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mbtin · 3 years ago

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How to Write Dialogue for (most) Dream SMP Characters

A few months ago, I remembered seeing a lot of posts giving advice on how to write dialogue for DSMP Characters. And while those posts contained numerous helpful pointers, overall, they fall just short of capturing what it means to write in a character’s Voice.

Unique character Voices, while tricky to get right, are usually achieved by giving each character a distinct set of words to say, in a manner that distinguishes them from the rest of the cast.

With this in mind, I’ve spent the past few days combing through almost Thirty Hours of VOD footage to collect nearly all of the unique words, phrases, and speaking habits of every major and minor character on the Dream SMP (involved in 2+ story arcs.)

Before Reading:

Sentence-Starters are single words or phrases which begin a sentence. (ie. “Y’know, maybe you should try something different.”)

Sentence Paddings are reoccurring words added to the middle of sentences. (ie. “It’s like he just can’t cry.”)

Sentence Endings are single words or phrases which end a sentence. (ie. “There’s no need to fight, I hope.”)

All three of these types can be combined with one another to create more natural-sounding sentences. For instance, if a character has the two Sentence-Starters “Okay” and “So,” they can be used like this; “Okay, so, I’m a bit worried.”

(Note: When certain traits or phrases aren’t obvious with how they should be applied to dialogue, an (ie.) will be added below to illustrate them.)

Wilbur

General Traits:

Repeats himself for emphasis. Sometimes these repetitions will add additional information. More often, this repetition is focused around a specific word with the circumstance of the sentence being changed each time.

ie. “I’m living in an eternal limbo again. I’ve been through limbo, I’m out of limbo, and socially, I’m still in this limbo.”

Highly eloquent in language, bordering on poetic.

Highly introspective; significantly less so after Eret’s betrayal and onward.

Occasionally makes literary analogies and references, sometimes breaking the Fourth Wall to do so.

Curses semi-frequently. Wilbur is the only known character to use the word “cunt,” although rare.

Common Go-To Swears - Fuck, Shit, Prick, Bastard, Hell, Ass (Including all variations and combinations.)

Tends to hum when he thinks to himself.

Stutters most often when offended, shocked, or surprised.

Generally addresses characters semi-formally, often by title or role.

Often slips into long-form monologues when self-reflecting.

Usually defaults to being the head of a conversation; introducing, managing, and elaborating on topics throughout, especially when speaking to three or more people.

Circumstantial Phrases:

You and I, we’re ━ (To connect positively with someone.)

ie. “You and I, we’re used to seeing the good in people.”

I wanna pick your brain / Can I pick your brain? (To ask about someone else.)

Don’t say that, I’ll cry (Affectionate banter, only to Tommy.)

I’m afraid ━ (When hopeless or delivering bad news.)

ie. “I’m afraid there’s no getting out of this now.”

There’s no reason to ━ / There’s no reason for ━ / There’s no need for ━ (When being threatened or breaking up a fight.)

ie. “There’s no need for violence, gentlemen.”

Keep reading

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mbtin · 3 years ago

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to use them

used to it. How

met? How can

and craved the

chest? Because

thing I want

or stalkery. I'm

social reach and

"compete" with, if you

worthy message. So

you cheer them up wha-

and while all of that is

more than that, too. The con-

friends-in-stream is so nostalg-

throat. It reminds me in a pa/o-

truly been happy in a while. But

#what is this letter #who is it for #sounds like a confession or a speech #craved???#more than that???#nostalgy???#what's he talking about?#dream #dreamwastaken #georgenotfound #dnf #george #clay dream #dreamnotfound #patches #dream's letter #mcyt

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mbtin · 3 years ago

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I just read this very real article from 2008/2009 where Misha is saying how he doesn't know exactly why he and Jensen have such intense chemistry as Dean and Cas only to suggest, seconds later, that maybe Cas wants to fuck Dean

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mbtin · 3 years ago

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mbtin · 3 years ago

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other people: wow 2021 is almost over! can’t believe fall is almost here. yayy pumpkin spice latte.

SPN people: only 10 more weeks until November 5th

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mbtin · 3 years ago

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are you… halloween night or christmas morning? twinkling lights or glowing candles? swing sets or merry-go-rounds? a boquet of balloons or a boquet of flowers? blankets just out of the dryer or cookies just out of the oven?

#halloween nights #lights #swing sets #balloons #cookies

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mbtin · 3 years ago

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Despite the fact that I can't afford therapy anymore, my psychiatrist is saying that if I can't do the intensive outpatient program three times a week, they want me to do inpatient at a psych hospital until my meds level out.

I only have one affordable option for inpatient treatment in Houston, and last time I was there, my partner had to literally force them to let me leave because of transphobia and overall poor treatment at the facility. (Do NOT go to HCPC in Houston if you're trans; when I tried to advocate for myself and correct misgendering, they said that it was part of my psychosis).

If you could give me a dollar or two so I could try to keep doing IOP and avoid the hospital, it would literally be a lifesaver.

My C ashApp and V enmo are both @newtvargas.

