Forum: Author Hangout

Ideolect?

PotomacBob 🚫

How do you as an author keep track (or don't you) of the individual mannerisms and speech patterns of your characters?
If one character always mispronounces a certain word, do you use phonetic spellings every time the character uses it, or only the first time?
Do you show phonetic spellings when characters from some region use their regional preferences? (I see a lot of authors emphasizing Southernisms). If so, do you NOT use phonetics for characters from other regions (such as your own, which, by definition, must be correct)? And, if you use regionalisms from regions other than your own - how do you know what they are?

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫

@PotomacBob

I stay away from phonetic spelling. I might leave out the ending "g" as in runnin' or use y'all, but not phonetic spelling.

To keep track of how each character speaks, I keep a bio on each character. Anything unusual to that character is in their bio.

Replies: PotomacBob

PotomacBob 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Should I interpret the lack of many responses as an indication that SOL authors do NOT make any effort to distinguish the way individual characters speak - or that all their characters speak the same way the author does?
Or does it just indicate that I posted the original query in a holiday week when nobody much was watching the forum?

Replies: Switch Blayde awnlee jawking Baltimore Rogers

Switch Blayde 🚫

@PotomacBob

that SOL authors do NOT make any effort to distinguish the way individual characters speak

Absolutely not.

I try to make each character have their own way of talking. One might use certain slang. One poorer grammar. One childish. Stuff like that.

You asked about phonetic spelling. That I don't do. For two reasons. One, as a reader, I find it hard to understand. And, two, I don't hear sounds well (tone deaf) so I can't hear the accent to phonetically write it.

Replies: Not_a_ID

Not_a_ID 🚫

@Switch Blayde

I try to make each character have their own way of talking. One might use certain slang. One poorer grammar. One childish. Stuff like that.

You asked about phonetic spelling. That I don't do. For two reasons. One, as a reader, I find it hard to understand. And, two, I don't hear sounds well (tone deaf) so I can't hear the accent to phonetically write it.

This is my preferred method to see in written form. You differentiate the characters through their word choices and approach to communication. Not so much by transliterating their enunciation.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@PotomacBob

Should I interpret the lack of many responses as an indication that SOL authors do NOT make any effort to distinguish the way individual characters speak

I think that's a perfectly valid approach, especially for 3rd POV. However I prefer to both read and write stories where each character is differentiable by their speech.

I've read too many stories where the author has neglected to include sufficient dialogue tags for a multi-person dialogue and yet I don't think readers actually cared because each character sounded exactly the same and had the same knowledge.

AJ

Baltimore Rogers 🚫

@PotomacBob

I guess I didn't think I had any useful feedback for you.

My approach is sorta organic. I try to live in the characters' heads when I'm writing dialogue. It has more to do with being true to the character's motivations than to their outward characteristics. But it works for that too.

Vincent Berg 🚫

Sorry for not responding earlier (I've been lying low for some time). Like others here, I generally stay away from phonetic spellings, though I often rely on accents or particular sentence structures for particular (often foreign) characters.

However, when I do, I use it for a couple of initial paragraphs, but then cut it WAY back, but then reuse certain key phrases, just as a reminder to readers that they continue speaking with the same accent (so the reader doesn't forget). That way the text remains legible and it doesn't take a half hour to decipher dialogue, but the readers are actively aware the character doesn't speak in a normal manner.

I did this most often in my "Demonic Issues" stories, where I had several alien species of dragon, demon, fairies, drawves and seamstresses, all of which spoke differently. Thus I had to keep checking my notes to remember how each species spoke, then I had to check again for how that particular character spoke (i.e. Is their English better than the rest of their people's? Do they particular traits or excentricities?)

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Forum: Author Hangout

Ideolect?

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