clichés (BEING RE-WRITTEN)

Cliche 40//. Typing Exactly How the Character Speaks

That was a long title, but stay with me.

I was just looking back at the chapter about unrealistic stutters because someone commented and I was reading it, as one does, and I remembered that every time I read a book and a person has an accent that is different to the MC's, it's usually spelled out... in the accent..?

I'm not sure how to word that. Here, let me just give you an example.

EXAMPLE
"The woman spoke in a slow, southern drawl.
'hAy YaW'lL, hAeW'rE yAw'Ll DeWiN'?'"

I think I'm funny.

Okay anyways, don't do that. One, it's incredibly hard to understand sometimes, and two, it's going to be impossible to take them seriously if they sat something serious.

The same goes for someone with, say, a speech impediment, or a lisp of some sort. Please don't say,

"hey guyth, want thome water?"

There are different types of lisps. Some people may pronounce the s and c sounds like "th," or they may pronounce them as "sh," or "ch" sounds. Either way, nobody wansh shome water.

I'm so sorry-

As for speech impediments, some people can't pronounce their r's and instead say w's. Some people can't pronounce sounds that are made in the back of the mouth, like k or g, and some people have trouble pronouncing simple words.

Whatever they have, however they talk, etc., please know when to type how they speak and when to simply describe it and type normally. For example, only describe their accent, don't type exactly how they speak.

If they have a lisp, you may want to type normally, as sometimes it's hard to undershtand whatsh going on when you type like thith, and it's hard to stay serious.

If they have a speech impediment, for example, stuttering, you should type it out to make it more realistic. Just don't go too overboard.

These are all my opinions, so don't take my word for it if you don't want to. It's your story, not mine, and it's definitely not my job to decide how to make your characters speak.

Okay byee