Anonymous asked:Â How would you write an accent? One of my main characters is a British guy my other main character meets at university, and I want his accent to be apparent, rather than just simply saying he has a British accent.
Believe me, you donât want to write an accent.
Writing accents requires all sorts of spelling and grammatical acrobatics that are offensive, distracting, and confusing to the reader.Â
When writers fixate on a characterâs accent, itâs a vanity issue that has to be let go. A personâs accent is not whatâs important about them, and it shouldnât be so important in a character that it has to be spelled out. Itâs far more important to establish where the character is from and let the reader imagine the accent for themselves, however they imagine it. If the accent they hear in their heads is different than the one you intended, it will have zero affect on the character and the story. Instead of spelling out the accent, research the slang and other verbal cues spoken in the specific area your character is from. Then, have the narrator, the character, or another character establish where the foreign character is from, and incorporate the slang and other cues into their dialogue.
For example, if I tell you my character is from Texas and then she walks into a room and says, âHey, yaâll! Come on inside and get yourself some sweet tea,â you probably heard that in a southern accent as you read. If you didnâtâdoes it matter? :) Hereâs another post I did on writing accents.
     i understand that, in excess, writing out an accent can be both tedious and confusing. but if you actually do your research and you put thought and effort into what your character is saying and how youâre writing it out, accents serve to IMMERSE the reader in your writing.
     sometimes a characterâs accent is important. and you know what ?? maybe someone doesnât want to keep reminding the reader the their character is from a certain place. especially if youâre roleplaying and itâs an oc !! because holy cow if your character isnât canon and your partners arenât necessarily super invested in your oc, they can ( and likely will ) forget where theyâre from, and wonât go check your pages to remember.
     and letâs not forget that writing is what you make of it !! there are plenty of amazing ( and famous ) authors that write out the accents in their stories. there are also plenty that donât. so do whatever you want with your characterâs dialogue, and donât let someone on the internet tell you that you canât or that you shouldnât.
     alsoââ i just wanted to point out that, as someone said in their tags on this post, the fact that this post literally says HEY YâALL COME ON INSIDE AND GET YOURSELF SOME SWEET TEA is more offensive than someone thatâs actually trying to write a decent accent. talk about stereotyping. :)
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