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Critique on my fantasy dialogue changed how I write characters
Someone told me my characters all sounded like medieval robots and honestly they were right lol. They pointed out I had a knight saying 'indeed' three times in one scene so I started reading dialogue out loud before I write it down now. Has anyone else had a reader call out a specific bad habit that stuck with you?
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graym491mo ago
Catch myself saying 'perhaps' way too much after a beta reader pointed out every single one of my characters used it like a crutch. Now I have a running list of words I banned from my drafts for a month to break the habit. 'Just' was another one that slipped in everywhere once I started looking for it. I still read everything out loud before I share it with anyone, feels weird but catches so much stiff dialogue.
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derek_bell1mo ago
I banned "really" and "very" for a month, cleaned up everything.
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