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How to I write comedic timing? Like in a script?

OH HI I haven't had an ask in a while sorry for taking so long to respond

Comedic timing can depend on a ton of factors, namely context and delivery. In terms of context, your readers should ideally have all the prior information needed to understand the joke or comedic scene as it is, making sure that they aren't instead confused. Any background information you need to convey beforehand, however, ideally shouldn't be blatant or jarring in the rest of your script, allowing the joke to naturally happen.

By 'script,' I'm not sure what you mean. If you just mean dialogue, take care to emphasise or build up the timing of your joke or of the comedic scene itself, reading it aloud to yourself and having someone review it from a fresh perspective to see if the scene goes too slowly or too fast, or is too busy for the comedy to be appreciated.

If you mean for a comic, your delivery will also depend on the art that surrounds it, such as the expressions of the characters and the placement of speech bubbles, which I'm not the best to advise on.

And if it's for a performed script, like in theatre, take into account the verbal delivery and how and when it would actually be said (pauses and actions etc).

But, for all of the above, I'd say my general rule of dialogue applies: read it aloud to yourself, read it from the perspective of a reader without the knowledge you have of the narrative and punchline, and make sure that it flows in a way that is both natural and comedic to you.

#sorry this isnt the best i havent answered one of these in a long time #writing #ask blog #creative writing #writing advice #writing prompt

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Nothing in modern literature I think parallels the impressive absurdity that has emerged from the modern interpretations of 1984 and its key concepts. In my research on the novel over the last two years, the references and usage of quotations I've seen online, particularly in political commentary, have become more apparent; though what impresses me the most about these usages is that they seem to rely on the poster, speaker, and audience not reading the text to begin with nor understanding its messages.

1984, unlike perhaps any other non-religious text, appears to no longer be a novel, but rather a subjective concept that is used as a blanket-reference to anything disliked without requiring further analysis.

Honestly, I'd love to do a short series on this blog of people sending me examples of political or general 1984 references so I can pick them apart, because I really do love this novel and the interpretations applied to it online both worry and intrigue me. (Asks open.)

#1984 #newspeak #literature #george orwell #orwell #politics #english literature #literary analysis #orwell 1984 #ramblepost

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I know I've posted about it before, but it's so shocking to see the Hemingway editor make its rounds around tumblr. I just saw a post praising it with 400k+ notes. It's literally the worst editor I've ever seen, and anyone with the mildest knowledge of writing would see right through it. What's the appeal?

#hemingway editor #writing #ask blog #creative writing #writing advice #fanfiction #fiction writing #writeblr

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If I do end up getting asks or traction on this, I'll likely add a new tag for it and section in my pinned post. If anyone has any ideas for a tag for this, I'd love to hear it!

To carry on the trend of me making up names for things rather than actually searching for the terminology I will never care about or remember, I was thinking of creating and sharing explanation posts of what I consider surprisingly common writing issues or icks that I see pop up in media, notably cartoons.

The ones I've spoken about before with people and have examples for I've named as followed:

- the girl-show curse

- the false demographic

- the forgiveness problem

- reference-mania

- magic in excess

- the magic superiority complex

- the Spike effect

I may pick one at random to do a post on tomorrow, however if anything sticks out to you, please send me an ask and I'll try to answer it with a full post within a day!

Thank you for contributing to this blog :)

#because i cant quite think of a general short phrase or word to sum it up #writing holes maybe? #sounds strange. #writing #creative writing #ask blog #cartoons #cartoon #tv shows #writing advice #writing prompt #fantasy #fantasy writing #fiction writing

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To carry on the trend of me making up names for things rather than actually searching for the terminology I will never care about or remember, I was thinking of creating and sharing explanation posts of what I consider surprisingly common writing issues or icks that I see pop up in media, notably cartoons.

The ones I've spoken about before with people and have examples for I've named as followed:

- the girl-show curse

- the false demographic

- the forgiveness problem

- reference-mania

- magic in excess

- the magic superiority complex

- the Spike effect

I may pick one at random to do a post on tomorrow, however if anything sticks out to you, please send me an ask and I'll try to answer it with a full post within a day!

