The Sparrow's Nest

Today I have a guest, Scarlett R. Algee, a fantastic writer and editor coming to you with some seriously good tips on writing dialect. Let me cut to the chase so you can learn and enjoy! Scarlett’s Tips: Thoughts on Writing Dialect Oh, dialect. An excellent way to add color and dimension to your characters’ speech, but so very hard to write well, and so easy to write badly/offensively. Let’s take a short look at what dialect is, what it isn’t, what some examples can look like, and what you can do to use it more effectively. What Dialect Is, and Isn’t Dialect is the set of grammatical and verbal distinctions that sets speakers of a language in one region apart from speakers of the same language in another region. It’s why your relatives in Maine may have a somewhat different vocabulary than your relatives in California. It’s why speakers of British English tend to say “got” as the past tense of “get,” rather than the “gotten” of American English. It’s why we have not-at-...

They say a writer's life is challenging and frustrating, but seriously, for a real writer, writing is an escape. For a writer, escaping to another world isn't limited to books written by other people. A writer can escape any time and go anywhere. Rejection letters always suck, brains get hurt, and we go dark for weeks at a time and don't see people. That's okay, though. Most writers can't stand people for too long. In fact, it's the people AROUND us that makes life frustrating. 1. Loser: "What do you do?" Writer: "I write." Loser: "Don't you have a real job?" Writer: "I thought you were a real person. Never mind." Seriously, what IS that supposed to mean? 2. Loser: "You're a writer?" Writer: "Yeah!" Loser: "How much do you get paid?" Writer: "I get paid in knuckle sandwiches. Do you want one, nosy?" What kind of an impertinent question is that? Have ...