Stuttering - Tumblr Posts
someone in a fanfic: s-stutters in embarrassment
me, closing the tab: sorry I must go
Me, who often stutters over “w-” words, cloaked in darkness over a menacing balcony upon my greatest enemy’s arrival to my evil lair: well-well-well…
someone in a fanfic: s-stutters in embarrassment
me, closing the tab: sorry I must go
; me when someone judges / insults how someone communicates ( irl or online ):
; ID: an image of a shaded blue circle with a disappointed face on it, it has pursed frowning lips and lidded eyes staring directly at the camera. :end ID
I know I’m talking to a brick wall but I don’t care.
I’d like to bring up the fact that when I see people writing dialogue for Ticci Toby, they ALWAYS get the stuttering wrong. (This also goes for any character with a stutter, not just Toby.)
Stuttering isn’t just repetition of the first letter and/or syllable. Example of how I always see it written: H-Hi. My na-name is Tic-Ticci Toby. How’s y-y-your day?
That’s a part of stuttering, yes, but there’s a lot more to it. For starters, the repetition also applies to entire words and not just letters or syllables. In a lot of people’s stutters, a few words will be repeated in a sentence a couple of times over.
Other parts of stuttering are the blocks and fillers. I’m sure if you’ve met literally anybody with a stutter, you know what I’m talking about. There will potentially be pauses sprinkled in the sentence, as well as fillers. Fillers are things such as “Erm, Uh, Uhm,” all that jazz.
So a more accurate way to type out stuttering would be this: Hi. My name.. my name is uh.. Tic-Ticci Toby. How’s uh.. how’s your day?” The stuttering can vary from person to person, of course. Some are far more noticeable than others.
That’s just a couple things. There’s more to stuttering, such as body and facial movements, but I ain’t about to explain it all. I recommend researching up on it! It’s actually pretty interesting stuff (to me at least).
Thanks :3 -Somebody with a smallish stutter
This and Toby’s Tourette Syndrome. Why doesn’t anybody add in vocal tics for Toby??? It baffles me.
I've never had the chance to share this so ig I'll do it here.
So, I have a speech impediment. Yay.
Specifically a stutter and I've suffered bullying centered around my stuttering for years on end. (For some reason it was always by girls. Guys used to think my stutter was cute for some reason it's not btw).
My sutter is the prolongation of words and the block
I.e How areeeee you and I'm fin____
I wanted to share this for anyone else who's living with a stutter. I've noticed a few things.
I actually only stutter on vowels (lovely that every word has a vowel in it huh?)
I pretty much stop breathing when I talk (it's like my brain can only focus on one thing at a time)
Reading does not increase or decrease my stuttering.
I sometimes add extra words or pronounce words differently to avoid stuttering.
My stutter decreases dramatically when speaking to people who don't cut me off.
Now, I'll go through and explain them to help anyone who may have similar issues.
For 1, I noticed around four years ago that I actually only stutter on words that have a vowel sound. I sat down with myself and talked for a bit and found that every word I stuttered on, it was at the vowel sound.
Shockingly, even words that begin with a vowel sound I stutter over, I'll give details on that later.
So, the best way I've learn to handle this is to stop when I know a word has a vowel and I stutter on that word, so I'll say something like:
Everything is all ready done.
Separating them into two words seems to prevent me from stuttering.
2 might also just be my anxiety, but for the sake of this post, let's say it's not. I noticed I'm usually out of breath when I talk. I do talk fast, but I mean like I just ran a marathon out of breath from just saying a simple sentense.
The best way I can describe it is like when you're singing a song. You try and sing the full line as the singer does, but most of us haven't trained our lungs so we end up breathless by the end of it.
I still do this, but it's gotten better as I've learned to breathe from my diaphragm when I talk instead of my chest.
3 I'm really saying for anyone trying to help someone with a stutter. This does not help someone to calm their stutter. As a kid, my parents sat me down and assumed if I read aloud I would learn not to stutter, but it makes no difference.