Thank you for contributing to this blog :)

#writing #creative writing #ask blog #cartoons #cartoon #tv shows #writing advice #writing prompt #fantasy #fantasy writing #fiction writing

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I saw your post about neopronouns, so please explain: thou

(Btw, no need for this to be concise or anything. You just seem to really enjoy this subject so I wanted to give you an easy way to ramble. I love seeing people talk about the things they love!)

Where art thou, 'thou'?

All (bad) jokes aside, the linguistic timeline of 'thou'—or, more accurately, thou/thee/thy in the modern form of identifying pronouns—is one of my favorites I've ever looked into. I find it so fascinating. Thanks for the ask!

To best understand this, I think it'll be fun to make a timeline. So, here we go:

Old English

We're just getting started.

When modern speakers hear 'thou', we mainly associate it with religious texts or Shakespeare, which is understandable—the usage of 'thou' dates far back.

'Thou' was a singular pronoun, derived from Proto-Germanic, appearing as 'þu' (thu) in Old English (which, for the record, was over a thousand years ago—long before Shakespeare—and used between the years 450-1150). The fact that it was a singular pronoun is the important bit. Today, we see 'you' as being numerically ambiguous; we could be referring to a singular person, or many people, but in older forms of English the pronoun to refer to a singular person was for 'thou', leaving 'you' as a plural.

Middle English

Here come the French.

Then, as French continued to influence English, turning it to the much more readable Middle English (the language of Chaucer, for context), 'thou' was gradually pushed to the sidelines as the plural 'ye' and 'you' expanded to be used as a singular, too.

French's influence made the English 'you' the equivalent of the French 'vous': it is now formal—what you would use to address someone of high or equal social standing. In turn, 'thou' declined (in a process attributed to semantic derogation) to an informal pronoun used to address someone you were intimate with or, most notably, someone beneath you in the social rankings.

Early Modern English

Here's where things start to get bumpy.

In the mid-1600s, in comes George Fox who, in my words, would be described as a filthy prescriptivist. He was the founder of the Quakers, and a large part of early Quaker rhetoric was to avoid class distinction—something I could certainly get behind. Quaker speech, therefore, consciously avoided 'you', opting to use the more neutral thee/thou for everyone regardless of social standing. This extended to them sometimes getting into trouble for refusing to call judges 'your honour', and so forth. Thee/thou became associated with Quaker speech, and not many people liked the Quakers. However, this isn't the biggest impact on the usage—far from it, in fact.

The biggest reason, I believe, that 'thou' lost its popularity is because of developments in society—most notably travel and the industrial revolution, as well as the growing merchant class in the 17th century, which was when this pronoun really hit a decline. People stopped using 'thou' as often because it became harder to judge the class of whom you were speaking with. Social mobility disrupted the otherwise clear and stagnant order of British society. It would be a terrible insult to call someone above you 'thou' on accident, and so you would default to 'you'.

In fact, in Early and Late Modern English, 'thou' became an insult. Perhaps in one of the more surprising turns from something that was once a simple pronoun, to 'thou' someone (morphed into a verb) would insult them. As more people used the pronoun as a method of insulting others, it was favoured even less.

Rolling back to George Fox, a famous line of his goes as follows: "We were often beset and abused, and sometimes in danger of our lives for using these words to some proud men, who would say, 'What! You ill-bred clown, do you thou me?'"

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From a simple, singular second-person pronoun, to a token of informality, to an insult, 'thou' has definitely had a ride. And, with its current association with religion, poetry, and the old classics, I earnestly hope it doesn't stop rolling.

#language #pronouns #ask blog #fsasks #lingpost #linguistics #english language #english #uk #writing #thou #history #language history #british history

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(Relevant to my last post) I agree with this entirely, especially in my circle of interest (the English language). I will hear something like 'Shakespeare was old English!' and know its either a general or maybe tumblr thing, but occasionally I will hear 'Shakespeare invented 'thou'!' and ''Picnic' is a slur!' and know precisely where that came from (Tiktok).

