Neil Faulkner wrote:
I think it was Steven Pacey, in some interview or other, who observed that ninety per cent of the lines for the regular cast could have been given to just about any of the characters. I think he's got a point.
That's probably true IRL as well, for people of equally similar backgrounds. Lots of conversation is simple information exchange. But the other 10% is essential to characterization (actually I'd make it closer to 80%/20%).
The characters _do_ sound different - at least they do to me. It's one of the reasons I bang on about voice when it comes to discussing fanfic. In a really good fanfic, if two of the regular characters are having a conversation, it ideally ought to be possible to strip out everything except the dialogue and still tell who's talking. That's what I'd aim at, even if I couldn't always achieve it. Obviously it's easier with some characters than others.
I suppose the character junkies' retort would be that although you keep the same words, they get delivered in a completely different way. What's more important - the words, or their delivery? The relative importance of each might differ from character to character, I suppose.
If I said 'you're very clever', only my delivery would tell you whether I was being sincere or sarcastic. Delivery is IMO of roughly equal importance to actual words.
Mistral