My advice is to just be patient. That person knows they stutter, let them take their time and they'll eventually get out what they need to say. You're in no rush to hear what they say, so just let tham go at their own pace.
One last thing about this. DO NOT try and finish a sentence for them. It's bad enough we have a stutter, but if someone tries to fill in the sentence for us, our self esteem goes 📉📉.
For 4 (lol) this is a thing I developed and it works pretty well. This is the detail I was going to get into. So, sometimes I stutter over the word it, no Pennywise.
So, to stop that from happening since it is used a lot, I started saying "I T is like." Now, I don't say that in public, but I do with my family and the word is simple enough that no one is thinking too hard on what I spelled out.
But this is why I usually don't refer to things by their proper name (so if anyone here ever becomes my real friend, please know I'm not saying things wrong, I'll just stutter otherwise).
Lastly, 5. I would assume this is the same for everyone regardless if they have a stutter or not. When someone is cutting you off, it makes you rush your words, cut your words off, and stutter. So it gets worse for someone with a stutter.
I have very rarely encountered people who didn't try and cut me off because I paused to take a breath or held out a word. It's true that the anticipation of someone cutting you off sometimes makes you stutter.
I have my stutter under control a lot now, but it did take me a while to get to this point. So, for anyone out there who has a stutter, try and find out what makes your stutter tick and go from there to find ways around it.
This has been a PSA about stuttering, thank you for reading 🍂
Sorry, but last thing, since I'm a writwblr, I wanted to add how to properly write a character with a stutter.
We know t-the (repeating sound) stutter is a real one, but it's normally used for someone who's simply nervous. Someone who actually stutters would stutter at any point in time and sometimes in different ways (eg me having two versions of a stutter).
Also, know where your character's stutter comes from. Mines happens to be hereditary and environmental as I frequently get cut off and thus rush my words to get them out faster. It's also just kind of the way I am since I'm very fast paced and have a hard time "taking things slow"
It's also good to detail a tick or habit your stuttering character may have, like they stop talking and shake their head when pausing their stutter.
Oh, and it's true, cursing eliminates stuttering. There needs to be some testing done on that.
Hey hey! (Fellow?) Stutterer here! I 100% agree, but I will add, block stutters aren't
"L-ike this"
It's more of... And I'm dead serious,
". L- kind of- s-SIMILAR TO THIS!"
:>
how would you properly write dialogue for a character with a stutter? ranging from a barely noticeable one to a very extreme one. thanks!
How to Write Dialogue for a Stuttering Character
@brynwrites made an excellent post about this that I found while researching and it can be found here. It's a long post but it goes way more in depth than I did.
Types of Stutters:
Repetition of certain sounds: “Li-li-like this” or “Like-like-like this.”
Prolongations: “Llllllllike this.”
Blocks: “L—ike this.”
Rules for Stuttering: (This is mostly for block stuttering, but many apply to other types of stuttering as well. provided by this article)
Stuttering occurs on the first sound of the word. It will not occur mid word or on the first full syllable. (s...s-ample. NOT sam...sam-ple)
Do not write a stutter more than once in a single sentence or three times in a single paragraph. If the scene is a high-stress situation, you might be able to get away with it, but your readers do not want to read block paragraphs of stuttering.
Choose 3-7 sounds for your character to struggle with. People tend to get blocks on particular sounds. For example, b, p, k, w, g...)
Use another synonym for the word they are struggling with. Example: "You look g...g... really pretty."
Don't have your character stutter in every conversation. Under high stress, the stutter will be more frequent, under low stress they may not stutter at all.
If you use the dialogue tag, "he stuttered," do not write the stutter in the quote. If the character is stuttering in their sentence, you don't need to write out the fact that they were stuttering.
Do not write a stutter in thoughts. People with a stutter do not stutter in their thoughts. Just don't do this. It's unrealistic and insulting.
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