You can always tell when misinformation is from TikTok. It's genetically distinct from other internet misinformation. It always has the vibe of "some very online people having an argument where they had to take a real source and stretch their interpretations like two dogs fighting over a side of pulled pork"

#language #tiktok #ask blog

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Blatant Misinformation (on neopronouns)

Because I'm a language student who is going insane.

Here's a collection of takes I've found online (tumblr, reddit, tiktok and the likes) that are clearly pulled out of someone's ass, considering how full of shit they are, and my explanations of why they're just plain wrong. Yes, all of these are real.

1) 'She/Her are neopronouns used by Shakespeare!'

She/Her pronouns likely stem from Old English/Irish. 'She' was first found written roughly in the 12th century. So, you're 500 years off. And it was never a neopronoun.

2) 'Thon/Thons were neopronouns used by Shakespeare! They're in the dictionary!'

You guys really have something for Shakespeare, eh. 'Thon' was coined in the mid-1800s, so you're more than 200 years off. I searched through all of Shakespeare's works and 'thon' doesn't appear once. Also, it was in the dictionary. It was removed from the dictionaries (as far as I know) in the 60s due to lack of use. You got this mixed up with 'thou'. Oh, and this brings me to the next claim I found:

3) 'Thou was a neopronoun!'

No. I could talk for ages about 'thou' and its interesting linguistic history (asks open), but it wasn't a neopronoun, nor was it invented by Shakespeare (dimwits really love Shakespeare)—it was pre 12th century. Literally Anglo-Saxon.

My brain is fully cooked from continously being exposed to this, so I can't remember any more I've seen... but there's a lot.

My asks are open for any takes on neopronouns or language in general. I have brainrot for the English language and this forces me to study for uni. I will always try to respond quickly and with facts (to the best of my knowledge).

#neopronouns #ask blog #shakespeare #pronouns #xenopronouns #xenos #neos #tiktok #misinformation #lingpost

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So, I've been studying writing and proof reading people's writing since I can remember. Would anyone want me to do a series/a list of really common mistakes/easy improvements I find? I'd be super willing to make a whole thing on it if there's demand lol (asks open on anything btw)

#writing #creative writing #fanfiction #fanfic writing #writing advice #ask blog #fiction writing #writing help

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Hey!

Little tips for all AU and OC writers (specifically those dealing with magic and power-systems!).

There are two main things you may want to be cautious about when adding onto a world, which can be either adding onto an existing power system (AU fanfiction) or to your own, perhaps in the form of another arc or sequel that adds something not previously mentioned. I don't often care for professional technical terms, so I like to name these myself; I refer to these two things as cohesion and substance.

Cohesion

You've got a pretty well-functioning magic system put in front of you. It uses a form of dust to create magic. This dust comes in different types, is generated from a certain source, and is used in different ways by different people. There is a certain range of things you can use this dust for, but that range is pretty wide. Say, you wanted to add something else to this narrative. What is a cool thing to have in fantasy?

Ghosts, demons, the paranormal! Souls and fire and soulfire and all the like. I love the inclusion of this kind of stuff in fantasy... under circumstances.

The first example I gave was roughly the workings of tinkerbell, but with some changes and interpretive differences. With and without the context of tinkerbell, would these two magic types work together? They don't need to be connected, persay, but I'm referring to the themes and the feel, and how they interact with each other and the setting. If the magic of your 'base' material is quite whimsical or silly or specific, suddenly adding a more gothic, supernatural style of magic that is completely different in themes and workings can create a clash. Unless this clash is dealt with well, I'd advise to avoid the risk altogether, or to marry the magic systems to make them more similar in feel. It can make a change feel out of place, random, and like it wasn't supposed to be there—none of which are feelings you'd want to invoke in your audience. Besides, if one is more powerful than the other, or if one has more disproportionate stakes, why would anyone choose the other option? This leads me into the next consideration.

