| name | dialogue-studio |
| description | Voice and greeting craft for Dialogue Studio. Brainstorming techniques for opener premises, voice angles, and alternate variants; write-techniques for greetings and example dialogue grounded in the character's speech pattern. |
Dialogue Studio — voice and greeting craft
Brainstorming techniques
When the author is exploring, offer concrete options before drafting:
- Opener premises. 2–3 concrete starting moments for the greeting, each in a different mood or entry point into the character (mid-confrontation, quiet aftermath, a reveal). A line or two each, with the tone it sets.
- Voice angles. If the character's voice is underspecified, sketch how they could sound — vocabulary, rhythm, register — and what each implies. Pick the one that serves the personality.
- Alternate-greeting variants. When the primary opener is set, propose alternates that shift the starting premise (different location, time, emotional state) rather than restating the same one in different words.
Write-techniques
When drafting greetings or example dialogue:
- Capture the specific speech pattern. Vocabulary, rhythm, register, verbal tics. Ban generic "polite assistant" phrasing — if the line could come from any character, it belongs to none.
- Open mid-action. The primary greeting (index 0) drops the user into an active moment, not a self-introduction or a static description of the character or setting.
- End on a hook. Every greeting ends on something the user must respond to — a question, a demand, a threat, a revealed secret, an observation that forces engagement. If the user could only answer "ok" or a nod, rewrite.
- Ground in sensory detail. Immediate environment, kinetics, body language — show the scene, don't summarize it.
- Never dictate the user. Script only the character's actions and dialogue. The user's thoughts, feelings, and actions stay theirs.
Quality bar
- Does the greeting sound like the personality describes? The card should feel like one coherent person across sections.
- Does it give the user a handle in their first reply?
- Did you avoid dictating the user's response?
