silly little guy who rambles about silly little things. (my tumblr is horribly messy, ill eventually tag everything properly, but That Day Is Not Today.)
(Because how they stand can say more than how they speak.)
Upright and stiff — Formal, tense, or deeply uncomfortable.
Slouched shoulders — Insecure, exhausted, or defeated.
Relaxed stance — Open, comfortable, confident.
Hands in pockets — Guarded, casual, or hiding something.
Crossed arms — Defensive, cold, or waiting to be impressed.
Leaning forward — Engaged, flirtatious, or impatient.
Back straight, chin high — Proud, stubborn, or putting on a show.
Shifting weight side to side — Nervous, indecisive, or stalling.
Foot tapping — Anxious, impatient, or barely holding it together.
Arms loose at sides — Neutral, calm, open to the moment.
Fidgeting with sleeves/hair/etc. — Inner turmoil disguised as casual touch.
Spine curled inward — Trying to be small, invisible, or unnoticeable.
Standing too still — Suppressed emotion, discomfort, or internal freeze.
Dominant stance (feet wide, chest forward) — Confidence, aggression, or showmanship.
Head tilted slightly — Curiosity, confusion, or playful challenge.
✏️ Writing Dialogue That Sounds Like Real People, Not Theater Kids on Red Bull
(a crash course in vibes, verbal economy, and making your characters shut up already)
Okay. We need to talk about dialogue. Specifically: why everyone in your draft sounds like they’re in a high school improv group doing a dramatic reading of Riverdale fanfiction.
Before you panic, this is normal. Early dialogue is almost always too much. Too polished. Too "scripted." So if yours feels off? You’re not failing. You’re just doing Draft Zero Dialogue, and it’s time to revise it like a boss.
Here’s how to fix it.
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🎭 STEP ONE: DETOX THEATER ENERGY
I say this with love: your characters are not all quippy geniuses. They do not need to deliver emotional monologues at every plot beat. They can just say things. Weird, half-finished, awkward things.
Real people:
interrupt each other
trail off mid-thought
dodge questions
contradict themselves
repeat stuff
change the subject randomly
Let your characters sound messy. Not every line needs to sparkle. In fact, the more effort you put into making dialogue ✨perfect✨, the more fake it sounds. Cut 30% of your clever lines and see what happens.
─────── ✦ ───────
🎤 STEP TWO: GIVE EACH CHARACTER A VERBAL FINGERPRINT
The fastest way to make dialogue feel alive? Make everyone speak differently. Think rhythm, grammar, vocabulary, tone.
Some dials you can twist:
Long-winded vs. clipped
Formal vs. casual
Emojis of speech: sarcasm, filler words, expletives, slang
Sentence structure: do they talk in fragments? Run-ons? Spirals?
Emotion control: are they blunt, diplomatic, avoidant, performative?
Here’s a shortcut: imagine what your character sounds like over text. Are they the “lol okay” type or the “okie dokie artichokie 🌈✨” one? Now translate that into speech.
─────── ✦ ───────
🧠 STEP THREE: FUNCTION > FILLER
Every line of dialogue should do something. Reveal something. Move something. Change something.
Ask:
Does this line push the plot forward?
Does it show character motivation/conflict/dynamic?
Does it create tension, add context, or raise a question?
If it’s just noise? It’s dead air. Cut it. Replace it with a glance. A gesture. A silence that says more.
TIP: look at a dialogue scene and remove every third line. Does the scene still work? Probably better.
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💥 STEP FOUR: REACTIVITY IS THE GOLD STANDARD
Characters don’t talk into a void. They respond. And how they respond = the real juice.
Don’t just write back-and-forth ping pong. Write conflict, dodge, misunderstanding. If one character says something vulnerable, the other might joke. Or ignore it. Or say something cruel. That’s tension.
Dialogue is not just information exchange. It’s emotional strategy.
Try this exercise:
A says something revealing.
B lies.
A notices, but pretends they don’t.
B changes the subject.
Now you’ve got a real scene.
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🔍 STEP FIVE: PAY ATTENTION TO POWER
Every convo has a power dynamic, even if it’s tiny. Who’s steering? Who’s withholding? Who’s deflecting, chasing, challenging?
Power can shift line to line. That shift = tension. And tension = narrative fuel.
Write conversations like chess matches, not ping pong.
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✂️ STEP SIX: SCISSORS ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND
The best dialogue is often the second draft. Or third. Or fourth. First drafts are just you figuring out what everyone wants to say. Later drafts figure out what they actually would say.
Things to cut:
Greetings/closings ("Hi!" "Bye!"--skip it unless it serves tone)
Exposition disguised as chat
Obvious thoughts spoken aloud
Explaining jokes
Repeating what we already know
Readers are smart. Let them fill in blanks.
