#writing character voice

[vivsinkpot]

Zoom In, Don’t Glaze Over: How to Describe Appearance Without Losing the Plot

You’ve met her before. The girl with “flowing ebony hair,” “emerald eyes,” and “lips like rose petals.” Or him, with “chiseled jawlines,” “stormy gray eyes,” and “shoulders like a Greek statue.”

We don’t know them.

We’ve just met their tropes.

Describing physical appearance is one of the trickiest — and most overdone — parts of character writing. It’s tempting to reach for shorthand: hair color, eye color, maybe a quick body scan. But if we want a reader to see someone — to feel the charge in the air when they enter a room — we need to stop writing mannequins and start writing people.

So let’s get granular. Here’s how to write physical appearance in a way that’s textured, meaningful, and deeply character-driven.

1. Hair: It’s About Story, Texture, and Care

Hair says a lot — not just about genetics, but about choices. Does your character tame it? Let it run wild? Is it dyed, greying, braided, buzzed, or piled on top of her head in a hurry?

Good hair description considers:

Texture (fine, coiled, wiry, limp, soft)

Context (windblown, sweat-damp, scorched by bleach)

Emotion (does she twist it when nervous? Is he ashamed of losing it?)

Flat: “Her long brown hair framed her face.”

Better: “Her ponytail was too tight, the kind that whispered of control issues and caffeine-fueled 4 a.m. library shifts.”

You don’t need to romanticise it. You need to make it feel real.

2. Eyes: Less Color, More Connection

We get it: her eyes are violet. Cool. But that doesn’t tell us much.

Instead of focusing solely on eye color, think about:

What the eyes do (do they dart, linger, harden?)

What others feel under them (seen, judged, safe?)

The surrounding features (dark circles, crow’s feet, smudged mascara)

Flat: “His piercing blue eyes locked on hers.”

Better: “His gaze was the kind that looked through you — like it had already weighed your worth and moved on.”

You’re not describing a passport photo. You’re describing what it feels like to be seen by them.

3. Facial Features: Use Contrast and Texture

Faces are not symmetrical ovals with random features. They’re full of tension, softness, age, emotion, and life.

Things to look for:

Asymmetry and character (a crooked nose, a scar)

Expression patterns (smiling without the eyes, habitual frowns)

Evidence of lifestyle (laugh lines, sun spots, stress acne)

Flat: “She had a delicate face.”

Better: “There was something unfinished about her face — as if her cheekbones hadn’t quite agreed on where to settle, and her mouth always seemed on the verge of disagreement.”

Let the face be a map of experience.

4. Bodies: Movement > Measurement

Forget dress sizes and six packs. Think about how bodies occupy space. How do they move? What are they hiding or showing? How do they wear their clothes — or how do the clothes wear them?

Ask:

What do others notice first? (a presence, a posture, a sound?)

How does their body express emotion? (do they go rigid, fold inwards, puff up?)

Flat: “He was tall and muscular.”

Better: “He had the kind of height that made ceilings nervous — but he moved like he was trying not to take up too much space.”

Describing someone’s body isn’t about cataloguing. It’s about showing how they exist in the world.

5. Let Emotion Tint the Lens

Who’s doing the describing? A lover? An enemy? A tired narrator? The emotional lens will shape what’s noticed and how it’s described.

In love: The chipped tooth becomes charming.

In rivalry: The smirk becomes smug.

In mourning: The face becomes blurred with memory.

Same person. Different lens. Different description.

6. Specificity is Your Superpower

Generic description = generic character. One well-chosen detail creates intimacy. Let us feel the scratch of their scarf, the clink of her earrings, the smudge of ink on their fingertips.

Examples:

“He had a habit of adjusting his collar when he lied — always clockwise, always twice.”

“Her nail polish was always chipped, but never accidentally.”

Make the reader feel like they’re the only one close enough to notice.

Describing appearance isn’t just about what your character looks like. It’s about what their appearance says — about how they move through the world, how others see them, and how they see themselves.

Zoom in on the details that matter. Skip the clichés. Let each description carry weight, story, and emotion. Because you’re not building paper dolls. You’re building people.

[all-my-ocs-are-evil]

[insert poetic title here]

fun fact: this did not start out as isat fanart

(rambling in tags)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Don't test me, Bestie!

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[serpentface]

The pylidaigh, a type of vampiric snow ghost, as imagined in folklore in and around the Highlands.

This is a ghost believed to come into being when a person dies in the snow and their body is not found before their soul (still trapped without its funeral rites) 'freezes' inside of it. The body then reanimates into a pylidaigh's twisted form. It looks like someone who slowly died of starvation, just a thin layer of flesh over bones. Its skin is as white as the snow itself, so pale it can blend seamlessly into a blizzard. Most of its body appears subtly stretched and lanky, save for its exceptionally unsubtle long, skinny arms, which drag on the ground behind it when it walks. After a big meal of blood, its belly swells like the abdomen of a tick.

A pylidaigh can only tread across snow and ice, and so doorways and windows are best kept clear of snowfall during the winter in order to prevent it from reaching inside. It mostly comes out to hunt during blizzards when there is little that can prevent it from catching its victims.

In spite of its fragile appearance, a pylidaigh is supernaturally strong, and can run at great speeds when it wants to. No mortal weapons can pierce its body, nor can any bonds known to craftsmen hold it in place. It is usually said that chains forged like iron but made out of ice can bind a pylidaigh and render it immobile, but this smithing technique remains tragically elusive to the average joe.

This ghost is either cast as a wildly dangerous but tragic figure, or one that is more simply malicious. In either case, it is described as experiencing nothing but bitter cold. It shivers endlessly. It retains distant memories of what it was to be alive, and it is motivated by a futile desperation to experience the feeling of warmth again.

In more sympathetic framings, it is described as using its freaky gibbon arms to capture its victims and pull them into an embrace, rather innocently trying to warm itself against their body. This inevitably fails, and the embrace becomes a bone crushing squeeze. When that too fails to warm the ghost, it rips out the person's throat and drinks their blood until the victim is as cold and drained as the pylidaigh itself.

In other cases, this more pitiable narrative of a ghost seeking warmth with no comprehension of its actions is discarded in favor of making it purely monstrous. Here it is a type of vampire with an insatiable thirst, practically a physical manifestation of the worst of winter itself. Some tales acknowledge both variants, suggesting a pylidaigh's violent attempts to warm itself may be initially devoid of malice, but turns into an act of furious jealousy of the warmth of the living after years of suffering.

The only (more or less) surefire method to permanently kill a roaming pylidaigh involves trapping it with fire. They are attracted to any source of heat, and will attempt to warm themselves with the flames (if not tempted away by a juicy living human body). The fire itself cannot kill them (as the sheer cold of their body is more powerful even than flame) but they can be trapped if kept near the fire long enough for the snow it depends upon to melt. This does not kill the pylidaigh either. The monster will remain in stuck in place (and potentially become a threat again if it snows more) for the duration of the winter. Only when the spring comes and all the snow melts does it revert into a normal human carcass (though mysteriously invulnerable to decay), at which point it can be cremated.

