Sometimes, our fictional characters might read a little flat. It's difficult enough to create them and decide what they are doing without coming up with all the quircks and mannerisms real-life inflicts on real people. But, these little details do add realism.
For instance...
I enjoy listening to the The Rest Is History podcast. It's basically a chat between to guys who know their stuff - Tom and Dominic. Tom will sometimes refer to Dominic by name. But Dominic refers to Tom by his name all the time.
You can hear him smile as he does it, and, really, he is not at all difficult to listen to. But it reminded me of other people I have met who used my name repeatedly, not because I wasn't listening but because they needed my attention. And they didn't need to be talking about anything important - they just needed my attention, and they used my name to get it.
Repeated us of one character's name by another character might add an element of unexplained desperation, and give some depth to that character.
Over to you. What little habits have you noticed (without naming any names) that might be useful for a writer to incorporate?
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