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Topic : Are there ways to help stick to character traits? So, I'm not much of a writer, in fact the last time I wrote a story was when I was 10 (Been nearly 10 years since). Where I usually write - selfpublishingguru.com

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So, I'm not much of a writer, in fact the last time I wrote a story was when I was 10 (Been nearly 10 years since).

Where I usually write is in roleplay situations. Where my characters are constantly interacting with others, as we all make our way through some ridiculous problem together, or kill something disgustingly difficult.

What I wanted to know, are there any specific exercises I can take as a person to accomplish the following.

Keep My characters personalities separate. It may seem like a silly question, however I struggle with this. What i mean is, when running multiple characters I tend to sort of merge their personalities into one abomination, it takes time, but eventually they all become the same old character with different weapons, or something.

For example, I had two characters, one named Adrian, another named Ashley. In the beginning Ashley was a light hearted smooth talking kinda guy, whereas Adrian was more on the Edgy side of things. He had a classical 'I'm rich, so i'm better than you' demeanor... In the end, their personalities merged slightly and it was just messy.

I want to prevent this in the future, though don't want to stop my Roleplay activities. Is there anything I can do?

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To begin with, follow the advice of mbkeranalecta regarding motivations.

It sounds like a dialogue problem? As though they all start to sound the same eventually because you favor a particular "voice" in a dialogue? That happens a lot, so I am just going to answer it from this tack as the major point has, I think, been covered. Different motivations make for different reactions, and thus, different people, but dialogue, that's about developing a particular voice that comes from a particular background. If you can write dialogue that the reader can immediately identify as a specific person, without the name, then you've done something beautiful.

So--have their voice in your head. How do they talk? Do they have any verbal tics? This isn't about putting the words "he said gloomily" at the end of whatever they say...it's more than that.

Here's an example. Character #1 has a verbal tic. One word sarcasm.

"Fantastic. Perfect. Can nothing at all go right?" he said, sopping wet.

"Nothing ever has before, but it's never stopped me. Don't look now, but there's a stunning barmaid coming over here to clean it up," he answered, wringing out his hat.

"I heard that," she said, towel in hand.

"I meant you to," he said with a brilliant smile.

"I am going to smell like a damned brewery for the rest of the day. Wonderful."

They also react differently. Even though they aren't named, you know exactly who is speaking.

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