Pylidaigh in the wilds also revert to a human corpse during the snowless seasons, but will roam again each following winter unless it is burnt in the interim. It is of critical importance that any human corpse found in high mountain pasture is cremated- not only out of respect for the poor soul trapped as an earthbound ghost, but to prevent the threat of the possible dormant pylidaigh emerging next winter.

[novlr]

Try the Proust Questionnaire to really get to know your characters

The Proust Questionnaire is a set of personality-revealing questions popularised by French writer Marcel Proust. It originated from a popular 19th-century parlor game but became famous after Proust answered a version of it in two different instances of his life—once as a teenager and later as an adult. The questionnaire is popularly used in interviews by publications like The Guardian and Vanity Fair.

Use the questionnaire and answering them from the point of view of your characters can help define their personality, desires, fears, and motivations. By answering in your character’s voice, you can also refine their way of thinking and speaking.

Here are the questions:

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

What is your greatest fear?

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Which living person do you most admire?

What is your greatest extravagance?

What is your current state of mind?

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

On what occasion do you lie?

What do you most dislike about your appearance?

Which living person do you most despise?

What is the quality you most like in a man?

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

When and where were you happiest?

Which talent would you most like to have?

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

Where would you most like to live?

What is your most treasured possession?

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

What is your favorite occupation?

What is your most marked characteristic?

What do you most value in your friends?

Who are your favorite writers?

Who is your hero of fiction?

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Who are your heroes in real life?

What are your favorite names?

What is it that you most dislike?

What is your greatest regret?

How would you like to die?

What is your motto?

[bluegiragi]

Your favorite Ghostsoap fics? I need recs so bad 🙏😭

well recently, storm_petrel has been taking over my brain with how they write ghostsoap's dynamic - particularly soap and his specific brand of heartsickness. Their style of writing is really snappy, which i think is maybe the wrong word for this but I can't think of anything better...it's just got a really satisfying cadence to read! it's smart. idk. but it still gives time and space for the emotion...just great stuff all round, i think i could talk about it more but i'll leave it at that.

some things are unchangeably wild - post mwiii fix it fic, soap transforms into a dog after being shot by makarov and finds his way back to the 141 and specifically ghost.

high on the spirit and drunk on the fumes - just taking the fic description for this one bc it's just perfect.

This isn't his knife, it's Ghost's. Molded grip, modified tanto blade, S.R. carved deep into the butt. If he makes it out of this alive, he's going to have to beg forgiveness for somehow mixing Ghost's knives in with his own gear. Possibly he's gonna have to go to confession because this feels like one of the bad sins. Or, a mission goes awry, and now Soap's got to deal with hostile terrain, a hit squad of cartel sicarios on his tail and Ghost's voice on his busted radio. Honestly, it's the last thing that probably fucks him up the most.

[imbecominggayer]

Giving Your Characters A Unique, Distinct Voice (With Examples)

What does "unique voice" mean? Basically, every single person has their own manner of speaking. This difference can be from politeness, the volume or "loudness", confidence, emotional quality, maturity, accents, cultural slang, and other variables that can be shown in a character's voice.

This can also be shown through "prioritization". Prioritization is what a character or narrator decides is worth focusing on for any given scene.

For example, Tree of Heaven is a cynical cinematographer whose inner life is primarily eclipsed by beautiful landscapes and settings. However, Jukka is a highly dedicated actor who neglects the trees for the people, whether they be strangers or loved ones. While Jukka and Tree of Heaven could be walking through the same park, they would be focused on entirely different things. Heaven would be focused on the way the sunlight scatters through the autumn-coated, gold-platted leaves while Jukka is people-watching!

Sometimes, I use other stories and their tones as inspiration for my characters!

For Haun, their inspiration for tone came from "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". Specfically, AM's monologues like the "and I began to hate" or the bee monologue describing AM's thoughts on bees radio play! The reasoning behind this was the fact that Haun Anatemori, my character, is someone with deep-seated resentment. Rage and hatred born out of a feeling of injustice, self-loathing, and a feeling of deep-seated betrayal. However, Haun confines their emotions to logical actions and long-term planning meaning there is no outward way to express these emotions. Leading to his entire inner voice being coated in hatred.

Education and social standing often has the most outward influence on a character's external voice. That's the unique thing about protagonists and narrators. Because narrators don't have to worry about social standing and protagonists can have visible inner life, protagonists often have "two" voices. Their "outside" voice, aka the voice they use to speak to others, and their inner voices they use for their own feelings.

Haun's inner voice is resentful with metaphors and analogies of disgusting things such as bodily fluid used to provide an artful crassness to his voice that shows Haun's education and anger but his outer voice is far more innocent and self-contained with less verbosity as Haun is attempting to portray an innocent, less literate farmer type in order to trick others as he rises the social ladder.

Another highly influencial factor is maturity! If a character is emotionally mature, then they often have a more composed tone of voice with simple, yet profound metaphors that often express clear motivation and clear emotion. They often have accurate ideas about others and themselves. This is different from how emotional a character is! A mature character can be emotional but they have a clearer understanding of their emotions. Not the mood swing type!

Nonkosi Tyali is the most compassionate yet mature character I have with their inner voice and outward voice both having a sense of "refinement". Nonkosi understands what they want, why they want it, and how to get it. Despite their cheerful tone, it's obvious they aren't naive or out of control. Nonkosi also has remarkable observational skills as they are deeply intune to the thoughts and emotions of others which allows them to have accurate and insightful observations about other characters.

Verne Lawless, in contrast, is highly immature with a tendency for rapid mood swings, ranting, and catastrophizing. They rarely compose their emotions with them having to spend far more time detailing and failing to "accurate" translate their emotions for the audience. They rarely focus on the emotional lives of others. While Verne can use flowering, verbose words and nostalgia, this fails to counteract the obvious desperation and run-around Verne has in their thoughts.

Finally, just think about what their emotions are. This doesn't have to be something as simple as "happy" or "sad".

Verne is a nostalgic person who constantly references old classics like Jules Verne with long, verbose poetry. This is influenced by Verne's obvious intellect and his emotional center of love. However, whenever they are emotionally in a tailspin, they often resort to manic, modern slang with firey self-hatred and self-deprecation. This is due to the fact that Verne adores love but he believes that he will never find love. This desperation often leads him to be more psychologically "fragile" with his ability to contain his emotions constantly threatened.

Emotions: Mania, nostalgia, desperation, and love

Nonkosi is an optimistic person which can sometimes veer into surpressing negative emotions and experiences. They maintain the belief that they can be eternally strong and compassionate as they act more like a force of nature then the human they actually are.

Emotions: Awkward optimism, gentle melancholic, and confidence

Jukka is mostly possessed with a quiet melancholy for most of life with pretentious verbosity surrounding the nature of society in a similar vein of "No Longer Human" by Osamu Dazai. However, whenever Jukka is bound up in the passion of acting, Jukka can often dance with mania, emotional highs, and life coated in fandom and acting. Jukka's language is primarily references to media such as Main Character Syndrome, tropes, rivalry, found family, and some not really 4th Wall Breaks because Jukka believes he lives in a series but he doesn't know he is actually a written character.

