McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Accents

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Enjorous:
So one of my MC's is from London and not the fun side of London. As such he has a rather thick accent, (think Tim Roth), I'm not sure exactly the best way to show it. In dialogue, with fun and crazy spelling, or should I pick the most iconic words and add them in dialogue tags?

Or another option I haven't yet thought of.

comprex:

--- Quote from: Enjorous on May 25, 2011, 08:55:04 PM ---Or another option I haven't yet thought of.

--- End quote ---

This.    Do it in dialogue with syntax, word order, and expressions.    Do it in plot with general attitude, to life, institutions, people.

Otherwise it will read like you took a US character and decorated him with cliches from the "Too Stereotyped Even For EastEnders" bin.

Rule of thumb: make believe like your character doesn't want to be recognized for what he is.   He is trying -hard- and would very much avoid anything "iconic" because it is easy for him to know that it is a giveaway.   Only put in the stuff he does not, cannot know to avoid.

Starbeam:

--- Quote from: Enjorous on May 25, 2011, 08:55:04 PM ---So one of my MC's is from London and not the fun side of London. As such he has a rather thick accent, (think Tim Roth), I'm not sure exactly the best way to show it. In dialogue, with fun and crazy spelling, or should I pick the most iconic words and add them in dialogue tags?

Or another option I haven't yet thought of.

--- End quote ---
Watch anything where Tim Roth uses his natural accent, if you're basing it off that.  I have one character essentially based on Jason Statham, and to get his cadence, I'll rewatch Snatch every so often.  For the most part, the only way you need to do anything odd is if he's got a cockney accent.  Also, I'd suggest watching the first 3 seasons of new Doctor Who-both those companions are from London-though one's a little lower class than the other.  I'd also suggest getting Street Magic by Caitlinn Kittredge as an example of going overboard.  About the only thing I can think of that you might misspell often would be "wot" instead of "what" although it's been about five years since I visited England, or actually spoke to my friends there.

Snowleopard:
Too much dialect in your writing and people won't understand what the heck you're saying.
Once in awhile is good or in a limited form.

You could look at the Brian Jacques Redwall books.  His Moles speak a very heavily accented tongue and he uses it sparingly.
Sometimes I had no clue as to what some of the words were supposed to mean.

Wordmaker:
My one bit of advice would be to avoid over-using phoenetic spellings to get across your accent. It can be really tricky to get it right rather than making it difficult to read.

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