#arithegreat

[loserchildhotpants]

hii! i just read your mcpricely fic from yee olden days and i LOVED IT so from writer to writer im just wondering if you have any tips on how you make your dialogue so engaging and true to character!! much love xx

the jump scare you have just given me w the first part of that second sentence

i refuse cringe, though. we are cringe and we are free. i just forgot that fic exists and now i am frightened that fic exists still, but if it gave you joy, i am glad!!!

so, dialogue! i'm happy to talk abt my personal process, but always consider that it's just my own, and there are lots of other approaches!

engaging dialogue:

engaging is p subjective, i'm not sure what it is you specifically found engaging, so i can't totally zero in on that, but what i will say is that i consider, as i'm writing, if whether or not i am finding it interesting to write versus interesting to read. those two are not always the same.

sometimes a conversation has to happen for Plot Reasons but is, in general, kind of boring! maybe it's just a vehicle for exposition or something, but there have been times where i've straight up just deleted entire exchanges bc upon re-reading it i was like 'wow, this is boring, i would skip this as a reader' and then brain storming ideas of what could make that conversation more interesting.

a lot of the time, the answer to that is 'if i take this one line of dialogue and just think abt it for a while, what other tangential trains of thought come to mind?' and then i'll find a secondary subject, still tangentially related to the primary subject, that i can spice the dialogue with.

in a recent fic on my other account, i wrote an exchange where i was giving a watsonian explanation for a character's name, but etymology can be kinda boring, and this was clearly me, as the author, trying to make an in-universe explanation as to why this character's name is SO remarkably out of place -- so i cushioned that conversation w conversation abt that character's birth story, giving an opportunity for that character to show through diction and body language how they feel abt their mother, and then, also related, their siblings, and ultimately their father. the characters speaking accomplished what i needed them to; made the universe more detailed/real-feeling, gave a watsonian explanation for a character's objectively out of place name, and in so doing, created a way to provide emotional vulnerability that made the exchange deeper and more emotionally enriching.

and of course, dialogue is as much abt what is said as what is not. when considering a conversation, consider what would be interesting for a character to withhold, why they would withhold it, and what it would take for them to divulge it.

abt staying true to character:

this is also p subjective, it's kind of you to say so, though! i know there is disc horses abt the meme of 'he would not fucking say that' but tbh it's been helpful for me! sometimes i'm writing a repressed character and im so eager for them to be vulnerable and share themselves, i find myself writing stuff that, to put simply, they would not fucking say lol

i know that i speak the way i write and i write the way i speak. my narrative voice is distinct, has a certain rhythm, and syntax, and i don't mind that for narration, but that means i need to go out of my way to make sure i'm making the characters sound like themselves and not like me.

i recommend exercises w characters through written word or text, as in write short fics and drabbles abt characters texting each other, writing letters to one another, or maybe only speaking through a walkie talkie, which minimizes the use of action tags.

as you write those exchanges, you can start to tell when your voice is taking over and when you write a line that's SO that character and you're like 'omg yes i could see that happening on stage/on the show/in the movie/in the game/etc' and over time, it becomes more natural

but capturing a voice is hard, and it'll take a few tries! something else to consider is what you enjoy abt those characters' interactions, and figuring out how to replicate it. like, if you like that between these characters, there is always juicy tension, that means the dialogue probably needs to be pulled back, a lot being Unsaid, more expressed in body language than verbal language, but if something you like abt a different dynamic is that one is a goofy guy and the other is the straight man so to speak, keeping the straight man stoic will probably be the challenge.

this is all i can really think of rn but i'm super happy to talk shop any time :3333 this is was such a sweet ask to get! thank u!! <3

[odysseyre]

KNUCKLES ART PLZ THE SAME WAY YOU DID TAILS AND SONIC GIVE HIM A COOL POSE PLEASE AND ILL DIE FOR YOU AND KILL ANYONE YOU ASK

Your wish is my command... 😌

[papagabu]

The bros annoying Knuckles cause he's also part of the family.

Tails gets to yeet both his brothers.

also @arithegreat-666 this also counts as them being at the beach so this is a two in one.

[yutamayo]

@arithegreat-666

[watchingwindows]

dude. I want a piglet. buy me a piglet, Ari.