Emotions: melancholy, sentimentality, and minor resentment.

[written-in-knife]

Hi! Do you write for Sebek? Could I maybe ask a fic where he slowly starts liking the reader/yuu but can only show it in his own harsh and loud way...the reader likes him too but eventually just gets mad at him and ignores him because he keeps blabbering about and comparing them to Malleus and keeps calling them 'human' instead of their name. He then realizes his feelings and tries to fix it, and like accidentally blurts out that he even imagined them getting married or some other crazy thing lol. Something along those lines....(he would absolutely pass out the first time he gets kissed and I am 100% convinced that he is the type of husband, later on in life, that would pass out when you're giving birth to your child)

Thanks!

Book Club

Sebek Zigvolt x gn!reader, pre-relationship

they/them pronouns, fluff, hurt/comfort but in a very light way, mutual pining,

WC: 4806 can a bitch not get carried away? holy shit.

I totally agree, he's a fainter but like also the biggest supporter? I feel like during the birth of his child he would INSIST on seeing it happen, that he'd be fine, then fuckin hit the deck the second he actually looked. I changed the prompt just a little bit because i'm a big fan of two idiots mutually pining for each other until it gets stupid :)

When Malleus asked you to reach out to his retainer, worried he wasn't getting along with his fellow first years, you were a bit hesitant. You'd heard of Sebek, mostly from others complaining about how loud he was. But you weren't one to turn down requests from dear friends, so you went with him to Diasomnia to invite Sebek over to Ramshackle with the rest of your first year friends to participate in a movie night.

When Sebek got your invitation to watch movies at Ramshackle, he almost immediately shot it down. He had better things to do than waste time goofing off with you and your gaggle of troublesome friends. But the second he said that out loud to you, Lilia appeared behind you, glaring him down and shaking his head in disappointment. He was reluctant, but revised his answer, agreeing to ONE movie night. Surely he could suffer through one evening.

You had to talk the others into it, damn near threatening Ace to be nice when you told them you'd invited Sebek. They had similar complaints that you'd already heard, he was loud, rude, bossy, but you weren't having any of their lip. You jabbed your finger at Ace when the final knock came on Ramshackle's front door, reminding him to behave as you went to answer it. You opened the door to Sebek waiting on the front porch, standing as militarily poised as ever, a basket in his hands.

"HUMAN." He shouted in greeting, thrusting the basket forwards. "Lilia sent me with various snacks to partake of during the film."

You took the basket slowly, wincing slightly as you looked over it. "He didn't... cook any of this himself, did he?"

"Ah, no. Silver insisted he just pick things up from the school store," he explained as you felt the tension in your shoulders release, "something about different tastes. I wasn't listening."

"Well, thanks." You gave him a smile, stepping aside to let him into the dorm. "C'mon, we're still setting up."

You closed the door behind him before leading him to the lounge where Grim and Ace had picked up their argument about which movie to watch, Ortho rattling off ratings for either of the movies that he pulled up from his spot on the couch. You watched Jack roll his eyes at them for what seemed like the hundredth time as you set the snack basket down on the coffee table next to the tray of baked goods Trey had sent with Ace and Deuce. Sebek was still hovering by the doorway, looking extraordinarily out of place, fingers flexing at his sides anxiously. You wandered back over to him, catching his awkward gaze.

"You can grab a seat anywhere," you offered, gesturing to the couch and chairs around the TV, "Epel's heating up some cider his parents sent over, and Deuce is off gathering blankets to make the floor more comfortable for him and Ace."

"You're making your guests sit on the floor?" He asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow at you.

"More like seating constraints are." You sighed heavily. "Grim usually sits in my lap so he doesn't have to strain his neck on the floor and everything else is just first come first serve. Deuce offered to take the floor so you don't have to for your first time here."

"I see. Very well, I will sit on the couch." He announced before marching over to sit on the far end, opposite Ortho.

You shrugged as Jack gave you a look before moving over to Ace and Grim, snatching the movie Ace was holding and bringing it over to the TV, ignoring Grim's protesting as you went. It was some horror flick his brother had sent him, which explained why Grim was so hung up about it. You popped it into the player and grabbed the remote as Deuce came in behind you, dumping an armful of blankets and pillows on the floor in front of the TV. He and Ace started spreading them out as Epel came out with a tray of mismatched mugs, setting it on the coffee table before grabbing one and going to sit in the armchair opposite Jack. Which left the spot between Ortho and Sebek for you. When Grim noticed this, he grumbled something under his breath and went to join the Heartslabyul boys on the floor, making you roll your eyes. You went to sit down, noting how completely stiff Sebek was in his spot, back completely straight, hands resting firmly on his thighs, sort of glancing around at the lounge's decor. You tried not to smirk, grabbing a mug for yourself and one for him, holding it out for him to take.

"Thank you." He nodded slightly as you settled into the couch, pulling your legs up to get more comfortable as he stared into the mug. "What... is this?"

"It's apples, man." Epel said simply, giving him a confused look.

"It's good, don't worry." You nudged him lightly with your elbow before starting the movie, Ortho flipping off the lamp next to the couch.

The movie was your typical slasher horror, it seemed the genre overlapped the two worlds. Ace and Deuce kept quietly poking fun at Grim whenever he got scared, leading him to eventually move over to sit with Epel. You stole a few glances at Sebek, trying to keep your laughter to yourself when you realized how intensely he was watching. He never flinched at the jumpscares, didn't seem to react much at all, but he was giving it his undivided attention. He didn't even glance over at you when you tried to pass him some of the snacks, having to reach around him to pass them down to Epel. When the credits rolled, Ortho turned the lamp back on and Sebek finally tore his eyes away from the screen.

"That seemed wholly unrealistic!" He complained, setting his half drank mug on the coffee table to cross his arms. "Why would they run upstairs when the exit was right behind them?"

"I wanna know how stupid you'd have to be to go investigate the spooky noises when you know someone's out to murder you." You scoffed, standing up to swap out the movie to Grim's pick.

Ace groaned, rolling onto his back to look up at you. "It's a movie. It doesn't have to be realistic."

"I just feel like the characters being morons kinda takes me out of it a little." You shrugged at him, stepping over his legs to get to the TV. "Doesn't mean it isn't a good movie."

You pulled out the horror movie, putting it back in its box as Epel stood and plopped Grim into his spot. "I gotta head out, Vil's got some facial thing he wants me to go to in the morning." He grumbled as he stretched. "I left the rest of that cider in the fridge for ya."

"Aw, alright. See you next time?"

"For sure. Night y'all."

Sebek perked up as everyone said good night to Epel, waiting for him to leave the lounge before standing up himself. "I must also leave."

"What really?" You asked, glancing at the time on your phone. "I'm sure Malleus wouldn't mind if you stuck around for one more."

