Writing Accents

WomanSkirtFan8

Hi all. Just wondering how do yoy write accents?.

km85264

You need to be very careful writing accents, it's very easy to overdo them and make speech illegible or comical. First of all ask yourself if you really need an accent, does it add to the character? Is it significant to the story? If so, then focus on a few key words that typify the accent rather then trying to rewrite each one. A dublin person might say "are you going to eat dat cake" or a scot might say "I ken what you're talking about." Just enough to carry the idea without labouring the dialogue. Check out Ross O'Carroll Kelly.
On the flip side, you have folks like Irvine Welsh who go all out, have a read of Trainspotting, but this approach is not for the faint hearted or the beginner writer.

HalloweenJack

If I wanted to emphasise regional identities, I'd go down the route of using slang as opposed to phonetically writing down accents.

It's a lot of work, though it would depend on what the story is about. If it's a story about a loads of people from the same place then I don't think it'd be necessary. If it's a one-off character whose accent is a distinctive trait, go for the phonetical approach. I've seen this in a few books, there's character like this in Wuthering Heights (Zillah?) which is the example that springs to mind.

Tell me how

km85264 wrote:

You need to be very careful writing accents, it's very easy to overdo them and make speech illegible or comical. First of all ask yourself if you really need an accent, does it add to the character? Is it significant to the story? If so, then focus on a few key words that typify the accent rather then trying to rewrite each one. A dublin person might say "are you going to eat dat cake" or a scot might say "I ken what you're talking about." Just enough to carry the idea without labouring the dialogue. Check out Ross O'Carroll Kelly. On the flip side, you have folks like Irvine Welsh who go all out, have a read of Trainspotting, but this approach is not for the faint hearted or the beginner writer.

I would echo this. Paul Howard (Ross O'Carroll Kelly) does an exceptional job of writing accents. He does this both by writing phonetically and using regional phrasing or slang. When reading them, you need to commit to the words on the page as they are written instead of trying to decipher as you read. I don't think I've seen him portray a character but that the words didn't successfully convey the accent.

That being said, he's portrayal of rugby players from Newbridge probably did cross the line in to exaggeration as opposed to an accurate portrayal.

WomanSkirtFan8

Thanks again guys. Yeah I dont want to do anything stereotypical. Now back to.my research....