1 / 5

Writing With An Accent

Writing With An Accent. A Dialogue Exercise. Some Advice: Accents.

loc
Download Presentation

Writing With An Accent

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Writing With An Accent A Dialogue Exercise

  2. Some Advice: Accents • In writing dialogue, a small amount of slang or trendy expressions can add flavor, but it can also date your story. Rather than trying to imitate an accent: “Theeseeezeeet?” Hint at it with a different sentence structure or inflection: “It is this, no? “

  3. More Advice: Dialogue Tags • If your characters are well drawn, your reader will usually know who is speaking, so not every speech will have to carry a name tag. Remember: people don’t use each other’s proper names a lot in conversation (normally). • Speaking Adverbially: If Josie’s words are, “Help! I’m drowning!” Is it necessary to add she exclaimed? If it is important for Josie to exclaim whatever she has to say, certainly she does not need to exclaim excitedly. • Use words other than said when they are important to the meaning, whispered, shouted, and yes, exclaimed. But be sure the verb fits the words.

  4. The Exercise • Write a scene in which at least one of your characters has a distinct accent. Let your audience hear this accent in the character’s speech as they have a conversation with someone else. Avoid phonetic spelling and try to convey the accent as subtly as possible. Avoid creating caricatures or exaggerating certain traits (no lucky charms accent, avoid the obvious clichés). These characters should feel as real as possible, they simply have a distinct speech pattern.

  5. Requirements • Minimum 1&1/2 Pages • Minimum 2 characters (more ok) • Minimal narration. NO SCRIPT FORMAT. No character descriptions or intro, just dive into the action. • Subject of conversation is writer’s choice.

More Related