to full HP right before the Papyrus fight, as well as immediately after if you are captured.
Papyrus doesn’t seem to realize that Frisk is a kid, despite Frisk wearing a striped shirt, which is a common indicator for childhood in monster society. (is he unfamiliar with common monster culture, for some reason?)
Sans reads Papyrus bed time stories on a regular basis, but Papyrus himself never seems to sleep
The Undertale Q&A that Toby Fox did for Undertale’s anniversary revolves around Papyrus
His defense raises in the spare phase of his fight, unlike every other monster. He seems to be able to manipulate his own stats.
Relationships:
The two 4th wall breaking characters (Flowey and the Annoying Dog) seem to have a special interest in Papyrus
Annoying Dog:
Steals bone attacks on two separate occasions (Papyrus fight and aborted Genocide hangout, in which the “special attack” is hinted to be Gaster Blasters)
Steals bones in general on two occasions (Under Papyrus’s sink and during the hangout with Undyne)
Eats Papyrus’s lasagna
Snuggles with Papyrus
Flowey:
Says Papyrus started a “Flowey Fan Club”
Says Papyrus took a long time to get boring on his repeated runs
Asks Papyrus to call Frisk before the True lab, gather everyone together before the True Ending, and probably leave a note in Alphys’ trash can
Flowey is the only one who knows Papyrus’s favorite food, which is dinosaur oatmeal (no, it’s not spaghetti. Papyrus has never eaten it.)
When Flowey attacks the group during the True Pacifist fight, he binds everyone with two vines, except Papyrus–who he binds with four.
Sans (overlooking the bounteous brotherly goodness of the two):
Papyrus lies to him on a consistent basis
This is to probably humor Sans about his level of knowledge?
Papyrus still expects Sans to know more about Papyrus than Papyrus does himself?
Papyrus acts negatively towards Sans’s puns, but then turns around and makes the most (and arguably best) puns in the game out of anyone
Personality:
Doesn’t outwardly acknowledge criticism
According to Sans, he is trash-talked a lot
May have self-worth issues
Extremely blasé about his own death
Doesn’t seem to have friends, despite working very hard to get them
He phrases things in really strange ways. (”UNMANDATE IT SAFER”)
Papyrus staunchly refuses to really hurt people, despite it being very likely that he could be just as hard or harder of a fight than Sans
He has a strong and unshakeable belief that people can change (does he know this from personal experience?)
He hates Grillby’s and Hotland
He is an amazing artist
He considers himself a great chef, even if he doesn’t necessarily eat what he cooks
Quotes:
“DEADLY SPIKES, PRECARIOUS BRIDGES! TRULY THE PILLARS OF YOUTH!”
[when dying] “ALAS, POOR PAPYRUS. [this is quoting Shakespeare while he’s dying] WELL, AT LEAST I HAVE MY HEAD!”
“I WOULD NEVER TAKE A VACATION FOR ANY REASON!”
Undyne: “Papyrus… doesn’t know how to sleep??”
“I WANT TO MEET DEATH!”
“YOU CAN SEE YOUR REFLECTION IN A PUDDLE, BUT… DON’T LET A BODY OF WATER DETERMINE YOUR SELF WORTH!”
“IT’S MY LEAST FAVORITE NIGHTMARE!” – referring to Hotland lasers and conveyors
“A MYSTERIOUS SCIENCE HOUSE. […] LABORADOR-Y?” When talking about Alphys’s lab with Sans present.
“A LAB?? MY BROTHER WOULD LOVE THAT!” –when talking about Alphys’s lab without Sans present.
“ICE CREAM? THANKS, BUT I LIVE IN SNOWDIN! THERE’S ICE CREAM ALL OVER THE GROUND!” –when talking about ice cream when Sans is present.
“I TRIED TO CAPTURE YOU… WHERE’S MY ICE CREAM.” –when talking about ice cream without Sans present.
“STOP LOOKING IN MY EMPTY MAIL BOX. THAT’S MY EMPTINESS, NOT YOURS.”
“I AM A PRETTY BRUTAL KIND OF GUY.”
“HOTLAND! I KNOW IT LIKE THE BACK OF MY HAND. WHICH, SINCE I’M ALWAYS WEARING GLOVES… I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT!”
“WELL, IF YOU WANT TO GET SOMEONE TO OPEN UP, YOU SHOULD ENGAGE THEM IN COMBAT! HUM HUM HUM…” – before the Shyren encounter. This is one of the few times where Papyrus actually gives you something helpful, but how does he know?
Links for additional reading/theories(most links to @batter-sempai, @papyrus-knows, and @queenofdragons6 posts and reblogs): Optimism does not make Papyrus naive Papyrus casually breaking laws of physics Strange music (or lack of) in Papyrus’s room Brutal kind of guy screenshots Some disturbing connections Some suspicious screenshots Part 3 of a sans theory where the writer realizes Papyrus is ridiculously mysterious Chara and Papyrus similarities–they’re always smiling! Phone call and 4th wall suspicions Papyrus surprising cynicism Sans and Papyrus dynamic speculation Vague Gaster and Papyrus connection Papyrus’s skewed views on what is safe for kids… possible backstory connection? Another compilation of sketchy Papyrus-y things Insomnia and nightmares More on music and rooms Papyrus creeped out by echo flowers Papyrus and Annoying Dog interactions (there are a surprising amount) Sans and Papyrus dynamic speculation 2 Papyrus: treated like a child Papyrus: nasty words with a huge grin The fodder for many an amnesiac theory Papyrus is literally the skeleton in the closet Papyrus battle mechanics and minor Flowey connections The dude is lonely Theory: is Papyrus Gaster? More Papyrus fighting skill plus reality breaking phone call He’s a gentleman Papyrus doesn’t sleep Undertale Q&A/Papyrus’s favorite food Reference–How many lines each character has in the game Debunking Stupid Papyrus 1 – he knows what death is Debunking Stupid Papyrus 2 – the sink height. Strange, but workable Debunking Stupid Papyrus 3 – “solving” the horoscope Debunking Stupid Papyrus 4 – the lab Debunking Stupid Papyrus 5 – pet rock Debunking Stupid Papyrus 6 – spaghetti
Current fixations: Noel the Mortal Fate, Angels of Death(My AoD obsession will never die)
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