Question for DW fic writers

[jedi_penguin]

To accent or not to accent? I'm working on my Two ficathon story and Jamie is stumping me a bit. I can clearly hear his voice in my head, but I'm a bit self-conscious about writing down exactly what I hear. What do you guys do?

Poll

Comments

[malnpudl]

I'm not a DW fan, but I've read and written in a number of fandoms where characters speak with one accent or another, and I've come to a passionately held belief that I've found to be widely shared:

DO NOT try to write the accent. Write his vocabulary, but NOT the accent. Your readers know what he sounds like. Trying to translate this into text will only annoy them.

I've seen a lot of people over the years say that this is one of the things that will make them automatically hit the Back button and refuse to read a story.

[jedi_penguin]

See, there are a few accents I lke to see but only if they're done really, really well. I don't have confidence in my ability to do it really, really well, so you just told me exactly what I wanted to hear. Thank you!

[gileswench]

I agree with Mal, here. Follow the speech patterns but don't try to write the accent, per se. Make it come across with word choices and characteristic behavior (if it wears a red coat, Jamie will attack it, etc.).

Think of it like writing Spike. Yes, you'll throw in an occasional 'Oy' or 'bugger', but you don't drop your aitches when you're writing him or it just gets annoying to read.

[jedi_penguin]

Personally, I find an overabundance of "buggers" more annoying than dropped aitches for Spike, but the point is taken. Moderation in all things and no attempts at accents: gotcha. Since that was what I wanted to do anyway, I'm quite happy with this advice. Thank you!

[pontisbright]

I tend to hear the dialogue in my head (and on occasion speak it out loud in doubtless a hideous parody of their accents), but I don't write it phonetically. I'll use certain dialect words or phrases that seem to me accurate or typical of that accent, or more specifically the actors' performances, but not try to write in the elisions etc that they involve - so I'd have Jamie saying 'do you ken?' for 'do you understand?', but not 'd'ye ken?'. And I might sometimes avoid something that seemed like it was larding on the 'regional' element, because sometimes it gets a bit out of hand

[jedi_penguin]

I might sometimes avoid something that seemed like it was larding on the 'regional' element, because sometimes it gets a bit out of hand.

And this is what I'm really afraid of! I don't mind always mind this from others (though sometimes I do), but I'm terrified of doing that myself.

(Oh, and you know that Scouse = Liverpool = England, yes? He's got an Irish family background - lots of Irish in Liverpool - but his accent is a regional English one.)

No, I didn't know that. I've heard you calling him Scouse but have always been a little shy to ask exactly what that meant. Since he mentions his grandmother being Irish in The Settling, I thought that Scouse was some particular area in Ireland that had a different regional accent than the typical brogue one. *is informed now*

I'm hopelessly pleased at the idea of someone writing either one of them, however, so yay for that. :)Does that mean you'd be willing to beta? I was planning on asking you anyway when I got further along, but I might as well do so now. Jamie and Hex are

[pontisbright]

I know exactly what you mean - I'm quite forgiving about things when other people do them, but get ridiculously strict with myself...

Glad to have cleared up the Scouse thing: no reason why you should've known (and do kick me when I'm being incomprehensible about British things). Yep, Liverpudlians are known as Scousers and the accent is Scouse.

Jamie and Hex are currently having a pissing contest over who is the real Doctor

*has fangirl embollism* So long as it isn't for me, I'd LOVE to beta! It sounds marvellous. :)

[phlegethon_vii]

Now that's a toughy.

I've read fics which have written out the accents and done it quite well, and I've read fics that have written accents that took me completely out of the story coz I was too busy trying to decipher what the characters were saying.

When writing I tend to stick to mentioning the accent in a descriptive, and maybe using a bit of dialect to reinforce the point. Seven, who I write exclusively for in DW fandom (coz I is focussed, lol) has an accent, but it doesn't get written, aside from the occasional mad attack with the R key (which actually can get quite distracting when rrreading, so use sparingly), and a nice clear notation that OMG he be Scottish-like.

So with Jamie, I reckon using dialect might be the better option. And with Hex...meh, just kill the bastard off. Bloody third wheel messing with my Seven'n'Ace dynamic *grumbles* :p

[jedi_penguin]

Seven is easier to write, because his accent is only REALLY distinctive when he wants it to be. Sometimes he rolls hs Rs and you know it's deliberate, but the rest of the time it's in the background. One thing that I'd love to reflect is the way he sometimes clips his words (mostly because I love that!), but that's impossible to show phoenetically.

Jamie, on the other hand, never lets you forget his accent. I suspect it's because Frazier Hines is actually English and he worked hard on that accent, but whatever the reason, he never lets it slip. It's always there and in your face, which is why I was wondering whether folks thought I absolutely had to include it. The consensus seems to be that I don't have to, so I won't. This is a relief!

And with Hex...meh, just kill the bastard off. Bloody third wheel messing with my Seven'n'Ace dynamic *grumbles* :p*sticks tongue out at you* I like Hex. Seven and Ace wanted a child to cement their relationship, but their life is a bit hectic for a Time Tot. It makes perfect sense to me

[livii]

Sorry to drop in on an old conversation - but I was looking at your journal and was interested in this post. And then I saw this:

Seven and Ace wanted a child to cement their relationship, but their life is a bit hectic for a Time Tot. It makes perfect sense to me that they'd adopt a naïve young man.

And almost died from laughing. Oh, man! That's so awesome. I ship Ace/Hex pretty fanatically, but this is another extremely excellent way of looking at it. ;)

[jedi_penguin]

I'm not really using my personal journal any more, but people are always welcome to drop in if they like!

I ship Ace/Hex pretty fanatically

I can definitely see that, but I'm a sucker for one-way crushes. Of course, if I had the visual image of Hex and Ace touching as often as Seven touches Ace, I might very well 'ship for a happy ending instead...

Re: OT ahead...

[jedi_penguin]

Hurray! I'm so glad you liked it! I had an awful lot of fun making it.