Meta: The English Language (or, "How People Really Talk")

[catwalksalone]

MJ Panel Mod: RoaringMice

Discussion space - the floor is yours...

Potential points to consider:

What gets your goat when you read dialogue? Is it different for different fandoms, different characters? Why is that?

What, to you, is authentic dialogue? Where can you find it?

How do you feel about ellipses? Do people really talk in full sentences the whole time?

How do you feel about people representing accent or dialect in dialogue? What works for you and what doesn't?

Does the wrong turn of phrase or choice of word for a character throw you out of the story?

Do people have more trouble writing characters from other cultures? Is this just a matter of idiom or is there more to it?

Comments

[the_antichris.livejournal.com]

I've spent a lot of time (not by choice) watching reality TV, and I think I've got almost too used to the way people really talk. Not full sentences; not even comprehensible sentence structure, at times. So ellipses are invading my fic like the armies of darkness. Especially since my primary fandom has one main character who talks markedly more colloquially than the other. On the other hand, the interplay between the two speech styles is a lot of fun. :D

Accent and dialect - dialect words are fine, even necessary to convey character, but visual representation of accents or eye dialect sits wrong. It's assuming one accent is the norm, which, apart from being a faulty assumption, can often carry connotations of desirability and status.

And oh, wrong turns of phrase. I perpetrated a few of those before I realised I should get an American beta to kill all my NZ-isms, some of which I didn't even realise were NZ-isms. Thank goodness Fraser's Canadian so I don't have to watch my Commonwealth spelling and word choice so closely.