Saturation

You have magic staffs and portals and potions and demons and aliens and giants and elves and royals and fortresses and time travel and weapons and spirits and ghosts and... when does it stop?

Especially when writing OC fiction, it's important to recognise that you can risk having one fatal flaw: you might not realise when your lore, magic system, and world building becomes too much for a reader to handle. Readers don't have the prior knowledge and understanding that you do. It can sometimes be difficult to have a fresh eye.

Sometimes in OC fiction and AUs, I see when people have a bit too much going on. It often begs the question of what significance each element has, or what the plan is for exposing it to the readers in a way that isn't forced or unnecessary. Over-saturated stories is what I call them. It's usually when a writer—often a newbie—got a little too excited with their ideas. Excitement is a good thing, but be mindful that adding everything at once, or continuing to add more things that can effect the functioning of your world (such as new powers, magic systems, concepts, etc), can make your story near incomprehensible to a new reader, and can open the doors for some serious writing issues.

As I highlighted before, in order to justify multiple ways of doing magic or performing whatever kind of abilities your story allows, you need to justify why each one is used and why people just don't not use it. You need to justify why this is how things work, why something so important may have not been brought up before, and how these elements may interact.

All of these things can be done subtly and without any issue! But, especially for new writers, they should be kept in mind, because adding too many elements to your story and worldbuilding can cause you to lose track, not consider the impact a change may have to your story, and open the door for hypocritical problems and the dreaded plot holes...

#writing #creative writing #ask blog #writing advice #writing prompt #fiction writing #fanfiction #letsdiscuss

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Hello, I'm the anon who asked about Linguistic Absurdity and the best thing I can compare it to is like absurdism in language (I.e the origin behind the word 'Whomst'), hope this helps!

This helps a lot, thanks! And it turns out that all of my theories on what it could have been were totally in the wrong direction lol

Also, this pushed me down a rabbit hole where I found two people on reddit arguing to all FILTH about the word 'whomst'... with both of them being wrong in some way or the other.

Based on your example, and the definitions of 'absurd', linguistic absurdity (though seemingly absent from most linguistic papers and sites) appears to refer to words that do not have a solid meaning. Using the example of 'whomst', the word is linguistically absurd as its usage is primarily to convey sarcasm or irony rather than the root meaning of the word (which is a slang form of 'whom', with an '-st' suffix slapped on the end to make it sound posher).

Linguistic absurdity refers to words without definitive meaning or words whose meanings are dependent on the use of sarcasm or irony.

But, again, I couldn't find any actual usages of this term anywhere, so I'm just going off my own intuition lol take this with a grain of salt

#fsasks #ask blog #language

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Can you give the definition of "Linguistic Absurdity" with sentence examples please, I just don't understand it :/

Hi! Thank you for the ask.

The term 'Linguistic Absurdity' sounds very familiar to me—likely due to terms such as 'linguistic ambiguity' and 'linguistic insecurity', as well as ideas such as absurdism in literature—however, it doesn't seem to be a widespread usage of the term, at least not in that specific form.

I do have ideas on what it could be referring to that I'm fairly certain on, but they all go in WILDLY different directions and the last thing I want to do is to point you in the wrong direction. Would it be possible for you to send another ask perhaps with some details or context so I can figure out which definition you're working on? Thanks so much x

#studying language has taught me that a lot of terms just arent universal #which is natural but confusing! #fsasks

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I’m here to express my interest in a deep dive! Since I’m not on TikTok, I’m always fascinated by what’s going on there. I also admit that I’m skeptical of the (for-profit) writing advice industry in general, but I don’t really have a great sense of the scope of it.

Hi! Thank you so much for the ask. Since I've been doing research on mainly pre-1800s styles so far, I don't have as much information as I'd like on this in terms of real citations. Though I do promise to update this post with more information through reblogs as time goes on (to fulfill the 'deep' part of the 'deep-dive')!

