Rain's Guide to Writing a Character Who Stammers
As someone who focuses characters who stammer in their work, I wanted to create a little guide for fluent folk who want to delve into it and may be a little too anxious to try. Others do exist and mine isn't law, but I wanted to make one based on my own personal experiences of writing Kring in my webcomic, Coursing Constellations. I've kept it under a read more because it's pretty long lol.
I admit, it can be difficult, but it's easier to write a realistic sounding stutter than you think. It goes without saying but above all you must treat us like human beings and don’t make our disability the centre of our character arc. Stammering should never be the only aspect of your character's personality even if it has a role in shaping it. If you have any intention of "curing" them at the end, throw the entire character away and start again. How, you ask? Well, that's why I'm here.
For starters, no two people who stutter are the same person, and the same goes for their stutters themselves. The world needs more written stutters that are well thought through. Give characters certain sounds or words they consistently stammer on, do some research, observe, and ask how real life people who stutter speak. You'll be surprised at how many patterns you find. For instance, I really struggle on "Ch" sounds, which has the potential to be really funny narratively if other aspects of my personality are taken into consideration!
When it comes to writing the stammer itself, the odd repeated letter and dash are fine, however most people with a stutter do other things too. We tend to pause more, use fillers, and even extend letters to help them come out easier. Sometimes we repeat phrases instead of sounds. So while you’re sprinkling “f-f-f” in there, be sure to add some “ssss” and a bit of “umm.... well” in there too, maybe even break apart sentences every so often with a “they said”. We also exchange words a lot, so write us changing a word halfway through saying it. In some cases, the repetition of words isn't even caused by the stutter itself, restarting my sentence can sometimes help me finish it.
I’ve seen some people say that they prefer it when people limit how much stammering is represented in a character’s speech patterns, yet to me that defeats the point. Yes, it may make you or your readers feel uncomfortable. Yes, it may seem tiresome. But while you can erase the way a character speaks, we can’t erase the way we speak. In fact, I don't really want to. When I write my own characters’ stammers, I want fluent people to feel out of their depth. I want them to feel the way I feel when I talk. I want them to feel every single word that comes out of my characters' mouths.
A lot of people don’t understand that the way characters who stammer are written influences the way people who stammer are treated in real life too. If you put across the message that we’re too annoying to write in your stories, how do you think that makes us feel? Stammering is a unique form of communication, to treat it as an inconvenience is ableist. Making things accessible and helping us feel included isn’t a burden. If people started treating stammering, and any other form of diverse speech for that matter, as normal in their writing than maybe it’ll make life a little bit easier for us in the long run. Our speech should be celebrated.
Moving on from the vocal side of stammering, it can make our bodies move in unpredictable ways too. This is an amazing resource if you want to see how stutterers' faces can look when they stutter: www.behance.net/gallery/32747515/Stutters. It can also make me tap my hands and feet, and for some uncontrollably move their limbs. I always have a metronome going in my head as I speak, tapping to that rhythm gives me a beat to speak alongside. It's probably linked to why a lot of people don't stammer when they sing. Mine can also leave me out of breath, or even make my chest ache due to other health issues. If you don’t want to go into all that stuff, saying “they took a deep breath” every so often will be ample. Patience can also go a long way: If I take time to speak, this happens to a lesser extent.
I hope this goes without saying but these movements are not funny and should not be treated as such. While I make a lot of jokes about stuttering in my own work, it’s because I know from experience and it's not coming from a position of mockery.
Even though a stammer can occasionally be influenced by how we're feeling, such as nervousness, having a stammer is not a sign of weakness. Whenever we meet a new person we’ve already ran our words through our heads 1000 times before opening our mouths. It doesn’t always work. Even with people we know, our stammer is always being shaped according to those on the other end of the conversation. There are people who are more considerate than others, and in some cases characters might even mask in certain situations due to past experiences. Exploring fluency techniques as a fluent person is a very slippery slope though, as there's a risk of falling into negative stereotypes. While I suggest avoiding it unless you stammer yourself, if you would like to mention them please make sure these are well researched and remember that they are not a cure. Most of the time they only hide the stammer, and usually have a physical/mental toll on the person using them. These techniques also do not work on everyone, such as me with the aforementioned chest issues. Other cures don't even work at all, like placebo tablets I've seen people try to sell to vulnerable people.
Remember: You can be the most extroverted, bubbly person in the room and still stammer on every single word. More of that in your stories, please. Now, go have fun creating unique characters with unique stutters that don't all read and sound the same.