In the library, we often get asked about “body swap” movies — and how writers show that the characters are in opposite bodies on the page. (Here, in 2003’s Freaky Friday, they use quotations around the names to indicate when Tess is in Anna’s body and vice-versa. However, a really great way to help people understand when characters have switched bodies is their speech patterns!

When “Anna” is suddenly speaking in curt sentences and thesaurus words… you know it’s really Tess. When “Tess” is suddenly deeply sarcastic and using “like” and “freak” that it’s really Anna.

This is a great way to evaluate character voice on the page: if these characters swapped bodies, could we keep track of who’s who by their word choice?