What Would You Do? Accents pc or not pc

[Rachel Caldecott]

What do you all do about writing accents? Do you bother?

 

[RK Capps]

I've never forgotten this:

Heavy use of dialect is frowned upon these days. Which means, readers frown when they read it, while editors and agents scowl. Which means use it sparingly and only for a strategic purpose.

Bell, James Scott. How to Write Dazzling Dialogue: The Fastest Way to Improve Any Manuscript (p. 111). Compendium Press. Kindle Edition.

 

[Tracey (T)]

I struggle with this one, even as I hear my characters speak in (often Irish) accents, trying to write them like that always seems forced.

 

[Rich.]

Give an impression, a few dialect words to fix the sound in the reader's mind, and then standard English.

I haven't the first idea how to approach this. I am vexed, vexed to exhaustion.​

​

I ain't got a Scooby. I'm stumped. And fricking knackered.​

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I like hints as to how a character speaks as a reader, so it's how I write—by inserting the occasional word written phonetically, as the character would have pronounced it. I've become more aware of the dilemma, as I'm narrating my crime novels, which include characters who are university-educated, others who are 'proper Cornish' with accents you could slice with a bread knife as well as foreigners from France, Germany, the USA, Afghanistan and India.
Using adjectives helps a bit, so long as you avoid clichés. When I introduced an Indian detective, I described his voice as 'sing-song', which I immediately deleted, as it might be accurate, but it's overused and marginally racist! Even my spellchecker doesn't like it, flagging a warning that 'it's childish.'

words used to describe someone s voice - synonyms and related words | Macmillan Dictionary

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

Hmmm, I thought I might be crossing a line, RK. I have French, Irish and German so far, I think I'm going to have to tread very carefully. (ie put them back into English, don't want people's knickers in a twist because I write ze instead of the for example. Thanks again, everyone.

 

[Ancora Imparo]

I have a strong Scottish accent and argued with an editor once who thought accents should be Anglicised to make them inoffensive (!!). A travel writer had portrayed a Jamaican man beautifully – his accent and syntax perfectly rendered. There was nothing disrespectful about the piece of writing – the man was lovely. But the editor turned him into a mini-Englishman. I almost got violent. She claimed she was being respectful to him by getting rid of his accent (sadly, this is the bad side of pc – she genuinely thought he was somehow 'less' because of his accent, and she was doing him a favour). I told her if she ever did it with me I'd cut the legs from under her. I like all accents in books, though if it's strong dialect it makes it difficult to read and so would curtail your readership, and that's never good.

 

[E G Logan]

What do you all do about writing accents? Do you bother?

I think it's a question of degree: is the accent a very strong one? with dialect words?

For example, I have written two West Coast Scots speaking together in a scene where no one else is British though all speak English. Partly not to be understood and partly for fun, they are speaking rapidly and colloquially.

There is no way that can be represented without accents. But, equally, it can't be fully (phonetically) accurate as few other people would understand and the reader would come to a perplexed dead halt.

 

[Hannah F]

I am Irish and am happy to read Irish accents in books. What really gets up my nose, though, is someone who writes "stage Irish". I don't so much find it insulting as ignorant and annoying. So, I suppose what matters is, if you include it, you must do it right.

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

I have no idea what stage Irish is
But I had better find out before I piss off my Irish friends

 

[Rich.]

I have no idea what stage Irish is
But I had better find out before I piss off my Irish friends

Top of the mornin' to ya, mine's a pint a Guiness. Now feck off before I make ya kiss the Blarney Stone.

Like that [Wikipedia link]. Awful caricature. Don't do it, kids.

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

Oh no. Nothing like that. I was thinking of just quoting my Irish friend, 'fucking gobshites' and all. He does swear a lot, but I don't believe he's ever said 'top of the mornin' to ya' . it is always far worse than that.