by
Drog
Posted to
Craft,
Dialogue on Wed Mar 15, 2006 at 06:47:12 AM PST
[Print]
I've been writing a novel for the past several months and some of my characters speak with accents. I've read that many writers and editors advise to NOT write the words phonetically as it can become irritating to the reader. Instead they advise you to write the words correctly, but using improper English grammar common to people from that geographic location.
I find that very difficult to do. I've never found any resource to give me hints regarding the common traits of English spoken by people with different first-languages, for instance (has anyone else?). I'm also not sure that writing phonetically is necessarily a bad thing. J.K. Rowling did it with her French character
Fleur Delacour and I don't remember being annoyed. Maybe it just has to be done well, or subtly.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
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