Skip to content

Uncategorized

Dialogue Homogeneity

Flags scenes where all characters speak in uniform-length dialogue lines.

What It Does

Measures the coefficient of variation (CV) of dialogue paragraph word counts. When CV < 0.25, all characters sound alike in rhythm.

Why It Matters

Real people have different speech patterns. A career soldier speaks in short, clipped sentences. A professor meanders. When all characters produce dialogue of similar length, voice distinction collapses and immersion suffers.

What Gets Flagged

Severity Example Why Suggested Revision
Hint CV=0.15 across 10 dialogue lines All similar length Make some characters terse, others verbose

Technical Details

  • Source: prose-craft
  • Scope: Scene-level (8+ dialogue paragraphs)
  • Method: Statistical CV of dialogue word counts