This will mainly be about my observations on this new attitude to writing I am seeing on tiktok, and through other people I've interacted with. It will be focusing on ideas, 'rules', and premises that I'm seeing occur, with my qualifications to write this being that I've been a proof reader, mainly for younger or newbie writers, for a few years now, study literature and linguistics, and generally find it a lot of fun to look at trends in writing and grammar over time.

Attitudes to Writing (as a whole)

Among the younger generations, I'm seeing the concept of a 'writer' being associated, in some subcultures, as being kind of cringe. And I think that's sad, honestly. I see a lot less readers about, too. Perhaps that's why.

I think that cringe culture has definitely done its damage in dissuading young writers and new writers alike. The demonisation of fanfiction and the mockery of anyone who's just trying things out is something I see everywhere. Personally, I see things such as fanfiction and the popularity of fanfiction among young people as great in terms of fostering new writers and encouraging the growth of new talent. Shaming people for experimentation, when it comes to art, will never be helpful. And yes, writing is an art!

Mocking artistic experimentation, however, seems to be something tiktok is very good at. Whether it be a 13 year old writing their first fanfiction or piece of poetry, or a seasoned professional with three degrees and a bestseller, the writing produced will not be perfect. Because writing is an art, and perfect doesn't exist.

This, actually, leads me into my next point.

Attitudes to Writing (in terms of learning)

This section will mainly be me talking from my experience of those who I have proof read for. Though I won't be naming any names (obviously).

As per my last point, I'm seeing a growing sense of a writing perfection, specifically in the younger writing community. In tandem to that, a sort of narcissism in terms of viewing whatever you've written as perfect, and not being open to the fact that it's genuinely impossible.

I've seen people get angry and defensive over corrections or recommendations for improvements, even if they've asked for them, and people request that I don't point out certain mistakes. Then whats the point? I hear you ask. The answer is likely either a certain shame in not being perfect, or a genuine view that whatever they've written must be flawless.

I understand being nervous. I understand confidence, and encourage it. But if someone refuses to acknowledge that writing is subjective, and that if you ask for criticism you will inevitably receive it, that someone is inevitably incompatible with writing. They will not improve, and that will stagnate them drastically. Those who have asked me honestly for criticism and have been glad to receive it were the ones whom I gave the least recommendations and corrections.

I note this here because it's something I'm seeing a lot among the younger people I'm proofreading for (below twenty). I feel like this goes hand in hand with the mockery of experimentation and imperfection I'm seeing on all sides of the art world online. Either that, or my before-mentioned observation that the average person doesn't seem to read that much; maybe people just think they're the best because they haven't read much else? Who knows. This is all speculation.

I'll also note the education system (in my experience) and it's approach to fiction writing. In my case, I found that it encouraged people to cater to mark schemes rather than quality; I can often see if someone is in high school doing creative writing, since there's often empty adverbs everywhere and a useless metaphor every second sentence. Not that there's anything wrong with adverbs or metaphors though— I'll get to that later.

Moreover, I sometimes see the idea that creativity can be taught. Personally, I disagree with that. Creativity, in my view, can't be taught—execution is what is taught. And that brings me onto my final point

Attitudes to Writing (execution)

Writing, again, is an art. There is very few ways you can write 'wrong'. To me, if it conveys what you want it to convey and is engaging, you've done well.

What I'm seeing, specifically through some tiktoks and some advice being thrown around online, is the rise of this nouveau-prescriptivism. As is with a decent amount of terms in this blog, don't Google that because I pulled it out of my ass.

Prescriptivism is real, however, and has been for hundreds of years. It refers to the idea that rules of how language should be written and spoken should be prescribed and adhered to; this idea has often been the basis for disagreements concerning AAVE, slang, and neopronouns (but that's for other asks or posts, if you want).

