WRITING THE [Spam E_male] - A STYLISTIC [Guidance]
Hey guys, I've been told that I write Spamton's speaking quirk very well, and people have expressed interest in seeing a stylistic guide for how I write him, so I thought to make an official pretty one for everyone to see :)
Basic disclaimers, this isn't a "only and correct way to write Spamton", this is what I've surmounted from obsessing about him and writing him in roleplay for almost 5 years. If you disagree with something I take as a rule, that's perfectly fine. I think it's important to figure out rules for how you write Spamton's speech so when you write him he becomes more parseable for a reader and easier to write for you. A Spamton's speaking quirk can make or break a fic, a comic or a roleplay reply, sometimes it's so hard to read my eyes just glaze over it and I just skim to get the gist of what he's saying, which isn't ideal. People should enjoy reading what you wrote, and you should enjoy writing it.
Just like my Gaster stylistic guide, I'll be breaking down his speech quirk in three steps, each more personalized (or, your mileage may vary based on the writer's own interpretation) as the one beforehand:
Typing quirk breakdown
Writing style
Personality
Though, for Spamton, it's not gonna be clearly delimited, as we will see as we go along. Let's get started!
PART 1 - Typing quirk breakdown -- bracket Hell
This is undoubtedly the most important and hardest part to get. Beforehand, I'd like to outline a few canon things about them that are important for your bracket positioning and word choice:
100% involuntary
Are an artifact of addison hyperlinks, because they too use brackets to link to the products they sell
Used to censor him, very deliberately (more on that in a bit)
Spamton has a bit of control over them by choosing his intended words or the length of his phrases.
According to the myriad of official Spamton material out there, I've outlined a few options for where you replace words in a sentence for him:
In place of subjects, objects or verbs, but only one of them per phrase. Try varying between sentences, don't replace only objects or only subjects. Add ons to sentences, like calling someone's name, or filler phrases, are fair game regardless
Replacing entire chunks of sentences, especially as longer brackets
In place of people's names, except for Kris, and maybe Susie. Ralsei is dealer's choice
WITH EXCEPTION. Of when he is speaking in short sentences, of three words or less, except when one of these words is censorable, or someone's name (see below). He often uses short sentences to circumvent his brackets. More on that later.
Well, now I know where to put the brackets. But what's inside them? I came up with a few basic rules for contents:
Advertising speak -- the canned phrases you hear in ads, telemarketing, clickbait and whatnot.
Semantic adjacency -- replacing words with a synonym, antonym, bastardizations or typos, or something semantically related.
Censoring -- we all know these, $4.99 life, little sponge. Wacky phrases or garbage symbols that replace clear swear words, things he shouldn't say in polite company ("AND SOMETIMES IN THE MORNING, A LITTLE [Hyperlink Blocked]"), or things that are related to his contract, the knight, or his benefactor.
Namedrops -- of movies, tv shows, song titles, games, and brands. Ideally, input the year of release or a copyright/trademark symbol after it.
Quotes -- not just of things he or other people said now, but of things said in the past, ad reads, commercials, movie, tv show and song quotes, memes, everything goes.
[Single] and [[Double]] brackets -- when to use??
This is also dealer's choice, and the single vs double bracket thing doesn't seem to have a canon pattern. Sometimes he even uses three or four. But I'll talk about the rules I use, because I run this typing quirk like the navy.
I use single brackets for semantic adjacency, censoring, namedrops and meme quotes. I use double brackets to signal it's a media quote (including ads) and him directly quoting something someone said, either himself or someone else. Double brackets, for my intents, signal that it's a voiceclip inserted into his speech, while others are usually his normal voice distorted, bitcrushed or glitched.
Other quirks
Spamton has other quirks of his speech that should be peppered in among the brackets frequently:
Word and phrase repetition, especially when distressed. It's important that they are not stutters, they are full words and sentences. Sometimes, brackets replace repetitions sequentially ("[Why] DID YOU DO THIS!? WHY!? [Y]!? [Yellow]!? [Gamma]!?")
Frequent typos, including using the wrong symbols (a comma or a quotation mark instead of an apostrophe, for instance) and homophones. My advice? If you make a typo while writing his dialogue, and it's not too egregious, keep it. If it's funny, definitely keep it.
Awkward spacing. (good to communicate cadence and when he glitches and freezes! Use this one more sparingly, though). This also works on the opposite direction -- he sometimes puts words together, like they're variables; HonestMan, HotSingle, etc.
When he's being very serious, melancholic, or scared, he might speak in normal lowercase with proper capitalization, and no brackets. This isn't something to overuse. Use it for impactful things.
PART 2 - Writing style
This is honestly the part I would recommend you start with first. This is the actual character voice you give Spamton. It's a bit your mileage may vary, of course, but if you wanna do it like I do, I break it down like so:
Cadence
Word choices he makes
Brackets then come to replace these words
Before you figure out the brackets, you have to figure out what he wants to say, and how he wants to say it. This can even help guide you on which words to pick to replace, or which words or sentences will come in the brackets.
