#this is bc it’s less rigid and more open-ended than memorizing straight speech patterns

[paimonial-rage]

The biggest recommendation I can give on writing dialogue that sounds in character for the character to say is, not to read the quests they are in, but to listen to the English dub whenever you get the chance. This may seem difficult especially if you are used to playing it in another language, but listening is key to getting the vibe of a character down. What you pay attention to is, not what they say, but the cadence in which they say it. Pay attention to the emotion in their voice, the speed at which they say things, the volume, etc. Once you get this down, it becomes easier to get an idea of what “sounds” right and what doesn’t. Cadence is an especially powerful thing. By training your ears to a character’s cadence, you can get a better idea of which words they would prefer to use, the lengths of their sentences, and things of the sort.

For example, reader asks Zhongli to dinner and he accepts. How would he respond? “Hmm, I’m not busy this evening, so I accept. Thank you for the invitation.” But that doesn’t sound right, does it? Is Zhongli the type of person that uses many contractions? I don’t think so, so let’s fix it. “Hmm, I am not busy this evening, so I accept. Thank you for the invitation.” But would he say “I accept?” Perhaps, but it still doesn’t sound right. How has he accepted proposals in the past? A bit of research shows he has said “sure.” How can I mix that in? “Hmm, I’m not busy this evening, so sure. Thank you for the invitation.” But hmm… the second sentence doesn’t sound right. What else could he say instead? “Hmm, I’m not busy this evening, so sure. It would be my pleasure.” That sounds a lot better.

Some people may ask why you can’t do these things while listening to another language. Personally, I don’t believe you can. If you are not fluent in those other languages, your ears are not properly trained enough to understand the nuance of the ways they speak. The correct emotion and tone will come through, yes, but you still won’t be able to intuitively know what sounds right and what does not. You only will get this sense by listening to it in the language you choose to write in.

The only downside to this is that your writing will become based upon the English translation of the game. As many people know, the portrayal of characters in English often does not completely match the portrayals in Chinese. This is especially so for characters like Zhongli, Xiao, and Kaeya. A lot is lost in the translation and dubbing process. Characters do not vibe the same. Thus, your portrayals will be more true to English, but not how it technically is “supposed” to be. Personally, I don’t necessarily believe this is a bad thing. However, it is something that can bother people. The only way I can imagine getting around it is by playing the game with the Chinese dub and by following accounts that speak Chinese and can give insight on the literal translations and what they mean and imply.

#personal #advice #character analysis #i personally dislike the idea that bc the en translation and dub aren’t parallel w/ cn they did a bad job #yes there are cases where the translation is terrible but it’s impossible to do a 100% true translation #when you translate a work the translation eventually becomes its own entity #it is the job of translation to change the text so that things sound natural #add into this communication misunderstandings between the translators and the writing team and things can become skewed #i’ve completely given up on zhongli but what i do try to do when writing xiao is to follow the notes of fan translators and ppl that play c #i do have it in my plans to eventually open an asian account and replay the whole game in cn too #but yeah training your ear to a character’s cadence is a real cheat way to learning character advice #this is bc it’s less rigid and more open-ended than memorizing straight speech patterns #the only junk thing is that eventually you’ll try writing for a character you haven’t listened to in a while? #and then you are forced to reserve two hours in your day to listen to a character or event quest with them in it #pain peko #also if you’re still here i’m gonna complain a bit like why do ppl always default to the jp voices when the cn voices are right there? #why not listen to cn? that should be the default if you want the best experience #idk man #maybe i’m just tired of listening to jp voice acting. they’re all the same