What I'd call this 'nouveau-prescriptivism' is the rise in unnecessary corrections and nonsense recommendations: make all your sentences short, never use adverbs, only use 'said', or never use 'said', and keep things simple at all costs. Oh, and don't forget the 'never start a sentence with a conjunction'—I've broken that rule quite a few times in this post alone. And I do it out of spite.

Beyond seeing these ideas and recommendations in advice etc online, I've also seen it through the recommendations of grammar bots and editor programs. For example, one I found being recommended on tiktok today: Hemingway.

Hemingway is an editor programme that seems to check for all the things I've seen bashed to all hell in some writing circles online. Adverbs, passive voice, complex sentences, you name it. It looks for those, marks your sentences if they are 'hard to read' or 'very hard to read', and rates your work according to readability so you can improve it.

But these sentences they flag up as hard to read are only hard to read to people who likely wouldn't get far in a book anyway. These sentences aren't incorrect, and they mostly don't need improvement. Moreover, the quality of your writing is NOT determined by how easy it is to read. If it was, those baby books with the pictures in would be top literature. All the time on some areas of the online writing world (particularly among the 'aspiring' writers), I see this view that complexity and high levels of detail are bad. I highly disagree. Sure, overdescribing can be an issue, but it has it's place. Adverbs and the passive voice also have their places in writing, and no AI or programme can determine where.

Here is an extract of my own writing put into Hemingway. I don't claim myself to be a great writer, but I like to see myself as average.

Sentences in yellow are labelled hard to read. In red, very hard to read. And the words in blue are those pesky adverbs. You can share your own opinions on readability.

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Now, here are some extracts from extremely influential novels put into Hemingway:

The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

The Bloody Chamber, by Angela Carter

We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin

If these novels were so terrible, they wouldn't have had such a literary impact on the world. Complexity is not bad. As with everything in writing, its use is dependent on how it is utilised. Know the rules well and you'll know how to break them—I would say, if this was a rule to begin with.

I think the promotion of programmes such as these show what I'm seeing as a rise in this view that writing has to be simple and uber-understandable in order to be good. Sure, good writing is understandable, otherwise nobody would understand it enough to see it as good. But cutting out descriptions and complexity will just hinder the creative output of the writer. The less rules, the better. That's what I think.

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Though, all of this is just my opinion. And I'd love to hear any friendly additions or views on the matter. I will also note that this post is NOT a commentary on the writing community as a whole. It's on specific subcultures I'm seeing brewing among the younger writers, particularly on tiktok.

Thank you again for the ask :D

#writing #creative writing #ask blog #writing advice #writeblr #hemingway editor #fiction writing #fsasks #ramblepost

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I've been on writing tiktok a lot recently, which honestly isn't the best thing. I've seen quite a bit on there promoting certain things in writing that I feel could be damaging or inhibiting to many aspiring authors and young writers. Specifically through some of the 'tips' and editing programs being promoted. Considering doing a post to clear some of these things up, and to explain my reasons as to why I see some of these things as 'bad' or inhibiting.

Leave an ask if you'd like me to do a bit of a deep-dive into this. I might do it anyway, but I do like interaction on my blogs :)

#writing #creative writing #writing advice #ask blog #fiction writing #writeblr

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One of my favorite things in life are really crummy and questionable modern renditions of old literary texts. Those things spend thousands on the outfits and can no longer afford a camera and its telling. And I eat that shit up.

#thinking of the Maud screaming rendition #i need to find that again #literature

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After hearing a lot of people's opinions on Lord Tennyson's 'Maud', I find it kind of surprising that people interpret as a poem about strong, undying love, instead of about a man who is going insane and craving death at every interval.

If there's anyone who remembers reading/who has read the poem I am interested in people's takes. I often hear and see, at least on tumblr and other social medias, people viewing it as a love poem. You guys feel the same?

#poetry #maud #alfred lord tennyson #lord tennyson #writing #literature #love poem

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How would you handle unconventional dialogue, like from animals, intelligent objects (like talking weapons or AI), robots, or aliens?

Sorry I took forever to get around to this lol

Part 1

Part 2

A Part 3 to the dialogue series... who would've thunk?

