Looking over one of my comics after finishing it, I noticed that different characters with different ways of talking almost always responded to doing a favor with "sure thing" and "no problem." Almost always. That annoyed me first of all that I used it so many times, and also that I somehow never noticed (or my beta-editor, now that I think about it).

Ever had that happen to you? I could always go back and alter it (I use computer software heavily for my comics), but I'm looking for ways to avoid that happening again.

Maybe you just don't write the types of people who would say "Okey-dokey"?

Anyways, something as generic as a simple response shouldn't give you much worry. I mean, answering a question positively is pretty much limited to "Yes", "Yeah", "Yup", "Uh-huh", and maybe the slightly more eccentric "Affirmative" or "Yuppers!"

If it was something like my stepbrother who uses the expression "At each-others throats" too much, then that might be cause for worry. A complicated sentence maybe, not a curt response that everyone takes for granted. Heck, you could make it a gag of some sort!

You're fine with what you're doing, though this thread might belong in "Tips and Tricks"

I try to keep my own speech patterns out of it, but my characters have a few phrases they say a lot and their own typical types of answers to things. It's a natural thing and realistic. You should always be careful to make sure it is the character's rather than your own personal speech habits. -- I usually have to pay close attention at first in order to write new characters' lines properly, but after a while, I get used to the way each one talks, and the dialogue comes naturally "from them" (rather than from me).

Try speaking the lines aloud. When you write something or even read it (especially when you are the person who wrote it), you don't always notice your repetition or the way things sound. But when you read something aloud, you'll catch all kinds of errors.

Writing dialogue is tricky, but when it comes to affirmative responses, the range is pretty limited, unless you want to go into more complicated sentences each time. (Like, instead of saying "sure thing", the character says "I'll get it done!" or something like that.) Therefore, even if the characters have vastly different modes of speech at all other times, they can be similar when it comes to this - it's only natural, after all.

And I second usedbooks on the reading it out loud bit - that usually brings up flaws in phrasing that you don't notice when it's just written down. It's a crack way of finding the sentences that are repetitive, or the ones that are far too complicated and need to be cut down.

There is also a positive way of looking at this.

As long as you don't over-do it to the point where the character becomes annoying, a repeated phrase can actually be an effective way of introducing a little characterisation.

That doesn't work if all the characters use the same phrase, obviously! But, if you make it that one character tends to say "no problem" while another is more likely to say "sure thing", it can become one of their identifying traits.

repeating dialog isnt as annoying as repeating AN ENTIRE SCENE.

I'm doing the script for the sequel of MAG-ISA. And when doing the fight scene I was like. Wait a minute. This is the same thing from BK.

lol!

Another solution would be to just cut out that type of dialogue entirely. Greetings, affirmative responses, Goodbyes, etc.--these are all terribly boring to read.

Whenever I'm in writing mode, I'm usually always asking if there's another, more interesting way for my characters to express themselves or get the point of the scene across. Often I find myself writing a scene with what I call "default dialogue"--dialogue that gets the job done, but little else.

Then, I go back through the dialogue and think of other ways to say the same thing, take out the cliches, or suggest instead of tell. At the end of this process, I often get dialogue that does what it needs to AND has more going on between the lines.

Basically, I hate repeating myself and try to avoid it at all costs.

Brock and DJAB both make good points here. Your characters SHOULD talk differently, they're different people. Distinguishing tonal differences in the speech patterns of different characters can be one of the most difficult things about writing dialogue. If it comes so naturally to you that you don't even notice doing it, you should try to embrace and develop that skill, not be annoyed by it. If you want your characters to feel real, the dialogue should be nuanced with specific patterns for different characters, and certain characters should be more apt to use certain phrases than others. While things like greetings and and affermative resopnses CAN be boring to read, if you go about writing it in an intentional way you can say far more about your characters with a nuanced dialogue about something humdrum then you could with something over-the-top like an apocalyptic battle with a demi-god

Well...I don't think I'm TOO bad about this...but at one point a while back I did notice that all of my characters answered things with "alright" too much. =P

WHAT ANNOYS ME MORE ON WEBCOMICS THAT MOST OF THE PAGES ON A CERTAIN HAS "THE" AND "A" IN THEM... IT'S SICKENING ME.... okay, that was just me being silly.

Anyway, yeah, it's annoying sometimes but it could work if someone doesn't mind reading them.

The closest thing I have to that is the fact the most of my characters are fairly snarky, Just snarky in different ways. I've been using it waaay too much and trying to cut back.