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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Wicked Wednesday - sexy accents

I love nothing more than a man with an accent. It makes me weak in the knees. A lot of paranormal romance involves old beings like vampires, demons, and gods from hundreds or even thousands of years ago. They have old accents, or even just European ones. Sometimes the characters are from our modern day and from the southern US or from a little island in the ocean. Any way to get that butterflies-in-the-tummy feel from an accent.

Yet it isn't easy to write accents. In fact, if you aren't intimately familiar with the one, don't do it. A badly written accent is a turn off. You don't want your Scottish vampire in the kilt to sound like he's from London. If you're going to give it a go, make sure you research the accent and the dialect. Different regions have several.

A recent article in Romance Writers Report (RWR) listed a number of great sites to help when writing accents and dialects. Here's a few for you:

I do my best to avoid writing characters with accents. I might have a light British one, but that's only because I watch at a lot of the BBC and grew up with neighbors who were from England.

Have you ever written a character with an accent? Was it one you knew or did you have to research it?

26 comments:

  1. I tend not to think too much about accents, though I agree, accents are HOT! I may be writing an Irish character into the Game On series at some point, though. :D

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    1. I love a good Irish accent. They can be tricky to do.

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  2. Accents are really hard to do. I live in the South and I have to admit, I couldn't read a book featuring heavy Southern accents.

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  3. I love Southern accents in TV shows, though I've never come across good accents in books. You're right, it is very hard to do.

    Thanks for the links though, that's an excellent resource.

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    1. Sometimes accents are hard to read. It's one thing listening to them, but whole other thing to read them.

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  4. Thanks for the great links! I'm going to check these out right now because I'm currently writing a character with a German accent.

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  5. Accents are so tricky to pull off without putting the reader off... but if done well, it can be awesome. thanks for sharing the great links.

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    1. You're welcome! I get so worried about proper spelling and grammar, I never write accents well.

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  6. According to what Kindle and Nook have learned from eReaders, the most attractive male for women readers speaks with a European accent, has black hair, green eyes, and looks to be in his early thirties. Spooky that our ebooks have been reading us!

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  7. I only recently wrote characters with accents. Indian accents to be more specific, which I'm an expert on since my parents and extended family have them. They also have a tendency to confuse words, which leads to hilarious moments.

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    1. You must have a whole treasure trove worth there! :)

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  8. Thanks for these great links!

    I've written characters with accents, though I don't go nuts with their dialogue, peppering with apostrophes and trying to phonetically get across the sound of their voices. I do try to use expressions that are common in their native lands, rather than put Americanisms in their mouths, which does require a fair bit of research. I'm trying to think up a good example and am failing, but here's a "for instance": Americans say, "Thanks," where Brits'll commonly offer "Cheers." Or, if my story's set in the UK, I won't have a native saying she's going to the liquor store, because over there it's called an "off-license" (or "offy"). Sorta like that. :-)
    Some Dark Romantic

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    1. It definitely is the little details that matter. I had no idea a liquor store was called an offy. Neat!

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  9. i too love accents but probably would have a hard a time writing a character with one :)

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    1. I've tried it before and I couldn't do it. It was like some horrible caricature!

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  10. I love accents too. I think using a few select phrases from the dialect can be just enough to give the hint of an accent in a novel.

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    1. I like the hint of one as well. Though I think I like the sound of it in my head even more! *LOL*

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  11. I love accents. If I write one, I usually just give a glimpse of how it's different and then write the dialogue and thought from that character in the regular way with a word here and there. I do try to pay attention to the cadence and match that with what I hear in my head. Anything else becomes too distracting.

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  12. You just handed me an amazing gift. I've been struggling with a book where they flee to Europe, but it is a different post-war England. I've been stressed about dialect. I hope to look through all of these. Thank you!

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  14. Yes, I do agree that accents are so sexy. I especially love men from Ireland, the movie PS I love you comes to mind.
    I have never thought about writing an accent, so interesting and it never crossed my mind. Thanks for that great bit of info.

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