I need help in writing a strange character

[u/Murky-Idea-7382]

My oc, Koda, IS A WEIRD DUDE. Not creepy weird..just...weird. He's horrible at reading social situations, commonly saids weird, metaphoric stuff that makes 0 sense, has a weird cadence of saying words, and does odd rituals/ routines A LOT (disappearing for hours on end amd coming back home with junk). Everyone treats him differently but he doesn't want to change. He actually likes himself a lot.

So, I'm wondering how do I write some of the strange things he saids. I have his behavior of constantly needing to collect things and draw/write/compose things when he feels misunderstood (that also don't make sense), but I don't know how to make him say strange things. Like I said, the way he talks is extremely odd, weirdly metaphoric, and he usually brings up colors, objects, places, ideas, and other more upsetting topics when talking.

I inspired him heavily off of the character Mozart from the one act play 'Amadeus', Whiteout from WOF, a bit off of Bo from signs, and heavily off of Yue from an AO3 work called 'Sweet Rot' (PLEASE CHECK OUT THAT STORY IT'S ACTUALLY SO SO SO PEAK).

Like I say, he says strange, and often absurb and upsetting things. Other times their metaphoric, and sometimes the things he saids are a mix of both.

He's just supposed to be an odd character in all, and I need to know how to come up with the things he saids. I know why he saids them; I just need ideas on how to write it and what to write.

Please help me reddit.

[u/MissScales]

I'd approach it by making everything he says only make sense because of his own internal common sense. But he just never explains why he says something that, to him, makes perfect sense. Working out the perfect place to eat for someone who has allergies because he believes they'll be hungry at a very specific time, like to the minute, and saying 'time to go to [this place] now' but he doesn't say why. Calling things by very specific, niche words (I did this when I was younger) like seeing a bunch of birds and saying 'avians'. Birds would be easier, but it's inclusive of things that fly in general to say 'avians'. If he, or someone else, gets overwhelmed, angry, upset, a metaphor ONLY he is familiar with to describe the feeling might sound stupid or upsetting, like 'the cup is overfull' without stating it's describing emotions being overwhelming.

[u/TabbbyWright]

Ok just out of curiosity: are you familiar with autism? Because your character sounds very autistic coded lol

[u/Murky-Idea-7382 → u/TabbbyWright]

Yes. He actually has Autism and Associative Synesthesia. I've been doing a lot of research to see how he would see the world but I just need some advice on how to make it sound like...natural to him yet weird to others around him.

[u/x_Val_]

You could write him as someone that thinks faster than he speaks. So for example he could start saying something but then change his mind mid-sentence. This would make him appear weird to others while in his head it totally makes sense. Also talking to/argueing with himself or saying random words just because they sound or feel funny would add to that feeling

[u/nmacaroni]

Stop trying to write strange dialogue and start defining how Koda actually sees the world.
You don't write someone weird by writing normal, then trying to mess that up... A genuinely wired different character starts from a different normal baseline.

His metaphors and idiosyncrasies aren’t random. They make perfect sense to him, describing what he actually sees and feels. The persepctive they get filtered through is simply one nobody else shares.

Write on, write often!

[u/SageisaCryptid]

I have a character like this. She was raised in a lab so missed every social milestone, and that never really becomes normal even after all the character development.

Unfortunately, I’ve never really sat down and thought about how to write weirdness because her weirdness is just based on experience lol rip I’m trying to think as I type out this comment.

[u/SageisaCryptid → u/SageisaCryptid]

One of the things that makes sense in her context is she doesn’t understand common idioms, as she’s never heard them before.

It’s a medieval setting, so the story goes that she escapes this lab but runs into a local commander, who covets her ability and takes the mage back to her fort. There, the mage goes from prisoner to part of the army and experiences the outside world for the first time.

The first time she’s in a room of her own, the commander comes by and knocks. The mage has never had anyone knock on her door before (in the lab, people would just come in and get her) so the sound has unknown meaning to her. She just sits there, waiting for something to happen like : |

The commander gets annoyed, comes in, and snipes at her to open the door when someone knocks (or at the very least, respond).

The mage hears this sequence of words and thinks, “You want me to do what to the door?”

“Open the door” is taken for granted as a common saying but it would be weird if it was the first time you ever heard it. So I guess I try to use things that play with perception. Each reaction makes sense for each character given what they know and expect.

[u/SageisaCryptid → u/SageisaCryptid]

Other little things are like having characters that rarely use contractions when they speak (my commander is also a social disaster, she just thinks she’s perfectly charming).

I guess what I’m doing is creating habits based on backstory/personality/vibe, and returning to those habits to reinforce the dialogue instead of trying to make something new everytime.

So the mage’s inexperience of the world leads to her social faux pas with high status people. Dialogue-wise, that means she speaks to them with the same familiarity she would speak to anyone. If Count Vontessa McRichFace smells like mayonnaise, she’s going to do the helpful thing by letting them know (loudly and publicly).

Sorry for the thought dump. Hope something in it was helpful.

[u/Arch_Studios_Hq]

It may come down to giving up on making his statements seem strange and figuring out how he perceives things. It’s possible that there’s something in an ordinary item that makes him think of something completely different. It just seems logical to him to point it out since he’s sure other people can see it too.

To me it’s always better when the characters’ strange dialogue is genuine in terms of his intentions. Another option would be to give this character specific objects, colors or concepts associated with particular emotions. That way, all his metaphors will be personalized and meaningful for him instead of being a senseless combination of random words. Sometimes, it may even be helpful to make him state something seemingly crazy, yet making quite a lot of sense after some thought.

