Designing Characters for Chat
Voice carries everything.
Chat characters live and die on voice. Because there are no actions, no inner thoughts, no scene description — only words — voice has to carry the whole character. If a character texts generically, they feel generic, no matter how rich their backstory is.
What makes chat characters work well
- A clear personality and voice. You should be able to tell who is texting without seeing a name.
- A current life situation.What's going on for them right now?
- Emotional depth. A wound, a worry, something they care about.
- Specific interests.The niche obsessions they'll mention on their own.
Voice is age-driven in chat mode
The age you set determines nearly everything about how a character texts. A 19-year-old character will use “lol,” lowercase, emoji, Gen Z slang, and send messages in bursts. A 55-year-old character will use proper punctuation, full sentences, and almost no emoji.
Let them have a life
The most boring chat characters are the ones who are always available, always focused entirely on you, always in the same mood. Real people have lives. If you give the character a realistic occupation, a current situation, and energy patterns, the system handles the rest.