─────── ✦ ───────
🎧 STEP SEVEN: READ IT OUT LOUD (YES, REALLY)
If you hate this step: too bad. It works. Read it. Mumbling is fine. Cringe is part of the ritual.
Ask yourself:
Would someone actually say this?
Does this sound like one person speaking, or a puppet show with one hand?
Where does the rhythm trip? Where’s the breath?
If you can’t say it out loud without wincing, the reader won’t make it either. Respect the vibe.
─────── ✦ ───────
🏁 TL;DR:
If you want your dialogue to sound like real people, let your characters be real. Messy. Annoying. Human. Let them interrupt and lie and joke badly and say the wrong thing at the worst time.
Cut the improv class energy. Kill the urge to be ✨brilliant✨. And listen to how people talk when they’re scared, tired, pissed off, in love, or trying not to say what they mean.
That’s where the good stuff is.
—rin t.
// thewriteadviceforwriters
// official advocate of awkward silences and one-word replies
P.S. I made a free mini eBook about the 5 biggest mistakes writers make in the first 10 pages 👀 you can grab it here for FREE:
✦ A free (and actually helpful) guide to leveling up your first 10 pages ✦If you're unsure whether your opening is ✨doing enough✨ to hook re
(PS: but literally everyone else does and is so tired)
These characters aren’t clueless, no, they’re not walking around like, “love? never heard of her.” They know something’s going on, they just won’t admit it (not to themselves, not to anyone.) Maybe they’re scared of messing it up, or maybe they think the other person doesn’t feel the same. Maybe they’ve stuffed the feeling so deep even a NASA rover couldn’t dig it out.
Whatever the reason, they’re not avoiding the truth as much as they’re…rebranding it. Calling it “friendship” while giving each other their only jacket and dreaming about each other’s voices like it’s totally normal behavior.
ꕤ They don’t realize it’s love, but they notice everything else. They clock every mood shift, every absence, every little thing. They definitely know when something’s off.
⇢ “You changed your hair.”
⇢ “You looked upset earlier.”
⇢ “You didn’t text me back and I panicked.”
⇢ “You weren’t at lunch and it felt weird.”
⇢ “Are you cold?” hands over jacket without a second thought
They don’t say “I love you,” but their actions scream it constantly.
ꕤ they get weird when someone else gets close
They’re not jealous. No, how dare you think something like that… they’re just keeping an eye out. For safety... Or whatever."
⇢ “Who was that?”
⇢ “Oh, you’re hanging out with them again?”
⇢ “I just think it’s interesting how you never cancel on them.”
They don’t say it, but they hate the idea of being replaced. It stings more than they’re ready to admit.
ꕤ they make excuses to be around each other.
Literally inventing reasons to be in the same space.
⇢ “Wanna study together? I’m struggling with this topic.” (They’re not.)
⇢ “Oh, I was just in the area.” (They weren’t.)
⇢ “You forgot this.” (It’s a single pen.)
They’d rather lie badly than admit, “I just wanted to see you.”
ꕤ Their friends are so over it
Everyone around them is either rooting for them or trying not to scream.
⇢ “You’re in love with them.”
⇢ “That’s not friendship, and you know it.”
⇢ “You made them soup. FUCKING SOUP. Just say you’re married already.”
⇢ “If I have to hear you talk about them one more time, I’m charging rent.”
Friends are the Greek chorus of this situation, like, brutally honest and endlessly tired.
ꕤ There’s always a moment they almost figure it out
That one soft, unspoken beat where the truth almost breaks through.
⇢ Watching them laugh like it’s the first time.
⇢ Seeing them cry and wanting to fix it more than anything.
⇢ Realizing no one else makes them feel like this.
⇢ Thinking, God, they’re beautiful.
Then they blink, panic a little, and go, “Huh. Weird.” And move on. Like absolute fools.
ꕤ When it finally hits, it’s not cute, it’s catastrophic. Suddenly everything makes sense and feels like too much.
⇢ Flashbacks.
⇢ Internal screaming.
⇢ “Oh no.”
⇢ “OH MY GOD.”
⇢ “Has it always been this obvious??”
⇢ “Wait. Everyone knew?!”
Yes. Everyone. The friends, the neighbor’s cat. You were the only two who didn’t get the memo...
Now that I've finished Spirit of Justice, I wanted to update some things about this AU. I wasn't expecting to rewrite it almost entirely.
So, prepare yourselves for a long ride. This is going to be one hell of a post... hehe, get it? ;)
The Holy Mother
An angel; the true Queen
of Heaven.
