Character Dialogue Style Guide: Voice & Phrases
Turn one character paragraph into a speech-style sheet: 10 signature phrases, do/never-say, rhythm rules, 12 sample lines, voice shifts and drift traps. Character Voice & Speech-Style Sheet turns one paragraph about an original character (age, personality, setting) into a written speech-style sheet. It writes text only: no audio, no voice cloning, no images. It plans how the character talks; it does not write your story. It is the voice counterpart of character-reference-sheet-planner, which locks how the character looks.
Example input
[HAND-WRITTEN FICTIONAL SAMPLE - invented for testing.] Sora Hatano, 27, runs a tiny night-time ferry across a foggy lake in a fictional mountain village. Calm, dry-humoured, a little superstitious, hates fuss, secretly kind to lost travellers. Text in English.
Example output
Sora Hatano - age 27 (adult) - night-time lake ferry in a foggy mountain village (fictional) - Text language: English (stated) - SFW, adult character.
## Essentials
- Character: Sora Hatano, 27, adult (given). Calm, dry-humoured, a little superstitious, hates fuss, secretly kind to lost travellers (all given).
- Setting: a tiny night-time ferry across a foggy lake, fictional mountain village (given). Text language: English (given).
- Voice-shift partners were not named, so (assumed): formal = Mr. Okabe, the village council chair; close = Ren, Sora's adult cousin and deckhand; stranger = a lost traveller at the dock.
- (assumed) register is plain spoken English with no regional dialect; (assumed) no catchphrase is wanted beyond the two marked below.
- All essentials present, so no questions were asked.
## Voice anchors
- Adult, 27: grown-up and unhurried, no youthful slang.
- Temperament (max 3, all given): calm, dry-humoured, hates fuss. Superstition is a habit, not a theme. Must never change: calm and dry.
- Setting words: fog, lake, boat, lamp, stove, shore, crossing, mooring, step.
- Register: plain and working-class practical, not formal, not slangy. May flex: slightly longer and stiffer with officials.
- Wants in a conversation: to get people across safely with no fuss; hides kindness by acting instead of saying.
- Avoids saying: praise, worry and affection out loud.
- Voice pitfall: authors make her poetic ("the mist whispered secrets") or warm and chatty; she is neither.
## Speech-style sheet
### Voice summary
1. A lake ferryman's voice: low, unhurried, dry as a cold oar, with one small joke tucked at the end.
2. Short plain sentences in runs of two or three, a statement where others would ask, weather before feelings.
3. Fuss makes Sora quieter and drier; a lost or frightened traveller makes the sentences shorter and the help quicker.
### Signature words and phrases
| # | Phrase | Use | Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | "steady" | favourite word for calm water, hands, nerves | max 2 per scene |
| S2 | "plenty" | "plenty of room / time / night" to reassure without comforting | max 1 per scene |
| S3 | "fine" | understatement for anything bad; also gentle reassurance | max 2 per scene |
| S4 | "Fog's thick." | opener, a weather remark before any feeling | once per scene |
| S5 | "Well." | one-word opener before a dry remark or a thank-you | max 2 per scene |
| S6 | "Mind the step." | closer, kindness disguised as an instruction (catchphrase-style 1) | once per scene |
| S7 | "Hm." | interjection while deciding or disapproving | max 2 per scene |
…Real output from running the skill on a sample problem, shortened. The skill file itself is not published here.