My personal method is: I pick an accent cadence from an East Coast big city, something like Boston or New York (I choose Boston, but you can do whatever you want, even outside of East Coast). This helps you figure out which words he emphasizes, where his voice raises and dips, the vocabulary he uses, which words he sticks together or drops entirely, etc. If you get through this and you're confident, you have a good Big Shot Spamton Human AU character voice already. Lose some coherence and eloquence, add in a stutter if you want, and you have yourself a human AU current day Spam.
Then, after, you gotta mix this cadence with youtube poop cadence. This comes naturally if you were raised watching them all day long, but if you haven't, I recommend going on youtube a day or two to get your brain rotted a little bit. This also helps with bracket replacement as well as glitches and gags.
Finally, the brackets come in. With a solid base like this, figuring out where brackets go and what goes inside them should be fairly easier.
Some notes:
Sometimes a sentence will only make sense with brackets. This is normal
Sometimes a sentence will not make sense at all. As long as it's intended, that is also normal
Always prize readability over game accuracy. Spamton's speech quirk is definitely not as organized as this, but this is optimized for readability and ease of writing
PART 3 - Personality
Okay, look. Describing Spamton's personality could be a master's thesis on media analysis. I can't write the whole thing here, but I'll try to get the cliffnotes. This is extremely personalized from writer to writer, so if yours diverges from mine, or you disagree somewhere, it's perfectly fine.
Fast paced, manic speaking. Even when he's tired or relaxed, he still speaks fairly fast. Think of the cadence you built up for him!
He talks a lot. A. Lot. He can keep up a conversation with himself, and it's not because he likes the sound of his own voice, but because he just has so much to say, and he will jump from subject to subject at will.
Spamton is smart, don't forget that. He is observant and attentive, but this is cleverly masked under his wacky, manic, unstable persona.
He is also! Stupid! He does things for the bit! He lies for fun!
But he never lies when he's being serious. He may embezzle the truth to make himself sound like more of a victim, but everything he has said so far that sounds like him talking out his ass trying to get pity points has actually been true (about Swatch stealing from him, about Tenna ripping him off and betraying him, among others). You can trust him, he is an HonestMan!
Do take his trauma and mental illness into account, though. Remember he is implied to have been homeless for something along the lines of 20 years, he was already afflicted with divine madness back then, and this has severe impacts on how someone reacts to others, presents themselves, and their outlook in life. Spamton might be more aloof when in company of strangers, he might not be kind, he might be more selfish than you want him to be. And that's fine. It's part of who he is now.
BONUS - HIGHLIGHTS
So, now that we know the method, how about we see it in action? Here's a few personal highlights of my personal writing utilizing his method, between 2021 and today. Sorry if some of these are for ants:
All of the channel/thread copies are HTML files! You _could_ just read them through Google Drive if you want, but I recommend either downloading or opening them in a fresh web page for the most readable experience-- it looks like it was ripped straight off of the discord page. You can find the lore doc and vV's Event Summary here as well!
HELLO! ♡ I'm on the lookout for writing partners⸻so please give this post a LIKE / REBLOG if you would be interested in writing with a MAFIA AU of SPAMTON G. SPAMTON from the game DELTARUNE, along with a few members of his crime family; penned by SERPENTA. (25+・they/them)
And if you're not feeling DELTARUNE-Y? That's perfectly okay, too.
⸻I have a crossover friendly HUMAN AU &. other notable verses to choose from! &. possibly more AUs to follow in the near future.
✽ Blog is 18+ only. MDNI.
✽ ✽ Non-roleplay &. personal blogs, do not reblog.
Finding the right moment, the best way to say something, is never very… obvious.
And yet, Spamton had thought about it! But he quickly concluded that this wasn’t really his specialty.
But isn’t it… stupid, wanting to offer him, to give him… that damn ring? It’s something important! And a part of him thinks he should have done it a very long time ago…
After a long inner debate, the little mailman finally gathers the courage to accomplish his mission. He walks up to Tenna, hiding the precious ring in his hand. He says something—probably just to catch his attention—and the TV-man soon turns his gaze toward him.
Spamton struggles to form a proper sentence (strange, isn’t that usually more Tenna’s thing?), until he finally gives up and simply asks the TV-man to hold out one of his hands. Of course, the monster doesn’t hesitate, though he looks a little perplexed.
That perplexity quickly shifts into another feeling once Spamton manages to slip the ring onto one of his finger… And now it’s Tenna’s turn to be left speechless, while the mailman, on his side, just wishes he could turn invisible.
…In the end, the TV-man simply catches Spamton into his arms and spins him around with laughter. They’re silly and hopelessly sappy, but as always, their happiness remains untouched.
You must be fine with sex JOKES (idc if you're fine with nsfw or whatever, just let me joke on occasion </3)
I'd like a little bit of ooc yapping, but that's not a solid rule
I'm fine w nsfw, dark themes (as long as there's no incest, physical/sexual abuse, or similar, we good), and allat. I have a lot of ideas and I'm down to roleplay either Mettaton or Tenna :))
INDEPENDENT & MUTUALS ONLY 𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐔𝐍𝐄 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑, the main antagonist of an original dark world ; counted down by nora. / found on a sideblog & following from @norastavern .