"Do not presume to know Malleus's mind, human!" He snapped before clearing his throat. "Thank you for inviting me, enjoy the rest of your evening."

"Sure..." You hesitated, glancing to Ace and Deuce who immediately shook their heads. "Open invite for next time, by the way. We do this every other weekend." You ignored the boys on the floor as they dramatically rolled their eyes, Ace even going as far as to bury his face in a pillow to grumble into it.

"I... will think about it."

When Sebek returned to Diasomnia, Lilia and Malleus were waiting for him in the lounge, Lilia immediately perking up as he walked into the room.

"So? How'd it go?" Lilia asked, folding his arms on the back of the couch and propping his chin on them, practically kicking his feet in anticipation.

Sebek hesitated for a moment as they stared at him. "It was enjoyable." He landed on with a nod. "There was hot apple juice, and your snacks seemed to be appreciated."

"Did you enjoy the film?" Malleus asked, pleased his plan of "get Sebek to make friends" seemed to be working.

"Not particularly, but everyone else seemed to. I also utilized your advice, Lilia."

"Oh?" Lilia hesitated for a moment as he thought, turning to Malleus slightly. "...Did I give him advice?"

Malleus shrugged, shaking his head slightly as Sebek continued. "To not talk during any show or film. You explained it to me when I rudely interrupted one of your drama shows."

"Ah yes! Well, good! I'm glad you had fun!"

"I believe the Ramshackle dorm hosts these events on a regular basis," Malleus mused, "perhaps you should attend them again, when you have the time."

Sebek wanted to say it was only because Malleus encouraged him to that he returned for movie night, but he'd be lying if he said that were the only reason. The movies were never good, but he enjoyed the camaraderie of watching and disliking them as a group. It took a couple times of him going to actually stay for the second movie, and one time the third, which usually only Ace and Deuce would stay for since they had sleepover permissions. After that, you started waving him down in the cafeteria at meal times, Silver and Lilia having to shove him your way the first few times you did. Sebek noticed after awhile that you were the only one to ever sit next to him, and you knew it was because the others didn't want him yelling in their ear. You didn't bother telling him that, however. But he grew to appreciate your presence at his side, handing him snacks, muttering to him during particularly terrible parts of movies-- which is how he found out that talking was allowed during movies and shows, but you had to keep it to a whisper-- propping your arm on his shoulder to accentuate your point when you were getting really into a story, explaining things in a very casual manner when he didn't quite understand. It was nice. You were nice, he liked you. Perhaps... as a bit more than a friend. He nearly screamed into his pillow when he made that connection before falling asleep one night. He desperately tried not to make his affections towards you obvious after that realization, trying to keep up the casual, friendly atmosphere that had been set. But he thought about you far more often than he'd like to admit.

Which was why he was hesitating by the door to Ramshackle. It was movie night, he did still have a standing invitation, but he was finding it harder and harder to focus on the movies when you were always right there. He eventually did knock, confused and a bit concerned when he had to wait longer than usual for you to come to the door. He saw your face pop up through the window, giving him a confused look before a realization hit. He heard you curse to yourself before pulling the door open, giving him an apologetic look.

"Shit, Sebek, I'm so sorry," you said quickly, pulling out your phone as he looked you over, finding you in your pajamas, "I forgot we never added you to the group chat. I'll do that right now..."

"Has something happened?"

"Yeah, everybody else cancelled on me." You huffed as his phone dinged in his pocket. "Ace and Deuce are on lockdown cause they broke something at Heartslabyul, Epel's on lockdown because Vil found his snack stash, Jack sprained his ankle, and Idia is having some sort of mental breakdown about a girl group I think? Ortho's handling the fallout."

"Is Grim not present?"

You scoffed, rolling your eyes as you stuffed your phone back in your pocket. "He just got back from detention with Crewel for blowing up our potion in lab today. So he's here somewhere pouting that I locked away the good tuna."

"I see..." Sebek muttered, shuffling his feet for a second. "Can we not watch the movie without them?"

You gave him a fond smile. "I don't actually own any movies. Everybody else has just been bringing the ones they want to watch. I'm really sorry, Sebek." He nodded slowly, adjusting the ends of his sleeves awkwardly. There was a long pause and he was about to announce his leave before you spoke up. "But... if you still wanna hang out, we could do a little one session book club. There's plenty of books in here." You jabbed your thumb behind you, giving him a look that almost seemed hopeful.

He hummed in thought for a moment. "I suppose I could peruse your collection."

You smiled wide at him, stepping aside for him to come in like you always did. The two of you ended up on the couch in front of the TV, like usual, books in either of your hands. You'd curled up on one side of the couch, your legs tucked up by the arm while you propped your torso up with a pillow in the middle, and he'd taken his usual spot on the other side, as perfectly postured as ever. The two of you were silent, other than huffs of quiet laughter or small gasps in reaction to your stories. Sebek had been expecting it to be far more awkward, but it was just... nice. Nice to enjoy your company away from the rest of the group, nice to share an interest, nice to have a quiet moment. He had gotten engrossed in his book, barely glancing up when you readjusted yourself to a more upright position in the middle of the couch. It was only a few minutes later that he was startled out of his reading by your head landing on his shoulder. He was about to reprimand you before he turned to see that you'd completely fallen asleep, book caught loosely from falling by just your thumb and your knee, shoulders completely slumped as you relaxed against him, and he froze. Not sure what to do other than not move to avoid disturbing you, he tried to go back to his book, tried to ignore your warmth pressed against his arm, but he couldn't. It wasn't like you'd never touched him before, but those were casual, friendly gestures, not practically cuddling. His face was burning as his thoughts raced, completely betraying him by picturing what a life with you might be like. Would you understand fae courting customs? He was desperate to go back to reading. He reread the same page maybe twenty times by the time you woke up again, groaning lightly as you sat up, allowing him to nearly fling himself to the other side of the couch.

"YOU MUST GET PROPER SLEEP, HUMAN." He shouted, face still burning as you winced slightly at his volume so soon after you'd woken up. "IT IS COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE TO FALL ASLEEP WHEN YOU HAVE COMPANY!"

"I'm sorry, Sebek, it's been a long day..." You apologized through a yawn from behind your hand before placing your book face down on the coffee table. "Feel free to take that book with you, lemme know what you think..." You were actively falling asleep again as you spoke, leaning to your other side to lay your head against the arm of the couch.

"Do you not have a PERFECTLY good bed UPSTAIRS?" He shouted incredulously, startling you awake again.

"That's all the way up there..." You groaned, burying your face in the throw pillow.

Sebek scoffed, shoving the piece of scrap paper you'd given him for a bookmark between the pages before setting the book on the coffee table and standing. "There is no way to get a good night's rest sleeping on this terrible lumpy couch!" He declared with his hands on his hips.

"It'll be fine, Sebek..." You grumbled again, lazily waving your hand at him.

