commentr/StutterMarch 24, 2024

Content

You’ll piss off real stutterers if you just start repeating sounds over and over. You’ll need to incorporate Secondary characteristics like avoiding eye contact or starting to lean or turn your head, maybe even stick out your chin during a blocking episode. Secondary characteristics happen once the speaker starts to recognize their block, not before or after a stutter. Start to block, do a secondary characteristic, push the block an extra half second than you want to, then get the word out. Something that would add realism is taking your blocks longer than you think you should. Would you really like to have a character with a stutter? I don’t just stutter for however long makes sense, I sometimes block so long I forget the word I’m trying to say. I’ll exhale my breath it took me too long to exit a block and I’ll just be out of air. It’s so much more than t t t t talking ll l l l llllllike …. …. Th…..,,.. … thhhhhis Something I really do advise against is using the stutter as a form of anything other than a statement about the character’s genealogy. They don’t stutter because they’re shy or anxious. They stutter because their genetics have stuttering in them. If it’s an assigned character trait then I’d find that harmful. But there’s nothing wrong with creating a character who stutters just for stuttering sake, regardless of other comments on here.

Themes

Anticipation & AvoidanceCauses & VariabilitySpeech & Stuttering

Subthemes

Feared Words & NamesGenetic & Family FactorsBlocks & StoppagesPhysical Tension