Tag Archives: authentic dialog

Today’s Writing Tip

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Creating characters that stand out can be a challenge. One way you can add color to your characters is by giving them a regional accent. This will automatically have an influence on their personality as readers will associate them with someone they already know from that locale. If they don’t, then they get to meet one through your character. How fun is that?

Capture their accent in writing by deliberately misspelling their dialog to reflect how it sounds phonetically. This is most easily done if you’re familiar with the accent. For example, I have lived in Texas for over thirty years, so I definitely know what someone from Texas sounds like, y’all!

If you really want to get into this, which also requires intimate knowledge of the region, you can add colloquialisms specific to the area. A few here in the Lone Star State include such things as “I was up all night like a tree full of owls” (insomnia) or “When he got home late, she was on him like white on rice” (chewed him out). These can often add some comic relief as well as further defining your character.

Today’s Writing Tip

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One thing that’s important if a novel is going to sound convincing is for the occupations of the character(s) to sound authentic. I remember beta reading a story many years ago where the main character worked as a computer programmer, yet everything about it was inaccurate. I have done some programming before and immediately recognized that the author didn’t have a clue what she was talking about. That definitely did not make the book credible much less impress me with the author’s dedication to accuracy.

Okay, I’m a bit of a break about those things, but it makes a big difference. Assuming your reader won’t know the difference is a BIG MISTAKE. Some of us do, and it will result in a abysmal review and someone who will probably never read another thing you write.

Now that I have my rant out of the way, the point of today’s tip is that every occupation has its own jargon. Use enough in character dialog to sound authentic, but don’t boggle the reader’s mind with too many acronyms. That, of course, is going too far the other way. A few are okay, but even then the reader may appreciate it if you remind them from time to time what they stand for.