He sighed heavily before deciding this was now a task that had been placed upon his shoulders. You squeaked out a yelp as he scooped you off the couch and into his arms, flinging your arms around his neck to keep from falling, as if he would ever drop you. He'd been to your room once before after volunteering to carry Grim to bed when he fell asleep during a movie and you had to clean up, so he at least knew where he was going. You didn't look at him as he carried you up the stairs, your face had to be as red as his now. Neither of you said anything until he brought you into your room, sitting you down surprisingly gently on the bed before straightening out like a soldier standing at attention.

"There." He huffed, not looking directly at you. "Ensure you get proper amounts and quality of sleep in the future, human."

"Will do... Good night, Sebek."

"Good night, human."

He marched out of the room, shutting the door behind him as you laid back in your bed, climbing under the covers. You were wide awake now, no hope of going back to sleep any time soon. You'd initially invited Sebek over because Malleus had asked you to, but you thought he was actually really nice to be around. You understood why people complained that he was loud and rude, but it was mostly just that he was blunt. He was loud, though. Past that, he was actually very kind and fun to talk to. You liked his little competitive streak, though he definitely needed to work on losing with grace, and you liked how animated he got when he was talking about something he was passionate about, but he should really find other interests past Malleus. Overall, you did really like being around him. You tried not to acknowledge the crush on him that had grown a little too quickly for your liking, knowing it was obvious when Ace started to tease you about it. It's not like you could help it, he was sweet and it was easy to fall for him. Before your little book club accident, you'd even gotten him to start calling him by your name, but you guessed that the sudden contact had shocked him out of that pretty hard. He went back to calling you human all the time, much to your distaste.

You did, however, offer to continue that little book club, meeting up on opposite weeks from movie nights to talk about the books you'd read and recommending new ones for each other. It was at one of these that your irritation with his... less desirable traits got the better of you. He'd compared you to Malleus in the past, usually sidetracking himself into another Malleus anecdote you'd already heard three times, but you could usually brush it off just fine. But you'd be lying if you said it wasn't grating on you. You were telling him about how you'd scared off the birds that were hanging out around Silver when you'd stumbled on him napping in one of the courtyards and how you felt kind of bad about it. He went off on a tangent about how most animals were afraid of Malleus, how the birds wouldn't even dare come around when Silver was attending to his duties, and all the reasons they shouldn't be afraid of his magnificence. You sighed quietly as he continued to rant about Malleus, something inside you just deciding that you couldn't put up with it anymore.

"Hey Sebek?" You called out to him softly, cutting off his ramblings. "I'm so sorry, I just realized how exhausted I am. Maybe we could go over our books next time? I don't wanna make you carry me upstairs again."

Sebek huffed out an annoyed sigh, giving you a disappointed look. "I thought we had discussed the importance of proper sleep, human!"

Human. You tried not to show your annoyance on your face, tried not to let it seep into your tone. Would he even notice if you did? You were fairly certain he didn't notice you at all. "We did, which is why I'm gonna send you home now so I can get proper sleep for tomorrow."

"Very well, we will pick this up next time." He sighed, closing his book and tucking it under his arm as he stood. "I expect a thorough breakdown of your thoughts on that book when we reconvene."

"Sure. Night Sebek."

"Good night, human."

You prayed he didn't notice the way your eye twitched as he turned to leave, barely resisting the urge to grumble that your name wasn't human by biting your tongue near to bleeding. He'd noticed your clipped tone, but just attributed it to your exhaustion. He didn't think anything was really wrong until the next movie night. Deuce let him into the dorm, and you had already made yourself comfortable with Grim in one of the armchairs, only just sparing him a greeting before going back to your conversation with Ortho. Sebek took the armchair opposite you that night, confusion and worry keeping him from focusing on the movies. He stayed for the third that night but you still barely spoke to him, past the courtesy hello and good night, all your answers were as clipped as ever. That night was the first sign anything was off. He still joined the group for meal times, but there was no longer the friendly, casual air between the two of you. It had grown tense, and you were both sure everyone else had noticed it. You were at least sure Ace had, he'd tried to get you to tell him what was up a few times and you kept shooting him down.

Sebek's last straw was a text from you on Saturday, hours before your book club was supposed to start. "I'm not feeling great, gotta cancel. Sorry!" If he'd gotten that text with no other warning signs, he would've brushed it off as truth, but now he was just sure you were avoiding him. And it hurt, not knowing what was wrong and not knowing how to fix it. Two weeks and he was realizing just how bad he missed you. He wasn't sure what to do.

You were sitting on the front steps of Ramshackle, staring at the unfamiliar stars and trying to pull the unfamiliar constellations to distract yourself. You knew it was wrong, you knew you should just tell him why you were mad, but you were honestly a bit worried. He adored Malleus, you can't imagine telling him that you can't stand being compared to his idol anymore would elicit a good reaction. Not that this was any better. Your gaze was pulled by a firefly, then another, and you rolled your eyes slightly as you recognized the flashing just before Malleus appeared just down the walkway.

"Child of man."

"Hornton."

He smiled at you fondly as he walked over to stand in front of you, expression turning to concern as you didn't return it. "What troubles you?"

You sighed, shaking your head as he moved to sit on the step next to you. "Nothing. Personal stuff."

He hummed in understanding as he nodded, a smirk playing at his lips. "Is it something to do with Sebek, perhaps?"

"...Perhaps."

He nodded again. "I see. He came to me earlier today to see if I, as your friend, had any insight into your behavior recently. He's under the impression he's done something to upset you."

Your tongue clicked in annoyance before you could stop it as you rolled your eyes and averted your gaze, opting to look out at the darkened sidewalk. You heard him sigh next to you as you crossed your arms, leaning them forward onto your knees.

"Judging on your reaction, I feel it's safe to assume he was correct." His tone was flat, like he had to have this conversation often. "May I ask what happened?"

"Actually, it's kinda all your fault." You joked, turning to smirk at him to make sure he didn't take it seriously.

"Me?"

"Yeah, you're too damn perfect or whatever," you scoffed, tone dripping with vitriol, "and god forbid the human tells a story for thirty seconds without it being about Malleus." You turned back to the sidewalk, glaring at the cobble. You felt bad, it wasn't Malleus's fault, he wasn't even the one you should be saying this to, he didn't deserve your hostility. "I'm just getting so sick of being compared to you. Really makes me feel inadequate."

You watched him pinch the bridge of his nose out of the corner of your eye as he let out a deep sigh. "Fear not, my friend," he said as he stood, putting a comforting hand on your shoulder, "you are not inadequate, and this shall be resolved soon."

Before you could think to respond, he was gone in a puff of fireflies. You didn't move from the front step for awhile, opting to just watch the stars again.

The next morning, you woke to faint-- but frantic-- knocking, far too early for a Sunday. You dragged yourself out of bed, not bothering to get changed before going downstairs to the entry hall. You were too busy rubbing the sleep from your eyes to check who was banging on the door before opening it, only seeing Sebek's face for a brief second before he dropped. Your eyes shot open wide as you tracked him down to where he'd fallen hard to a knee in front of you, head bowed.

"I've come to beg your forgiveness." He announced, keeping his head down as he wrapped an arm around to place a fist on his chest.