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mbtin · 3 years ago

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Hyper-specific advice because I don’t see enough of this!

make your characters have inaccurate perceptions of themselves. your character might think they’re selfish but at every opportunity they act selfless. we all have blind spots so give these to your characters too! (this works best with first person pov but I’m sure you can do it in third.)

make a character’s personality trait helpful sometimes and harmful other times. impulsivity that makes them act quickly in high-stress situations which is great but it also sometimes results in the wrong choices.

make an excel/google sheets doc for your outline. for mine i have the chapter number, the date, the character pov (since mine is first person and switches between 5 characters), a summary column, and a continuity column. my story takes place in one setting but most stories have multiple locations, so you could include a column for that, the time of day, even the moon phase (one of my wips is from the perspective of animals so that is super important for that story).

you can also use excel/sheets for keeping track of your conlang. for my animal wip i have constructed a language called Vannro and I have 300 some-odd entries into my excel doc. i have columns for the Vannro word, the English translation, etymology and derived words (for some), the part of speech, and the subject. you can easily sort in alphabetical either in English or your conlang, and also sort by excluding all entries that aren’t under the subject “derogatory” or “places” etc. I always forget what my “be” verbs are so I sort through the part of speech column so I can find “is” “was” “are” etc.

use perspective to create tension for your reader. for example, in The Blackwater Anomaly in a chapter from Rainer’s pov, we experience his nightmare, however in a later chapter from Holly’s pov, when she asks him directly, he lies and says he hasn’t experienced any nightmares. Holly doesn’t know he is lying but the audience does. I also have characters who do not get chapters from their perspective, who may or may not be lying, and so both the audience and the characters experience that anxiety and uncertainty together.

consider using deep pov. you can read some articles about it but essentially you make the audience experience the story at the same time as the character and it makes your narration more active. this can also be done in third person. this has a lot to do with “show don’t tell” (although sometimes its better to just tell). remove some “telling” words like “thought/felt/saw” and just get directly into what’s happening. instead of “Ava saw a shadow fall across her shoulder” make it “a shadow fell across her shoulder”. your reader will know who you’re talking about. this even jumps into the unreliable narrator when you change “I felt like Isaiah was blowing me off” to “Isaiah blew me off.” the former has room for doubt and makes your character seem weaker. if she thinks she’s being blown off and she’s pissed about it, make her say that! you have to make the audience believe it’s true, it makes them more invested in the character’s experiences and emotions. and then if they later find out Isaiah wasn’t really blowing them off, there was an emergency or something, both the character and the audience can feel regretful together over misreading the situation and being pissed at Isaiah. if you leave room for doubt, then your reader will just feel unsurprised during the reveal and frustrated at your character for being stupid up until then.

you don’t have to “show” everything. sometimes there’s boring parts of a narrative that no one really cares about. you can either make a break in the text to show a time skip happened when your character was driving from point a to point b or you can give a paragraph or two about the drive, just telling what happened, even include an accident on the side of the road or an unexpected and frustrating road closure. its a very mundane and relatable aspect in our lives and we don’t need to be “shown” these, we can just be told. summarize the nonessential by telling or just skip it.

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mbtin · 3 years ago

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Wiggle

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mbtin · 3 years ago

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I'm a barbie girl

okay but are you a gossip girl, a gilmore girl, or a gone girl

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mbtin · 3 years ago

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Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp being down for, like, the 4th time this year, while this hellsite keeps running jerkily but inexorably since the start of time

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mbtin · 3 years ago

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love is stored in the season 12

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mbtin · 3 years ago

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who is jane???

it started with this post by @/miscellaneousfairy

at first everyone fell in love with them bcs of how they had a tag for everything, their power to fix the world and bring peace. but slowly everyone realized jane was fooling all of them.

pc: @/dahipuchka

posts about jane started growing. everyone expressed their side of the story. here are some descriptions.

by @/dahipuchka

by @/shinypocketknives

by @/begaani

slowly people started questioning jane, cussing jane, wanting jane to come back and even making every sane post about jane

some users even claimed that they were jane

as this started growing some even got sick of jane

by @/julienbakersgf

though according to me this response by @/i-wanna-be-yours describes jane the best

no matter who jane is, a traitor, a whore, the god, a cucumber or maybe an oddly dressed grasshopper and no matter what they did, ran away, fooled multiple people at once, wore short skirts or cheerleader-ed etc. we'll never forget them. amen. always in our heart, dear jane.

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mbtin · 3 years ago

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now we want a picture of the retainer

i went to the dentist today and my dentist honest to god said “can i ask you a question…….what the hell is in your mouth”

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mbtin · 3 years ago

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jack never played a non fruity character and we love that about him💅

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mbtin · 3 years ago

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goddd please just hire voice actors again. like actual voice actors. no more celebrity voice actors please just hire people who know what they’re doing the or voice acting industry will cannibalize itself more than it already is. let jack black do whatever he wants though

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mbtin · 3 years ago

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this post literally makes you die

venn diagrams more like venn die-agrams

#horror #horror gays

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