: Character with extreme manners My objective is Victorian-style tea-drinking "upper class" lady characters. (It's more of a writing challenge.) Does anyone have any useful resources or tips for creating

Vote Up Vote Down

Get specific. There are many, many regional differences in speech. Are they British? If so where from specifically? Even though you are talking future times, I would say that researching this in a slightly more narrow fashion will be helpful.

I love this link on TV Tropes: Verbal Tics.

The real life section is a gold mine.

The sort of vague "Victorian-style" direction that you've given, without time and specific place is going to trip you up tremendously. The more specific you get with that, the more likely you are to have something to hold on to and the ability to research it.

I feel as though Dickens is a great place to start, because his characters are simply littered with verbal tics. I'd also read The Importance of Being Earnest from Oscar Wilde. I would also look at Gilbert and Sullivan a bit. And Charley's Aunt a play, which at the time, was a huge hit, though it is not well known today. Here's a link to whole play as well as the wiki summary.

The Dowager Countess on the Downton Abbey is of the Victorian Era--so as acidic as she can get, she's still very much a woman of that time. And she's British.

(0)

Vote Up Vote Down

Personalities might be easy for someone along those lines, but motivations will actually be a bit harder. It sounds like what you want to write falls into the category of a novel of manners. Not only do you need to understand how they act and talk, you need to understand why.

You might want to read up on examples telling you what is and what isn't proper. For more modern ideas, The Preppy Handbook, The Official Filthy Rich Handbook, Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, or True Prep might give you some great details.

(0)

Vote Up Vote Down

Read P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster stories, particularly Aunt Agatha.

(0)