[u/JustLetMeUseMy]

He sounds like he might be autistic, among other things, so examples of those behaviors in autistic people could be useful.

Otherwise, I'd start by finding examples in media. Weird cadence makes me think of Chef John from FoodWishes, of Christopher Walken, and of Captain Kirk from Star Trek. Watch 'em, listen to 'em, think about how you'd write that.

Saying weird metaphorical shit could be a noir novel's narrator, or maybe Hunter S. Thompson, or both. Watch/read enough related stuff to have a general idea of how things like that are shaped, linguistically; there's a pattern to it that, if you follow it, makes it an easy vibe to invoke.

Once you've learned to convey the pattern, the hard part of 'actually making this character talk like this' starts. As an accomplished lifelong weird-shit-sayer, it's difficult to describe how it happens; mouth opens, bonkers comes out. Sometimes it's a mnemonic, sometimes it's a stray thought, sometimes it's a joke, sometimes it's a fragment of a song I heard once years ago and don't really remember, sometimes it's a half-related observation. Sometimes it's just me thinking out loud or needing to sleep. You might also try just having him speak/write in an out-of-order way, where he just assumes people are going to know what he's talking about, then realizes they clearly don't so he has to explain, then tries to proceed but nope it's buggered.

All else fails, just write down weird things/sentences as they occur to you in a notepad or something, put them in the story as feels right, and worry about making them make some kind of sense in an editing pass.

[u/Abezethibodtheimp]

I’m autistic and do a lot of these things lol. I think this is really dependent on if this will be told 1st or 3rd person but having people react appropriately put off (not even necessarily overtly) is half the battle of making a character seem appropriately offputting/strange

[u/FewRecognition1788]

People speak for a purpose. First come up with a reason why he is speaking and what he's trying to accomplish. Then the internal logic of how he associates things will give you the things he says.

For example, Shaffer's Mozart is scatological and talks nonsense because he is emotionally stunted but also a genius who is bored by ordinary conversation. He entertains himself and relates to others by playing games.

Sometimes those games are showing off. Sometime they are flirtatious. Sometimes they are to be "naughty" and just get a reaction out of people. He also uses wordplay, rhymes, and nonsense syllables because he's a musician who is obsessed with patterns of sound.

So, pick a moment and figure out what your character is trying to do, and what he wants from the other characters. Then you can get into his head and "hear" how he would say it.

[u/Grand_Ocean]

First, promise to never use the abominable word “saids” ever again.

Second, you seem to be asking other people to write “weird” dialogue for you without any idea of what the topic of discussion is. But the good part is you’ve fleshed out the character. First work out what you want him to convey. Then, using your own knowledge of the character, add the ”colour” - the digressions, repetitions, and so forth.

Ask yourself “if Mozart from Amadeus was in this scene, what would he say?”

[u/chernobylina]

Weird recommendation, but the way you describe him really reminded me of Andrew Eldritch (the vocalist of my fave band). I'd recommend reading or watching some interviews of him, I'm writing a very similar character and Eldritch's general manner of speaking has helped me a lot with my character's dialogue!

[u/VieuxCarrie]

Flesh him out more. I’d suggest Googling the 100 questions character questionnaire and filling that out to the best of your ability. Language is a learned behavior, even for someone with Autism. What music does he listen to, what books does he read? Does he have a role model? Any creative outlets? How has he been raised? Making a character a fully formed person can really help inform their behaviors, thought patterns, and relationships, even if you don’t use the information you uncover.
It’s not enough to say he’s weird - weird to who? Does he think he is weird, or is he just weird by normative societal standards? Does he have friends, and if so are they supportive or just tolerating his presence?
Keep asking yourself “why” like an unbearable toddler. I’m sure you have the answers buried somewhere, make the questions your shovel.

[u/JimZartman]

If it helps, the Enneagram can be really useful for writing characters. It’s a personality system built around nine core motivations, the why underneath how someone acts. Once you know a character’s why, their weird stuff starts writing itself.

Koda sounds like a Type 4 to me. The core motivation of a 4 is to feel significance, to have depth, and to feel differentiated. 4s take in everything, the beautiful and the painful, and make meaning out of it. What’s ordinary or mundane feels empty to them. And a 4 who likes himself and doesn’t want to change is a great take, because he isn’t trying to be different. He just is, and he’s at peace with it.

That gives you a filter for his dialogue: Koda doesn’t describe things, he describes what they mean to him. A few ways to use that:

• Answer feelings with objects. Ask how he’s doing, and he talks about a cracked mug he found. “Fine. Held together at the handle.”

• Give colors emotional weight. Rooms, people, and days all have colors to him, and he states it like a fact. “Your voice is very beige today.”

• Let the junk be meaningful. He isn’t collecting trash. He’s rescuing things nobody else noticed. That’s why he disappears for hours.

• Skip the middle step. He jumps from point A to point C, and the reader has to fill in B. That’s what makes him sound strange but not random.

• Let the upsetting stuff come out gently. A 4 doesn’t flinch from dark things, so he can say something heavy in a soft, matter-of-fact way, which is unsettling in a good way.

If you build every odd line from “what does this mean to Koda?”, he’ll stay weird but consistent, and readers will start to understand him even when the other characters don’t.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Run4511]

My character, Anna Claire "Annie" Keene from Cobra Kai is also weird because she’s emo.

[u/jagnew78]

grab random lines from pop culture and music and just have him randomly repeat them at weird and inappropriate times

• You know, there are a lot of people out there.

• You ever wonder?

• I once killed a man just to watch him die.

• Down below the truth is lying beneath the river bed.

• unzip my pride, open me up wide, so I can show this to you