Dialogue: Authenticity vs. Accessibility

I try to take the nice safe middle ground. Really first-rate slang becomes dated before my book hits the stores (in my dreams!), but longer-lasting, less cool slang is both more accessible to the un-hip (i.e., people who read a lot?) and less likely to make my book laughably out of sync with how people talk any time soon.

I long to be the Richard Price of dialogue. He hits a balance I consider damned near perfect. Ever read "Clockers"?

Maryn, whose dialogue is okay-to-good

Jcomp said:

Do you or don't you attempt to use appropriate slang / vernacular for the characters it would apply to, even if it might make it a little bit more difficult for the reader to initially understand some of what was said?

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Since you excluded completely impenetrable slang, I'd say yes, go for it. I certainly do. I just make sure it's pretty clear from context what the person is referring to, at least the first time I use it.

Do you mean authentic in using dialect like using the accent Eliza Doolittle had in My Fair Lady before the professor taught her "proper" English? Currently I don't have any characters who have a strong accent or dialect to that extent. (They speak "normal" English.) I'd probably use a smattering of it if I did. But not so much that the reader would be reaching for a translator or dictionary just to understand what was being said.

However, I do try and make my dialogue work as if you could step into a room as they were speaking and feel they were real people having a real conversation. Ok, maybe not with all the "ums" and "huh", etc. I think I'm doing a good job at that as several people have commented favorably on it.

My job as a writer is to do all the hard work so the reader just has to experience the story.

Of course, my preference is a balance between the two, but if I have to choose, authencity loses every time.

Jcomp said:

Do you or don't you attempt to use appropriate slang / vernacular for the characters it would apply to,

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I do, I do. A lot.

Using phrases or slang words that are appropriate to age, background etc is how I vary speech and identify my characters. And differentiate between them.

For example, an upper-class Brit might refer to someone's outfit as being "extremely elegant". Whereas a teenager from a few streets away might say "that's a tasty bit of kit".

I write dialgoue the way people speak, inlcuding slang and pronunciation

HeaGrg said:

I write dialgoue the way people speak, inlcuding slang and pronunciation

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Word.

I think using the right slang and vocabular makes the character more believable and does more to further the story then hurt it.

Writers like Stephen Crane, or Mark Twain did it, so, why wouldn't you do it? you should read the adventures of huck finn by Twain, in that story dialogues have a big importance, and they slang, etc... it might help you with the technique on how to do it.

Good Luck with your WIP

A little bit goes a long way. Go for verisimilitude, but don't sacrifice clarity or force your readers to close the book.

I'm okay with it as long as it's just color for the story and not the dominant flavor of dialog and narrative. Too much and I think you risk narrowing your appeal regardless of how well the rest of it is.

I try for a middle ground. For instance, in my WIP, I've consistently used "woulda" in place of "would've." It sets a tone for the way the character talks, but I think it's readily apparent to readers what it means. Other "Okie-isms" I describe once, but don't actually alter the spelling of the words in question.

As for slang, I'm having fun because there are two scenes that take place in the 80's involving the narrator as a teenaged boy, so I get to use some ridiculous slang.

Jcomp said:

Do you or don't you attempt to use appropriate slang / vernacular for the characters it would apply to, even if it might make it a little bit more difficult for the reader to initially understand some of what was said?

I'm not talking about completely impenetrable slang like the jive-talking brothers in the movie Airplane! or anything. But enough to make the dialogue come off as authentically as possible, counting on the reader to pick up on it pretty quickly given the context of usage.

What's your stance?

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This made me LOL!

Write for the reader, not for yourself (the author). In other words, go with what Ray (Maestro) said.

maestrowork said:

A little bit goes a long way. Go for verisimilitude, but don't sacrifice clarity or force your readers to close the book.

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There is a balance that have to be respected. Ideally you want your book to be understandable in 30 years and the way people really speak is repetitive, full of interruptions, confusing and verbose.

I'm extremely against reproducing pronunciation, unless pronunciation matters for the story. Otherwise it's harder to read, irritating and unnecessary. Why write 'goin'' instead of 'going'? A lot of people don't pronounce the final 'g' and it's correct and perfectly acceptable. And no matter how you say it, it's still the same word, which is 'going', with a final 'g'.