"Sebek--"

"Please." He said, voice uncharacteristically quiet as he cut you off. "I never should have made undue comparisons. I often find it difficult to draw from other topics, being Lord Malleus's retainer is my entire life. However, that is no excuse." You could hear the slightest tremble in his voice as he spoke. "I am so incredibly sorry, Yuu. I will do anything to make it right, and if I cannot, know that I will carry this regret to my grave." It was getting dramatic, and you could tell he was rambling now, but you didn't have the heart to stop him. "Your presence in my life has become an absolute joy, a highlight of each day. As often as I tell you about Lord Malleus, I tell Lilia about you. The book club and the movies and the conversations, and he laughed at me when I told him I imagined a future with you and when I asked if you would understand fae courting--" His voice fizzled off and you heard his teeth clack together as he squeezed his jaw shut.

You were certain he was bright red, despite the fact that he was now completely statue still. To be fair, you could feel your own cheeks turning red as you smirked at the top of his head. "He laughed when you told him what?"

"NOTHING. I TOLD HIM NOTHING." He shouted frantically. "PLEASE FORGIVE MY RUDENESS, IT WAS NEVER MY INTENTION TO TREAT YOU SO POORLY."

You laughed, sitting on your knees in front of him and putting a hand on his shoulder. "I forgive you. And... I'm sorry too. It wasn't fair of me to just ignore you like that, I was just... worried."

"Worried?" He asked, quickly looking up to meet your eye. And oh boy were you right, he was red.

You nodded. "I was worried if I told you that you comparing me to Malleus all the time was making me upset that you would get upset about it and... well, I was worried you would hate me for it."

"I would never hate you for speaking your mind." He said plainly. "I know you and my Lord are close friends, I know I don't have to worry about you disparaging his name."

You sighed heavily before giving him a fond smile. "So what are the fae courting rituals, anyways?"

The blush that had died down slightly was now back in full force as he stammered incoherently. You laughed at the reaction, leaning forward to kiss his cheek. He completely froze again, and for a second, you were worried he might pass out until he ducked his head again, mumbling about Briar Valley's courting customs. None of it was entirely clear, but you hoped he would follow through on them for you.

I DO NOT GIVE PERMISSION TO USE MY WORK TO TRAIN AI

MASTERLIST

[n30n-l1ghts]

Okay, I need to rant. Fuck AI. And I mean seriously. FUCK. A.I. I know I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but more people need to be talking about this, and there’s no point in me saying that if I’m not willing to talk about it too. AI has done nothing but ruin our communities and defile the art that millions of hands have spent millions of hours creating. Fanfiction is a work of passion. Drawing is a work of passion. Voice acting IS A WORK OF PASSION. AI has no passion. It takes the soul out of the things we love and cherish. It steals what we as a collective community have lovingly crafted, and it shatters it to a thousand pieces, spits on it, curses its family, and throws it in a flaming dumpster to be eaten by rats. It is despicable and disgusting.

I won't lie, or pretend I’m a perfect saint. I myself was a user of Character AI until somewhat recently. And as ashamed as I am to admit that, I feel it’s necessary to own up to my own faults. But after seeing the damage it causes, I can’t in good conscience even consider touching that site. Many of us write because it is our passion. Many of us because it is our job. And many of us because it is our *friend*. AI steals the writing of your favorite creators WITHOUT PERMISSION and mashes it together like Frankenstein’s fucked up monster to create storylines that aren’t even fucking coherent. Not only that, but Character AI uses whatever you respond to it with to teach itself as well, which means that the company has access to whatever you chat about, and free reign to do whatever they want with it. They also make absurd amounts of money from it, which in comparison, fanfiction writers, who spend countless hours writing stories for our favorite characters, more often than not charge nothing. And the ones who do charge, tend to have reasonable, if not highly lenient prices for their labor.

Which leads me into another side rant. SUPPORT WRITERS THAT YOU LIKE. It’s really not that hard, it takes two fucking seconds of your time and it makes someone's day. Reblog. Share with your friends. Like. Comment. Just let the writer know that you saw it, and that you liked it. The amount of fanfic writers I have seen get completely discouraged from writing because of lack of engagement is astounding. I’ve seen several posts on Tumblr or Twitter or Bluesky talking about creators that were incredibly popular but never knew it due to lack of engagement is appalling. If you can rant about your love for their work on Discord, you can rant about your love for their work in the comments. Just fucking copy paste it. Tell them how much you love it. Show them support. Especially the ones that don’t charge. Because for those of us that don’t, our only payment, is your feedback. Even constructive criticism is greatly appreciated by damn near every writer I can think of. Because even that shows that you read it, absorbed it, and thought about it enough to have something to actually say about it.

The same thing goes for artists and voice actors. You see a drawing or animation you enjoy? Comment. Like. Share. You see a character in an anime or a game and you love their voice? Go check out their voice actor, maybe they do some other cool stuff, and you might just discover your new favorite series or streamer. A perfect example is Alejandro Saab. I became a fan of his through his astounding performance in several series dear to me, and lo and behold, he’s also a streamer I enjoy. Same story with Aleks Le, or Ray Chase. Yuri Lowenthal, Lizzie Freeman, Landon Mcdonald, Zeno Robinson, the list goes on. But seriously, it’s not that much effort to just show a little love to the creators you enjoy. The people who breathe life into the series’ that we all hold dear. AI does not breathe that life. Using AI, and supporting those companies, will destroy those pillars of our community. And if that happens, the AI would crumble too, it would have no new information to use. SO really, what’s the benefit? I’ll tell you. There is none.

Stop using AI. All it does is bring harm and slowly kill our community. It’s disgusting, appalling, and downright fucking egregious.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

[vivsinkpot]

When Should You Describe a Character’s Appearance? (And When You Really, Really Shouldn’t)

It’s one of the first instincts writers have: describe your character. What they look like, what they wear, how they move. But the truth is — readers don’t need to know everything. And more importantly, they don’t want to know everything. At least, not all at once. Not without reason.

Let’s talk about when to describe a character’s appearance, how to do it meaningfully, and why less often says more.

1. Ask: Who Is Seeing Them? And Why Now?

The best descriptions are filtered through a perspective. Who’s noticing this character, and what do they see first? What do they expect to see, and what surprises them?

She looked like someone who owned every book you were supposed to have read in school. Glasses slipping down her nose. Sharp navy coat, sensible shoes, and an air of knowing too much too soon.

Now we’re not just learning what she looks like — we’re learning how she comes across. That tells us more than eye color ever could.

2. Use Appearance to Suggest Character, Not List Facts

Avoid long physical checklists. Instead, choose a few details that do double work — they imply personality, history, class, mood, or context.

Ineffective: She had long, wavy brown hair, green eyes, a small nose, and full lips. She wore jeans and a white shirt.

Better: Her hair was tied back like she hadn’t had time to think about it. Jeans cuffed, a shirt buttoned wrong. Tired, maybe. Or just disinterested.

You don’t need to know her exact features — you feel who she is in that moment.

3. Know When It’s Not the Moment

Introducing a character in the middle of action? Emotion? Conflict? Don’t stop the story for a physical description. It kills momentum.

