In addition to, of course, writing (there is no more effective writing mastery technique than this), you need to know that the key to a good character is the naturalness of their lines. There's no point in making impactful and super cool phrases for Sans if he's not an assiduous creator of monologues like Papyrus, right?

For this reason, I invite you to read this huge text on how to build a good character instead of just a good monologue.

• Analyze the situation first.

(For a good demonstration of what I'm talking about, I'll use the AU "DUSTTALE" as an example of all my quotes, but they apply to all situations.)

When you involve such a character in a situation that he has never been through, or at least witnessed even a little, you need to keep him in his characterization from the starting point to the end.

Let's suppose that Sans discovers the whole truth behind the human, resets, schemes, everything, and Sans wants to end all of this by overcoming the human with power and pure DETERMINATION... While Sans is a character who demonstrated great magical potential at the end of the Genocide Route, you won't introduce him to your plans as if he were already familiar with such an environment. Remember that Sans didn't know anything, and that doesn't mean he's going to play the killer with a malevolent smile, he knows that this is for the greater good and he'll be professional in whatever he does. Jokes and relaxation are fine if applied in the right situations, such as remembering the past that had existed in a timeline that is now erased.

Sans is a character concise in his details and advice, that is, if such a character were applied in DUSTTALE, he would never do a show with the spotlight pointed at the dust of his loved ones. Principles are greater than rewards, remember that.

• How'd the character speak in such a situation?

After Sans advised the human with his most realistic warning during the genocide route:

• here's some friendly advice.

• if you keep going the way you are now...

• ...

• you're gonna have a bad time.

... he never shows himself again throughout the game until the Last Corridor, he never shows himself again throughout the game until the Last Corridor, that is, Sans is not the guy who warns and continues to poke the human about such a situation, so I imagine that Sans would act as the following:

Sans would be the quietest character and would let their actions speak for themselves.

"How?"

If you want to impact the viewer, make the player regret, I will show this in the form of dialogues and a little literature.

After killing their loving mother in order to finish one more route, when they arrived in Snowdin, where the snowflakes were falling steadily, Frisk was waiting for the recognizable silhouette to reveal itself, but there was no sign of it. As he crossed the bridge that would be the meeting point between the two of them, they were greeted with a jolt as their soul turned blue. Sans was there, revealing himself straight away as if there were no consequences to standing in front of the now merciless human.

Reluctantly, he drops the human to the ground, turning on his back to leave.

Sans disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving no sign that he was there. After such an inconvenient event, the human gets up and continues on their way, marking a large trail of dust in their path.

Few dialogues, enough information. Just because Sans knows what they did doesn't mean he has to make it explicit, a little mystery helps to soften things and allow the entire plot contained in the dialogues to be developed.

Don't be redundant in what you express, know that even the environment helps to clarify the plot.

Know how to make the character natural, that is, make it simple and concise, sometimes a simple sentence is more memorable than a fully elaborated and undeveloped sentence. My dialogues portrayed this, so know how to do it.

There aren't many topics to cover, as I'm containing all the content just for dialogues, but this was more than enough for you to understand how to make dialogues. Maybe I've converted you to the writing path? If so, I'd love to add you to my Discord as a writer friend.

That's it for now, see you in another post.

• Lucas Kioshi, 02/11/2024.