How To Write (Strange) Character Dialogue

This will be a mixture of recommendations and creative writing ideas, considering that this is very specific yet so potentially open-ended.

There are two main things I'd advise to consider when writing unconventional dialogue from sources that usually cannot speak/have other speaking conventions:

1 - Logistics

One of the keys to figuring out how to go about constructing dialogue for something inanimate or otherwise incomprehensible is to think about the logistics of how they became able to speak or communicate in the first place—the details of how this came about, and why?

For example, is this object haunted? Was it suddenly given consciousness at some other point, and for what reason? Is there a logical or functional reason as to why a weapon would need to talk, or is that just a side-effect to some magical process that enchants them with another unrelated ability?

Thinking about how this object, alien, robot, or animal came to be able to speak/comprehend whatever language your world works on can help you build the frameworks on how their speech is learnt and constructed.

AI, as an example, may be built without capacity for emotion or tone, and so may have flat questions and a distinct lack of emotive language. AI might not backchannel (the act of affirming someone as they speak through things like "Mhm!", "I see," or "Wow!"). In addition to this, the AI, at least in a learning stage, may be working on some wonky grammar and a very limited vocabulary.

In all cases where the subject is new to speech or the language, consider what words or concepts they would be familiar with and those they would not. You could do something interesting with this; perhaps an AI or object given sentience happens to know about something they logically hadn't been exposed to, leading to a conspiracy of the extent of their knowledge, free-will, and source of their consciousness.

Moreover, as I will likely touch on again, newfound consciousness learning language may be referenced to how children learn language. When children are young, they go through what's called the 'Telegraphic Stage' where they are slowly figuring out the more elaborate grammar rules as well as how to use pronouns, prepositions, and auxiliary verbs. Perhaps this could be taken into account if there is an object, alien, or animal that is new to human language or consciousness.

There is, alternatively, concepts such as pre-programming or telepathy to teach robots or aliens language. Though these may not factor in things like slang, and may still come with downsides depending on the logistics of how that is done and what it's limitations are. Alternatively, you can have the aliens speak their own variation of the language of your world, or to learn the language flawlessly but make errors due to it having a different structure to their own.

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2 - Perspective

Perspective is a massive part of forming dialogue for any character and in any situation. It is about thinking of how that character is feeling in that moment, what would influence that, and how they would express it through their words and accompanying actions. When writing dialogue for more unconventional character forms, this applies even more.

The language we use is heavily influenced by our needs and our surroundings. Babies often learn nouns relating to food and their caregivers, and what is in their home e.g, a dog or certain toys. Survival and exposure are what you need to think about. What kinds of language would your unconventional character need to learn to survive, and what were they exposed to?

Example 1 works on survival. We have an alien species that has crashed down to earth, and one of them managed to flee into the woods. They are found by a human hunter, using telepathy to learn basic grammar and fragments of the human language. This alien species feeds on relations and connection instead of food; affectionate, personal, expressive, and emotional words and language would be a priority to learn for the sake of survival.

Example 2 works on exposure. A hero travels to an abandoned mansion to retrieve an old helmet that was hung up there for centuries with the belief that the item belonged to an old warrior of the past. That old warrior was killed wearing the helmet, his spirit being imprisoned in it. He does not remember a thing, but his consciousness possessed the helmet, leading to the haunted item to be hung up in the grand hall of a rich mansion for over a hundred years. It can communicate telepathically and perfectly well, but due to the type of language the spirit was exposed to over the years, the dialogue is quite formal, traditional, and elaborate.

I feel that it is also worth noting that, with animal and alien species, they may communicate with alternate, non-linguistic features. Perhaps through physical or near-magical means.

Creating dialogue is figuring out what your character is thinking and seeing from their perspective. Keep that in mind—their feelings, experiences, desires, and personality—and their dialogue should come as naturally as any other form of character.

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Hope this helped! :D My examples aren't the best, but I try... sometimes. Thank you for the ask!

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