Instead, thread it through where it matters.

He was pacing. Long-legged, sharp-shouldered — he didn’t seem built for waiting. His jaw kept twitching like he was chewing on the words he wasn’t allowed to say.

We learn about his build and his mood and his internal tension — all in motion.

4. Use Clothing and Gesture as Extension of Self

What someone chooses to wear, or how they move in it, says more than just what’s on their body.

Her sleeves were too long, and she kept tucking her hands inside them. When she spoke, she looked at the floor. Not shy, exactly — more like someone used to being half-disbelieved.

This is visual storytelling with emotional weight.

5. Finally: Describe When It Matters to the Story, Not Just the Reader

Are they hiding something? Trying to impress? Standing out in a crowd? Use appearance when it helps shape plot, stakes, or power dynamics.

He wore black to the funeral. Everyone else in grey. And somehow, he still looked like the loudest voice in the room.

That detail matters — it changes how we see him, and how others react to him.

TL;DR:

Don’t info-dump descriptions.

Filter visuals through a point of view.

Prioritize impression over inventory.

Describe only what tells us more than just what they look like — describe what shows who they are.

Because no one remembers a checklist.

But everyone remembers the girl who looked like she’d walked out of a forgotten poem.

[mxystan]

taiwan travelogue by yang shuangzi tr. lin king is indeed an award-winning banger and perhaps the first time in my life i've ever felt vindicated for dual-wielding a novel with its english translation because the act of translation itself is such a big theme in the novel. big win for metafiction-obsessed himejin everywhere!!

[sillyzlaurr]

do you have any voice claims for Tenna and Mike?

SPINEL STEVEN UNIVERSE FOR TENNA 100%. But uh.... actually.... I um... Tried to voice her by myself🥹👉👈 (omg zlaurr's voice reveal) Sooooo I think it's her canon voice for now???

It's my first time doing something like this so don't judge me🥹 it was really fun to try anyway!!!

As for Mike well.... Don't have any voice claims for now but he has very gentle yet deep voice i think (im not strong enough to voice a man lol). One anon headcanons Engineer from TF2 for him i think that voice might suit him too

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Hello! I absolutely love your blog, it has saved my ass from looking like a fool nine times out of ten. I was wondering if you have any tips for describing voices? Like the tone or even how someone's accent sounds, things of the sort. Thank you :)

Haha, I'm so glad to hear this. Thanks for telling me :)

Abrasive - causing irritation; rude and unfriendly

Acidic - marked by the use of wit that is intended to cause hurt feelings

Adenoidal - exhibiting the characteristics (such as snoring, mouth breathing, and voice nasality) of one affected with abnormally enlarged adenoids

Airy - exceptionally light, delicate, or refined

Animated - full of vigor and spirit; lively

Anxious - characterized by extreme uneasiness of mind or brooding fear about some contingency; worried; ardently or earnestly wishing

Authoritative - recognized authority; clearly accurate or knowledgeable

Barbed - characterized by pointed and biting criticism or sarcasm

Baritone - a male singing voice of medium compass between bass and tenor, also: a person having this voice

Barking - to speak in a curt loud and usually angry tone; snapping

Bass - deep or grave in tone; of low pitch

Big - expressed in an enthusiastic or unrestrained way; hearty; of great force; in a loud or declamatory manner

Bitter - caused by or expressive of severe pain, grief, or regret

Bland - not irritating, stimulating, or invigorating; soothing; dull, insipid

Blasé - apathetic to pleasure or excitement as a result of excessive indulgence or enjoyment; world-weary; sophisticated, worldly-wise; unconcerned

Bleak - lacking in warmth, life, or kindliness; grim; severely simple or austere

Blunt - abrupt in speech or manner; slow or deficient in feeling; insensitive

Bombastic - marked by or given to speech or writing that is given exaggerated importance by artificial or empty means; marked by or given to bombast; pompous, overblown

Booming - making a loud deep sound

Bored - having one's patience, interest, or pleasure exhausted; monotonous

Brash - lacking restraint and discernment; tactless; piercingly sharp; harsh

Braying - to utter the characteristic loud harsh cry of a donkey

Breathy - characterized by or as if by the audible passage of breath

Breezy - airy, nonchalant

Bright - lively, cheerful; intelligent, clever

Brisk - sharp in tone or manner; energetic, quick

Brittle - easily hurt or offended; lacking warmth, depth, or generosity of spirit

Broken - discontinuous, interrupted; imperfectly spoken or written; subdued completely; crushed, sorrowful

Bubbly - cheerful and high-spirited; lively, vivacious

Burbling - babbling, prattling

Calm - free from agitation, excitement, or disturbance

Casual - feeling or showing little concern; nonchalant; informal, natural

Caustic - marked by incisive sarcasm

Childish - marked by or suggestive of immaturity and lack of poise; simple

Chirping - to utter (something) with a cheerful liveliness

Choked - to become choked in breathing; to lose one's composure and fail to perform effectively in a critical situation

Clear - easily heard

Cloying - excessively sweet or sentimental

Coarse - crude or unrefined; harsh, raucous, or rough in tone

Complacent - unconcerned; self-satisfied

Conflicted - to be out of harmony or agreement usually noticeably

Contralto - a singing voice having a range between tenor and mezzo-soprano

Cracked- marked by harshness, dissonance, or failure to sustain a tone

Creaky - marked by creaking; squeaky

Croaking - to utter in a hoarse raucous voice

Crisp - notably sharp, clean-cut, and clear

Crooning - to sing or speak in a gentle murmuring manner

Curt - sparing of words; terse

Discordant - shrill; marked by or producing a harsh combination of sounds

Drawling - to speak slowly with vowel sounds that are longer than usual

Dreamy - quiet and soothing; delightful, ideal

Dry - reserved, aloof; lacking smooth sound qualities

Dulcet - pleasing to the ear; generally pleasing or agreeable

Earnest - characterized by an intense and serious state of mind

Ethereal - marked by unusual delicacy or refinement

Falsetto - an artificially high voice

Faint - lacking strength or vigor; performed weakly or languidly

Feathery - extremely light

Feeble - indicating weakness

Firm - not weak or uncertain; vigorous

Flat - lower than the proper pitch; lacking in animation, zest, or vigor; dull

Fierce - marked by unrestrained zeal or vehemence

Fretful - disposed to fret; irritable, restless

Gentle - soft, delicate

Goofy - being ridiculous or mildly ludicrous; silly

Grating - having a harsh or unpleasant sound

Guttural - articulated in the throat; velar (i.e., formed with the back of the tongue touching or near the soft palate)

Hesitant - slow to act or proceed (as from fear, indecision, or unwillingness); showing or feeling reluctance or hesitation

Hissing - to make a sharp sibilant sound; to utter or whisper angrily or threateningly and with a hiss

Honeyed - pleasingly sweet

Husky - hoarse with or as if with emotion

Hypnotic - readily holding the attention; soothing; tending to cause sleep

Indifferent - marked by a lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern; apathetic

