writing accents

11 Feb 2017

Hello lushers and lushettes. I have a question about how you write dialogue when a character has a distinct accent. For instance, if your character has a strong southern (US) drawl, do you simply describe in various ways the character's words as being southern? Or do you go full-on in the dialogue, spelling out the accent phonetically? As in: "Ew lawdy, mah voice sounds jus like mamaw's did back in tha day."

I always find that it's difficult to read phonetically spelled accents, at least until you get used to it. But that requires getting through a LOT of dialogue before you gain a comfort level, and most stories here aren't that long.

In a story I'm writing, I'm considering describing the accent when the character is first introduced, using the phonetic spelling in his first line of dialogue to give life to his accent, and then resuming normal spelling after the first sentence. Does anyone do this? It doesn't bother me after re-reading, but I wonder if it would come off as simply inconsistent to other readers.

What are your thoughts? Do you ever write in accents? If so, how? I'm new here - would a mod be inclined to correct the spelling upon review, thus I'm wasting my time asking about it?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!
Cheers,
-E

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11 Feb 2017

I think the approach you're taking is a good one. It's really too much to dress every line of dialogue - or worse still, first person narrative - in the accent/dialect of your character. It makes it much harder to read and can be quite annoying. The odd sprinkle here and there is more than enough to convey the style of speech.

The reality is that we don't speak the way we write. If we did, we'd sound like we were on the set of Downton Abbey. And if we wrote the way we speak, literature would look like a Gen-Y's text message history. for example, the opening line of one of my stories, Warning Order, is, "Are you all right, Mate?" But what the character actually said is, "You right, Mate?"

Having said that, there are exceptions to the rule where very skilled and talented authors can pull off writing all the dialogue or even the whole story in stylised language. As moderators, we'll allow dialogue. However, the entire first person narrative will be very closely scrutinised and likely debated backstage, so it'll need to be flawless to even have a chance.

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