On Writing Dialect, Part 1

In Today's Journal

* Quote of the Day
* On Writing Dialect, Part 1
* On Those Stupid Red Hyperlinks
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

My Thought of the Day

I woke up at 2:30 a.m., grinning ear to ear and fired up to race back to the Hovel so I could leap over the parapet and into the trenches of the novel with my friends.

But owing to a burned-our lightbulb, then a shower, then answering emails and working on a new series for TNDJ, by the time I finally started cycling through what I wrote yesterday, it was already 10:45. A full 8-hour workday gone, and I hadn't even started.

I'm not complaining. Writing fiction still beats any day gig I ever had.

Writing Effective Dialect, Part 1

With this post, I'm going to begin a deep dive into writing dialect.

Take it from me, if you write dialect effectively, it will add a whole other level of depth to your story. It will engage your readers more quickly and pull them more deeply into the tale. They have to be 'in' the story to pay attention to the dialect.

Combined with the POV character's effective description and opinions of the characters and setting, dialect will make the reader feel as if he's actually IN the story with the characters.

A Brief Introduction

When writers who are new to the concept first think of writing dialect it, they generally entertain two possibilities:

• Using phonetic spellings

• Using truncated words

There are a couple of other ways to effect dialect too. I'll talk about each way in a different post in this series. As is always the case when talking about the nuances of language, there will be some overlap.

Also, despite my characterization of this series as a "deep dive," at the end of the series I still will have only skimmed the surface of all the nuances of writing dialect.

Let me just say up front,

Don't Try Writing Dialect At All unless you can 'hear' the character's speech patterns in your head as you're writing.

If you can say the words aloud, even if you have to carefully sound them out as you go, so much the better. That will help set them in your mind. One effective way to practice hearing the character's speech patterns in your head is to repeat aloud any dialect you might hear on TV or out in public.

The point is, if you can't hear the character's intonations in your head, you can't write dialect effectively. And if you write dialect that is not effective, you'll kick your reader out of the story.

Finally, if you try to think your way through writing dialect, the dialect will definitely not be effective. Chances are, you'll overthink it. Plus the fact that you're thinking your way through it (conscious mind) will stall your writing or stop it cold.

So why write dialect at all?

Because as I mentioned at the top, if you write it correctly, dialect will invite the reader into the story and add a whole other level of depth.

But if you're "off" even a little, the reader might close your book and find something else to do. Just bear in mind that's always a possibility. The one huge rule of writing fiction is Never Interrupt the Reading of Your Own Work.

That said, most readers don't mind reading dialect. Many actually enjoy it, albeit usually in limited doses.

One great 'formula' is to have a conversation between one character who speaks dialect and one who doesn't. The non-dialect speaking character’s responses will the reader's understanding.

Most readers don't mind even slowing down a little to read dialect, but they don't want to work to understand it. They're reading to be entertained, not to work at figuring out what the character said.

If the reader has to stop to "figure out" what the character's saying, you've defeated your own purpose (to entertain) and you'll pull the reader out of the story.

Using Phonetic Spellings or Truncation

is labor intensive, even for someone who's been writing dialect for a very long time. Once you begin using either phonetic spellings or truncation, you have to keep up with it through the entire story or novel.

I cycle over segments where a character's speaking dialect several times, and even then I still miss some words.

Fortunately, when you "miss" changing the normal spelling of an English word to a truncated or phonetic spelling, readers who are at depth in the story either don't notice or are very forgiving as long as you don't "miss" too often.

So as always, writing a great opening and grounding the reader at the beginning of every chapter or major scene (and some lesser scenes) is essential.

That said,

1. Staying on track with phonetic spellings is difficult, but you can manage it. Word's Find & Replace feature, if you use it carefully, can help in that regard. It's also a good idea to create a style sheet to help keep you on track. (More on this in the next post.)

2. Staying on track with truncated words is even more difficult. Not only must you keep up with it, but you have to consider who the character is speaking to as well as the character's stress level etc. in each situation.

Next up, Writing Effective Dialect, Part 2. In that post, I'll talk about writing dialect using phonetic spellings.

On Those Stupid Red Hyperlinks

In the first item I linked to in Of Interest, I had to actually drag my mouse over the links to highlight them (turning them into white letters on a blue background) so I could read them.

Listen, if you publish a newsletter or anything else that contains hyperlinks—and if you want people to be able to actually read the links and click through—set the color of the links to blue or black. Anything but red.

Red links, especially small red links, are extremely difficult to read on any background (as you will see, especially on a dark grey background).

Why would anyone want to make reading a link more difficult? Especially if you're advertising something and you want people to click through and read? Just a word to the wise.

Of Interest

Self-Published Book Awards This post covers all categories. I recommend neither for nor against this contest. Just passing along the information.

Annual Writing Competition Ditto my note above.

24 Great Prize Ideas for Book Promotion Contests and Giveaways Also lots of great "swag" marketing ideas.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………… 320

Writing of Blackwell Ops 40: John Staple

Day 1…… 3397 words. To date…… 3397
Day 2…… 1651 words. To date…… 5048
Day 3…… 1960 words. To date…… 7008
Day 4…… 1777 words. To date…… 8785

Fiction for March…………………….. 56577
Fiction for 2025………………………. 242388
Nonfiction for March……………........ 18420
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 72350
2025 consumable words…………….. 308228

Average Fiction WPD (March)……... 2828

2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 6
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 110
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 281
Short story collections……………………. 29

Disclaimer: Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.

Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.

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• On Writing Fiction

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Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.