However, absolutely nobody
has ever seen her save for
Heaven's Royal Family. The
members of the Royal
Family are Archangels, and
the females have the rare,
legendary power to channel
spirits, be them from
Paradise or from Hell.
Archangels have the holy
duty of spreading the Holy
Mother's word. The Head
Archangel is like a second
queen, and is the only one
who contains the legendary
power to channel spirits.
Common angels usually become
someone's guardian angel, or
they become an "attorney" of
sorts in Purgatory, where them
and a demon will determine
whether a soul is fit for
entering Paradise or shall be
sent down to Hell. The Judge is
usually an elderly spirit who is
neither an angel or a demon.
For majority of the time, angels
become the equivalent of
prosecutors, while demons become
the equivalent of the defense,
but this is not a rule. An angel who betrays the sacred
word shall be sent down to Hell.
In other words, they become a
fallen angel.
A good soul is neither sent
to heaven nor turmed into an
angel. Instead, they are
sent to Paradise, an
infinite vast — like space —
where pure souls can rest
peacefully for the eternity.
Impure souls are all sent
down to Hell, but aren't
turned into demons either.
Like Paradise and Heaven,
Hell is also infinite.
Ami Fey
Ami is the daughter of an Head
Archangel with a male demon. As a
result, she was born mostly with
demon powers and characteristics,
however, she contains the
legendary power to channel
spirits.
Not only that, but due to the
Archangel mother, she is mostly a
very kind demon. The kindness and
spiritual power is what makes the
Fey Bloodline so special compared
to other demons. In a way, they
are hybrids of sort, but they have
none of the physical traits of an
angel and pretty much only
inherited their goodness and
spiritual power. The Fey Women are
still over 90% demon.
Because neither demons nor angels
can die, Ami could forever stay as
the Master of the Kurain
Channeling Technique. However, she
has long since retired and wants
to pass the role to her
descendants, having faith they'll
be as great as she is.
Kurain is still a village. In Hell.
The Fey Clan
Like in canon, only females are
born with spiritual powers. The
male hellborns are nothing more
than average demons, and are all
raised by their fathers.
Morgan Fey is a rare, exceptional
case. A female born without
spiritual powers. In fact, she is
nothing more but a mere Succubus.
Despite that, no male demons have
shown any interest in her due to
the lack of spiritual powers,
costing her the position of Master
to her younger sister, Misty.
Yet, she still had faith that one
of her daughters would inherit
that legendary gift. Because
demon's powers usually don't work
on other demons, she had no choice
but to seduce a human.
Something worth noting is that not
only she failed to inherit the
family's spiritual power, but she
also lacks the goodness and
kindness of their hearts, truly
making her just some average demoness.
Morgan's first attempted
seduction victim was Gregory
Edgeworth. Emphasis on attempted.
Her sister, Misty, figured out
about her plan before anything
could happen, and so, she casted a
protective spell on him,
preventing Morgan's powers from
working.
After finding the truth, Gregory
and Misty began to secretly meet,
until a relationship began to
blossom. They had three children,
2 girls and a boy. Mia, Maya and
Miles.
Because their second child was a
male, he had no choice but to be
raised by his father, on Earth.
As a kid, Miles had a lot of
trouble hiding his demonic
features, and often wore hats and
glasses to conceal his horns and
eyes (his tail and wings were
already hidden by his clothes). As
he grew, so did his features, but
he also learned how to properly
conceal them. Under pressure.
After his father's death, von
Karma frequently reminded him of
his inhumanity, calling him a
monster when being scolded and
making him feel lower than others
due to his demonic nature.
Oftentimes, Franziska would sneak
into his room and stay with him
until he felt better, reassuring
him with her comforting presence
and physical gesture (hugs).
Despite Miles' lack of spiritual
powers, he managed to inherit the
goodness of a Fey's. As a child,
it was a bit more obvious,
especially since he was raised by
his father (and we all know
Gregory is the best father out
there). Von Karma forced him to
conceal away any positive
feelings, but ever since Phoenix
came back into his life, he has
been helping him open up more,
even if he's still socially awkward.
After failing to seduce Gregory,
Morgan went after a rich jeweler,
and had twins with him.
Unfortunately, none of them
contained any spiritual powers
either, so their mother forcefully
sent them away to live with their
father on Earth.
Their father married a woman who
already had a daughter, so one of
the twins had to go. Dahlia
suggested that Iris should be sent
away, so the kinder twin returned
to Hell and was raised by Bikini.
Unlike Dahlia and Morgan, Iris and
Bikini both had the kindness and
goodness of a Fey, the same one
that Iris' sister and mother lacked.