Insinuating - tending gradually to cause doubt, distrust, or change of outlook often in a slyly subtle manner

Jubilant - feeling or expressing great joy; exultant

Lifeless - lacking qualities expressive of life and vigor; insipid

Lilting - characterized by a rhythmical swing or cadence

Lush - sensual; pleasing to the physical senses

Mellifluous - having a smooth rich flow

Melodious - having a pleasing melody

Monotonous - tediously uniform or unvarying in tone

Nasal - characterized by resonance produced through the nose

Neutral - produced with the tongue in the position it has when at rest

Obsequious - marked by or exhibiting a fawning attentiveness

Piercing - loud, shrill

Piping - shrill

Polished - characterized by a high degree of development or refinement

Punchy - vivid, vibrant

Querulous - habitually complaining; fretful, whining

Raucous - disagreeably harsh or strident; hoarse

Reedy - having the tone quality of a reed instrument

Resonant - continuing to sound; echoing

Ribald - marked by coarseness or lewdness; crude, offensive

Robust - having or showing vigor, strength, or firmness

Saccharine - ingratiatingly agreeable or friendly; overly sentimental; mawkish

Scornful - full of scorn; contemptuous

Sibilant - having, containing, or producing the sound of or a sound resembling that of the s or the sh in sash

Silken - agreeably smooth; harmonious

Silvery - having a soft high clear musical tone

Sleek - smooth in speech or manner

Sluggish - markedly slow in movement, flow, or growth

Slurring - to utter with such reduction, substitution, or omission of sounds

Sly - lightly mischievous; roguish

Smarmy - revealing or marked by a smug, ingratiating, or false earnestness

Smoky - having a low throaty quality

Snide - slyly disparaging; insinuating

Somber - of a serious mien; grave

Sonorous - full or loud in sound

Soprano - the highest singing voice of women or boys and formerly of castrati, also: a person having this voice

Sour - unpleasant, distasteful

Staccato - marked by short clear-cut singing of tones or chords; disjointed

Steely - resembling or suggesting steel (as in hardness, strength, or coldness)

Strained - done or produced with excessive effort

Strident - characterized by harsh, insistent, and discordant sound

Stony - manifesting no movement or reaction; dumb, expressionless

Suave - smooth in texture, performance, or style

Surly - irritably sullen and churlish in mood or manner; crabbed

Tart - marked by a biting, acrimonious, or cutting quality

Teasing - to disturb or annoy by persistent irritating or provoking especially in a petty or mischievous way

Tender - delicate or soft in quality or tone

Throaty - heavy, thick, and deep as if from the throat

Thunderous - marked by a high volume of sound

Tremulous - such as is or might be caused by nervousness or shakiness

Unctuous - having, revealing, or marked by a smug, ingratiating, and false earnestness or spirituality

Undulating - to rise and fall in volume, pitch, or cadence

Velvety - having the character of velvet as in being soft, smooth, or thick

Wheezy - wheezing (i.e., breathe with difficulty usually with a whistling sound)

Whiny - having a high-pitched, shrill or plaintive quality

Wistful - full of yearning or desire tinged with melancholy

Effectively describing a voice requires encapsulating the volume, pitch, tone, style, and feeling evoked by the character. Choose specific adjectives to capture your character's voice.

Here is a category system that is fairly standard:

Soprano: C4 to A5 vocal range

Mezzo-soprano: A3 to F5 vocal range

Alto: F3 to D5 vocal range

Tenor: B2 to G4 vocal range

Baritone: G2 to E4 vocal range

Bass: E2 to C4 vocal range

Basically: if it’s a descriptive adjective, it can probably be used to describe the voice of a character. You want whomever is reading the description to immediately “hear” what makes the character unique. 

5 Tips for Writing Character Accents

Accents give us information about where a character is from, and the use of distinct speech patterns can give your story a rich texture and flavor.

Here are some tips to consider when giving your characters accents:

1. Make sure your character’s speech isn’t distracting

When writing dialect or a particular accent, it can be tempting to write a character’s dialogue using phonetic spellings.

However, this use of dialect can distract your reader.

If your character is French and is constantly saying “ze” instead of “the,” the reader will be focusing more on decoding the line of dialogue than they will on plot or character development.

When writing fiction, your reader’s attention should always be on the story, and anything that distracts from that probably isn’t worth including.

2. Research slang and colloquialisms

Each region of the world has its own standard pronunciation, sentence structure, and slang.

If your main character has an Australian, Jamaican, Spanish, or Scottish accent, their word choice will likely be different than if they grew up speaking American English.

Research commonly used foreign words, slang phrases, and colloquialisms from your character's part of the world.

Listen to podcasts that feature speakers from your desired region.

Be as specific as possible. Example:

If your character is from New York, their word choice might be different depending on if they’re from the Bronx or Staten Island.

3. Use pieces of other languages

If you’re writing a character who speaks a foreign language, one way to communicate their accent is to simply include snippets of their native tongue in their lines of dialogue.

This will demonstrate the character’s native language and implied accent without resorting to the distracting eyesore of phonetic spelling.

When writing words from languages besides English, you may need to include accented letters.

Writing accented characters is simple to do on a common keyboard; you can apply accent marks and special characters by using keyboard shortcuts.

You can also change your keyboard settings to an international keyboard, which will make it easier to type accents that use accent graves or other accent marks.

4. Don’t stereotype

Writing different dialects indelicately can make you appear condescending towards non-native English speakers or people who use the English language differently than you do.

One of the most common offenders is the use of “eye dialect,” which refers to using misspellings or nonstandard spellings in order to depict a character’s accent (for instance, writing “fixin’” with an apostrophe instead of “fixing” in order to demonstrate Appalachian or Southern accents).

By focusing on the “otherness” of regional dialects and non-native speakers, a writer may give the impression that they are making fun of the way people speak.

When writing different accents, keep eye dialect to a minimum.

5. Recognize that character speech is determined by context

Accents aren’t always determined by region or nationality.

Sometimes, our own accents change depending on who we’re speaking to or our emotional or physical state.

We may slur our speech when we’re drunk, or we may attempt to use complex English words when we’re speaking with someone we perceive to be of a higher status.

Seeing a character change their accents in different contexts can serve as a clever way of revealing the emotional condition of a character.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Writing Notes: Tone

Hope this helps! If it does, do tag me or send me a link to your writing. I'd love to read your work.

[sorry-not-feeling-it-right-now]

Thinking about writing shenanigans with Smitten and Cold

Smitten would write the most sappy and fluffy romance stories with happy endings every time. Cold would say that it’s getting predictable of how the story ends every time.

Smitten gets peeved and told Cold to write a romance story himself. Cold takes the challenge.

Smitten reads what Cold has written and lo and behold it’s the most heart wrenching, most antsy love story with pinning and longing that can never be filled.

Smitten cried reading it. He hated admitting that.

[rumors-rhythm-rain]

I’ve caught the Hannibal brainrot so I decided to do something about it

[weaverofink]

oh shit metal stole tails' speak & spell