When a character has an accent, how do you write it?

[Sionevar]

Curious to know how other fanfic writers handle writing Trek characters with accents.

When you are writing Scotty, do you write his dialogue in Scots e.g. by having him say 'I cannae dae that Cap'n!' instead of 'I can't do that, Captain'.

Ditto for Doctor McCoy and his southern charms :-)

When I write Scotty, I use some Scottish slang terms e.g. having him call someone a numpty, but it's mostly 'regular' English. I'm not at all familiar with the Georgian accent, and don't really know what word choices people from Georgia would make (whereas I'm pretty familiar with Scots) so I sometimes struggle to write McCoy accurately.

Are there any other characters this applies to? How have you all approached the issue?

 

[SolarisOne]

"I cannae do that, Captain."

 

[DarKush]

I don't really write accents or dialect. I usually might mention where a person is from if it's germane to describing the character but that's about it. Though to this point I haven't used Scotty or McCoy or even Trip in any of my stories. If I did, I would look to Trek Lit. for examples. For alien cultures, or even sometimes with human characters, I will put alien words for things, or alien curse words or insults in my dialogue.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I've written a character with a strong Texan accent before and it's hellish

There are some sites out there with information on writing accents, but it can be difficult to do. I found I had to write out his dialogue in proper English and then go back and butcher it. Not really sure if it added to the character or not.

 

[Sgt_G]

Not really sure if it added to the character or not.

As a reader, it doesn't. You said "butcher it", which I feel is an apt description. Too often, writers try to create the "proper" accent and end up making it near impossible to figure out what the character is actually saying, kind of like that guy in BRAVE.

There is this:

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[DavidFalkayn]

I generally don't write accents. I just simply say that the character is speaking with a distinct accent and let the reader take it from there.

 

[psCargile]

A word here and there, and then stop when readers get the idea. If it's hard to write, it's hard to read.

There are books on how to write dialogue on Amazon. I just read one.

Elmore Leonard suggests to not bother in his ten rules for writing. Google it.

 

[Sionevar]

A word here and there, and then stop when readers get the idea. If it's hard to write, it's hard to read.

There are books on how to write dialogue on Amazon. I just read one.

Elmore Leonard suggests to not bother in his ten rules for writing. Google it.

That's the strategy I've been using until now - write the dialogue in 'normal' English, then add some accented words here and there to give the reader an idea of where the person is from and how they might sound. Seems to work well enough :-)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Good luck writing out accents like this...

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[Butters]

For a character as well known as Scot or Chekhov, with equally famous phrases. I’d write out the accent.

For a new character, if having an accent was even important, or there was comedy mileage in it, I’d write the proper English in the dialogue tags, but add on some description and context, something like:

‘A cup of tea please’ the green blob replied, though to Jim’s ear, it sounded much more like kepperty plez, but the blobian accent always had grated on his ear.

 

[sekundant]

Well, I hope it is not to late to answer. I never wrote fanfiction and I don't believe I would someday, but I became a good/passionate reader. I have to say as a non native English speaker, it is ok to read characters with accent, if I can still understand what they are talking about. Although, it is disturbing if the character speaks sometimes with very heavy accent then her/his next sentence is spoken with finest Oxford English. It makes the character unbelievable and I am not happy with authors realization of figure .

 

[Llmanagh]

I think if you have a problem with this you can easily solve it by getting help and support and can even take advantage of a free plagiarism checker. Here you can get professional help on such and event issues, so do not waste time, and if you need help with writing accents and other things, try to do it this way.

Spam link removed.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

IMHO, they should not write Chekov's accent. It just looks too weird when they do that.

Write Scotty's accent if they must, just not Chekov's.

 

[admiralelm11]

I try to imagine the accent in my head and speak it out loud when I write that character.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

I generally mention the accent, but write their dialogue in standard English - only altering word choice according to the accent. Admiral Serge Mykel Chekov might say, "Such price fame, yes?"

Someone else might hear him say "wary good?" But when I'm representing what he's actually saying, it will be "very good?"

I mention Ensign Tolon's singsong accent from his decades in Bangalore, India - but I don't try to represent it in his dialogue other than word choice - and the occasional exclamation in Hindi.

Thanks!! rbs