Because a demon cannot die, Mia
and Misty lives! Unfortunately,
Morgan and Dahlia also live. The
only way to stop a dangerous demon
is imprisoning them in a void.
Only a human is capable of doing
that.
DL-6
When Gregory died, times called
for desperate measures. Miles,
despite barely knowing his mother,
he knew what she was and what she
could do. When he revealed his
true nature to the officers, they
were scared, but also recognised
that he was only a child and, more
importantly, Gregory's son. They
agreed to contact his mother and
channel his spirit.
When Yogi was declared Not Guilty,
Misty was deemed a fraud, and ran
away before she could be
"exorcised". She started living
undercover as a human under the
pseudonym of Elise Deauxnim.
As for Miles, they initially
thought of exorcising him too, but
von Karma proclaimed that he would
"fix" the child, turning him into
a proper servant of the law. The
officers agreed to give him Miles'
custody. (Mostly because they were
afraid of what Manfred would do to
them if they didn't)
In reality, von Karma only made
him worse. Practically turned him
into an actual demon (not that he
wasn't already, but in the sense
of making him meaner and lowkey
evil). The goodness his father
taught him was deeply stashed
away. This was his revenge against
Gregory and his sinful actions.
(Sinful in question being a
demoness' lover. Also the penalty,
obviously).
He also convinced Miles that he
was the one who killed his father,
even if accidentally, further
making the child hate himself and
made him proclaim to be an
irredeemable monster, no matter
how determined Manfred was to """fix him""".
When Mia became of age, she moved
to Earth and, pretending to be a
human, entered Law School to find
out what happened to her mother.
Additionally, she knew the
Purgatory's system was a bit
messed up, and wanted to fix that
as well. She bumped into her
cousin twice in the way, and
Dahlia's sweet attitude completely
failed to fool Mia. She knew that,
despite having the Fey blood,
Dahlia had not an inch of kindness
in her heart. She was nothing more
but a pathetic succubus, like
Morgan.
Mia also never told Phoenix about
her true nature until White
attempted to murder her. Godot
knew, but never commented on it.
When Morgan seduced another man,
she succeeded in having a child
with spiritual powers. But because
Pearl also contained kindness in
her heart, she failed to
understand several things her
mother attempted to teach her.
When she was alone with her cousin
Maya, the older girl told her that
what her mother was attempting to
teach her was bad, and that she
should just pretend to listen to it.
Apollo's Backstory
Because I played with Miles' title
of Demon Prosecutor, why not with
the nickname Jinxie Tenma gave
Apollo? Yknow, Demon Lawyer? And
because I have so much in store
for this...
Jove Justice was a traveling demon
who one day fell in love with a
human, Thalassa. When their baby
was a year old, the people found
the truth about his nature, and
promptly exorcised him. Thalassa
ran away in fears of being hunted
for being a sinner, and thought
her husband's fate applied to
their child. In reality, a man
named Dhurke Sahdmadhi saved
Apollo before anything could
happen to him. Dhurke was a
(falsely judged) Fallen Angel and
raised Apollo down on Earth,
alongside his still-pure Angel son
Nahyuta. One day, Apollo decided
to move out with a foster family,
never once revealing his true
nature to anyone. In middle school
he met Clay and the rest is
history.
When Nahyuta became a
prosecutor for the Purgatory, he
had an actual sense of justice and
wanted everyone to be correctly
convicted. But then he was
blackmailed by Head Archangel
Ga'ran and the rest is also
history.
Trucy is human btw.
It's also worth noting that the Feys have Demon Names, like seen in my outdated post. They're based on their Japanese names, and the English ones are names they gave to themselves so humans wouldn't find it odd when they are under disguise. In other words, pseudonyms. Their demon names are their true names.
Another ace attorney fic idea based on Gregory Edgeworth and the Signal Trio
Gregory somehow gets it in his head, whether it be through some karen, a pta meeting or a random advertisement he saw, that he might not be doing enough as a parent for Miles.
He’s a single(?) father with a pretty anti-social kid, and people may find Miles’s independence as Gregory’s fault for always being out at work.
So he goes around with the signal trio and asks about their parents and observe how all of the characters of ace attorney (as kids) act in their hone lives.
Cue hijinx of everyone’s headcanons of how their families/homelives are like.
Most are batshit or crazy insane, some are weird but happy as they do it in their own ways, others are complete mysteries
phoenix describes his homelife in a comically normal way (you all decide if he’s being dense, honest, or deceitful we never know)
Larry’s is tumultuous,
The Von Karmas are. The Von Karmas.
The Feys/Hawthornes are strange, the Gramryes, the Gavins, the Justices, the Cykes, the Skyes ETC.
All of them are explored in comically chaotic ways and at the end
