Open Thread: Oracle Hotline
Jul. 3rd, 2026 09:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mithen posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
superhero_muses --How do you maintain each character's distinct voice when writing rapid-fire dialogue or group scenes during tense situations?
Basically, how do you deal with the challenge of group scenes? Personally, I know I often try to weasel out of them by either finding ways to avoid them entirely or summarizing everyone else's part ("There was a chorus of disagreement, but Clark stood firm" rather than saying what each character said.) Like we were talking about last week, unless one of the group characters is getting character work in a story, it doesn't seem always necessary to focus on them (but sometimes with a group I'm really comfortable with, like the animated Justice League, it can be fun!)
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Date: 2026-07-08 12:18 pm (UTC)Ollie waved his arms around. "It's an outrage, the Orange Emperor putting his name on the Kennedy Center! A memorial to an assassinated President and a war hero! Cadet Bone Spurs is despicable!"
Political pronouncements are definitely Ollie's thing. 😉
I could also write:
Diana smiled serenely. Her teammates were sure to realize what she said was right if they thought about it in a quiet atmosphere.
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Date: 2026-07-09 05:12 am (UTC)With more fun League scenes, I just try to focus on what I imagine their sense of humor would be and tone - like some characters sound a little more young while others have a drier sense of humor. They're usually not very long on purpose because I will forget who is around and prefer to focus on a couple of people at at time, max.