Writing Dialect

[Cordelia]

So, this is a question for all you writer-types. When you're writing a character with an accent, how do you convey that accent in print?

Do you add it in to the dialogue tags, like this:

"Don't you even think of touching me," she said, her Irish brogue thickening in the heat of her anger.

Or do you add it right in to the dialogue itself:

"Aye," said Captain One-eye, "yer all gonna start diggin', cads. The treasure ain't gonna find itself."

Personally, I try to do a little of both (what can I say, I'm a fence-sitter ;) ). So, I might work in a "gonna" or "y'all," but I stay away from too much dialect in the actual quotation. Though it might help create a more vivid character, it also becomes a struggle to read.

Thoughts?

[Arawn]

I have a preference for the latter, all difficulty in reading be damned. It adds to the immersion of the thread. A mixture of the two works great, though.

Adding in the kind of accent after the dialogue is a good way to hint to readers how it should sound in their minds.

[Letho]

The first one is a safe bet while the other one is somewhat of a risk, the way I see it. It's much easier to simply state that something is said with a specific accent than it is to show it, and you can get away with pretty much anything like that. On the flip side, going for the second option can certainly enrich your writing if done the right way, but also mess everything up considerably if it's not. Personally, unless I'm absolutely sure how somebody with an accent should sound, I play it safe and go for the first option.

A lot depends on the particular accent as well. If I'm, for example, trying to show the reader that the character has an accent specific to the southern region of Corone, I'll probably go for the first option because it's basically Tradespeak/English with a slightly different accent. On the flip side, if I'm going for a tipsy dwarf asking for more ale... Well, we all know what that sounds like. ;)

[Shadowed]

This is difficult when using imaginary dialects, as no one really knows what they sound like. However, there are many tricks to use with real-world dialects to get the point across. For example, someone speaking with a Texan accent is going to use words like "howdy" and "ma'am", far more than anyone else. You don't need to write "Well howdy thar ma'am, it's a bee-yoteeful day."

[Yari Rafanas]

I prefer the latter, but I always suck at it. Sounds silly whenever I read it and kinda causes a serious thread to turn not so. There are complications for both and when it comes down to it, you'll have to choose which works best with your style.

[Taskmienster]

I write with a character called Garwocket... and his accent is ridiculous... but there's absolutely no way to express it correctly without writing it out the second way. For example, here's his profile... the way the first part and the dialect that its written in is the way I write with his dialogue all the time.

http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=4697