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

[ultra-chrome.livejournal.com]

I'm all for dialogue being written like true speech to an extent. Wanna, gotta, that sort of stuff. It can make or break a character. Particularly when you have one character that speaks like that and another who will always say "want to" and "going to".

It helps to define them as well as giving you more options. For instance, if the character that usually says, "I'm not gonna do that." suddenly spits out, "I am not going to do that!" you know he really, really means it.

I draw the line at accents, though. One of my fandoms has a guy with a very distinct accent and I find it off putting when people try to write it the way it sounds. For the most part, it's very difficult to write the sounds. The other major problem is, you spend more time trying to figure out what those letters spell than you do reading the actual story. I can supply the accent in my head, I just want to know what the character has to say.

Also...I love ellipses. They're valid punctuation tools. They have their place. Not to mention the fact that you can't get by without them if you write Ray Kowalski. :)