My characters simply don't tend to use tons of weird slang and lingo when speaking. When they do it's usually just generic slang that just about everybody understands. The only time I remember stumping readers was when I had a character use the word "ob," which I thought was understood to mean "obvious," but I guess I must've made that one up because nobody got it. Oh. Another time was use of the word "fudgie," which is Michigan slang for a tourist; of course lots of people didn't get that. But I don't tend to use weird slang, nobody I know does, so my characters don't tend to, either.

More often my characters might just use terms that aren't understood or widely known, because I have some different cultures and such, but these are normally explained in context.

I loathe dialect writing so I don't engage in it. Even if I had somebody with a strong Southern drawl, for example, I'd write most of his dialogue normally, maybe dropping an N here and there, and assume that the reader understands he's speaking with an accent. *shrug*

I say both. I like a good balance. Too much slang and "dialect" can be distracting. But too little m makes text feel cardboard. Since I've been focusing on sci-fi lately, it also makes using slang tricky as it doesn't always fit with the alternate universe.

75% authentic, 25% accessible.
But this does NOT include much slang, because of setting and language (i dont write in English). I believe the word choice is more important than the slang to reflect realistic dialogue.

When I read English literature I hate the slang, unless is just a few easy words like nuthin'.

Don't bump the reader out of the story. If your slang makes the reader stop to figure out what the word means, you've popped him out of the story. To me, that is the #1Cardinal sin. If your prose takes the reader out of his life and puts him into your story, you have accomplished what every fiction writer strives for. Don't do anything that will endanger that.

When the character first speaks, I'll use more slang to show the reader they talk funny, and I make mention that they talk funny because... but then I tone it down and only sprinkle enough slang in the dialog throughout to remind them. I know I hate reading things dense with slang.

I'm vehemently against phonetic pronunciation (not to be confused with diction or syntax).

It's confusing, cryptic, and (as Mad Queen said) irritating. Ever see an exercise in which the letters are all jumbled, with the exception of the first and last letter in each word? Rather, "Eevr see an erexsciee in wchih the lrettes are all jbumlbed, wtih the epcetixon of the fsirt and lsat lteetr in ecah wrod?" Most people can still read that mashed up sentence. Human brains interpret every word as a single unit or whole, not letter by letter. So "Ayhum saylluhn flawrns, seh!" doesn't register as, "I'm selling flowers, sir!" It's instead a confusing mess that takes more than double the usual time for our brains to interpret. Hence the irritation.

It also often reveals biases in the author by discriminating against certain backgrounds. An example, from my experience, is that writers will give Scots or the Irish phonetic language, but leave the English with pristine and proper language. Same goes for a Southern accent (especially slaves) opposing the perfect English of a New Englander. These just aren't accurate; all accents are equally distinct, if you're using phonetic dialogue.

I also don't have the energy as a writer. I definitely don't have it as a reader. If I pick up a book and see "goin'" or "sista'", I put it back down, because I dread having to trudge through 300 pages of this forced effort. Even visually, it's unappealing; "I'm goin'" is imbalanced. Open quote; apostrophe + close quote.

I can't agree with the "Hey, Crane and Twain did it!" sentiment. They were gifted masters of their craft, living in a different context and time in history. I'm not Crane or Twain.

...So yeah. My thoughts.

I don't use a lot of slang myself in 'real life,' and neither do most of my friends & family. The characters I am using in my current WIP don't use slang either.

However, I have the workings of a young adult novel in my mind, and I'm going to have to rethink my dialog to relate to a teen audience. I dread this.

selkn.asrai said:

I'm vehemently against phonetic pronunciation (not to be confused with diction or syntax).

It's confusing, cryptic, and (as Mad Queen said) irritating. Ever see an exercise in which the letters are all jumbled, with the exception of the first and last letter in each word? Rather, "Eevr see an erexsciee in wchih the lrettes are all jbumlbed, wtih the epcetixon of the fsirt and lsat lteetr in ecah wrod?" Most people can still read that mashed up sentence. Human brains interpret every word as a single unit or whole, not letter by letter. So "Ayhum saylluhn flawrns, seh!" doesn't register as, "I'm selling flowers, sir!" It's instead a confusing mess that takes more than double the usual time for our brains to interpret. Hence the irritation.

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Agreed. About as far as I'll go with things like that are "gotta'" and "shoulda'" and i even avoid them in most cases.