Stuttering In Writing
A Nervous Stutter results in what is called Mazing, or rewording the sentence. That is the classic “I, um… well I… look it’s just that… so we…”. When someone is mazing their words you’re seeing a form of Speech Apraxia where the brain is having trouble forming verbal speech. This can be brought on by brain damage, memory loss, anxiety, nerves, and several other things.
The root cause of a nervous stutter is a disconnect between the mouth and the brain.
With this you will also sometimes see the classic “S-s-s-sorry…” especially if the person has been training to speak clearly and is now at a point of fatigue or stress where they are not mentally capable of forming the words.
The other kind of stutter is a Physical Stutter, sometimes referred to as slurring, and another facet of Speech Apraxia. This stutter is caused when the muscles of the mouth, tongue, and throat are physically unable to form certain sounds. This is most often seen in the very young and victims of brain trauma.
Sounds are acquired at different ages, so a 2-year-old will probably not be able to clearly pronounce certain words (which is why toddler sound so off when they’re written with developed dialogue). These mis-pronunciations are sometimes referred to as lisping, but only if the sounds are run together. If the person starts and restarts the sound because they got it wrong, it can also sound like the classic sound stutter.
But it all depends on why the character is stuttering!
Do they have Speech Apraxia, Audio Processing Disorder, muscle dysfunction, or another medical reason to stutter? (1)
Are they stuttering because of anxiety, stress, or fatigue? (2)
Does the stutter stem from intoxication, stroke, or blood loss? (3)
All of those will sound different!
1 - Will have mazing, repeated sound stutters, and be the classic stutter that annoys OP.
2 - This is where you’ll see the repetition stutter, mazing, rephrasing, and filler words.
3 - This is where you are more likely to see starts and stops and slurring of words.
*** NOTE *** I am not a licensed speech therapist. My education in speech and language development comes from working with pediatric patients for the better part of 15 years as a teacher and parent of children with language delays. This addresses writing realistic stutters and is not a complete diagnostic tool. If you have developed speech delays or language problems recently please seek medical attention from a licensed physician. Sudden stutters in adults can be the sign of serious illness or trauma.
