When writing, is it preferable to phonetically spell out accents and dialects or can I just write normally and make sure to mention that character is speaking in their own accent? Some of the popular ones are Hagrid's and Fleur's in Harry Potter if you are unsure what am I talking about.

P.S.
I hope this is correct place to ask this.

 

It's not easy, but the story feels better when you have the accents. I had to do some research on how to write Hagrid's accent for a competition entry once, and people seemed to appreciate the result. Characters are kind of supposed to have distinctive voices, even if they're all speaking in the same accent, and it's basically not possible to capture the distinctive voice of Hagrid without writing it in-accent.

 

How did you research it? Have you checked how JK wrote it or?

 

I think if you're going to phonetically spell out accents or dialects you have to make sure to do it consistently, and also make sure that how you phonetically spell it matches what you describe it to be. So make sure that the phonetic reading actually sounds French when you read it back etc.

I'd rather have just description than badly done accented writing.

Another potential issue with the accented writing is if the accent is too strong, it can render the character practically incomprehensible. Now, to be fair, that might be realistic to what they would sound like. But it can be very frustrating, and immersion shattering, to be staring at a row of practically random characters and having to puzzle out what the author meant.

However, a well done piece of accented writing really does give the characters much more...unique character.

One thing you can do, if you're struggling to convey accent phonetically, is use more descriptive language. Rather than saying "the Scotsman said", mention his "r's" being hard and emphasised in his anger, or him "spitting his t's" (which is how one DLPer described my accent). Talk about soft and hard sounds, elongated vowels, and slurred words.

 

I'd rather write no accent than try and butcher it. Or just insert a line in another language.

 

https://fictionalley.ikeran.org/authors/swissmiss/HTWHD01.html
This is a decent resource for Hagrid specifically. I should mention that if you're going to write it in-accent, it has to be done well. One of the most important things about it is not going overboard. The simplest thing to do is to read a lot of the characters' quotes and get an idea of how they express themselves.

 

Thank you. I probably won't bother wit h an accent, but still, it's good to have an option to do so for later.

 

When I had to do a Hagrid scene in VP I spent a bit of time looking at how JKR did it and put together a bit of a crib sheet:



https://forums.darklordpotter.net/threads/writing-hagrids-dialogue.38527/

 

I like to go fairly full on with it to start, and then once the reader has been exposed to it in its full glory, slowly reduce the amount of literal accent tics you include. The reader will be aware of the degree of the accent with every small nod to it, and you don't have to go full bore with it beyond the first introduction.

 

Not sure if I could efficiently pull that off, to be honest.

 

I tend to find accents annoying to write and read. I don't much mind Hagrid when it's kept legible, but when Fleur starts calling him "'Arry, that leetle boy" I start getting annoyed.

 

I'd say it's a balancing act. You really don't want to end up in a sityoo-ayshon wur yeh 'ave te spell-owt evry single wurd fown-ety-cal-y. Equally, you may want your obviously foreign person to be obviously foreign. Typically, I'd recommend throwing in just enough flavourful contractions or phonetic spellings to suggest the accent without labouring it.

 

People who go this hard on it deserve to be taken out back and shot.

 

I personally prefer to simply state that a character has, by way of example, a thick Irish accent, than try to phonetically spell anything. This obviously does not work with Hagrid, so Hagrid miraculously does not have a lot of screentime in my stories.

This also applies to fanfiction of anime, i generally limit the amount of honorifics and other indicators of the Japanese language. I assume knowledge of these aspects, although i will write characters calling each other by their last names.

 

It's a decision the author needs to make. There's a post on FictionAlley about JKR's decision to write Hagrid's dialect the way she did, and how you can replicate it. (EDIT: I just noticed that Silirt mentioned the same link.)

Lots of fanfic writers have decided not to spell out Hagrid's or Fleur's accents or to tone it down a lot, but lots of writers have also pulled off the dialect really well.

There are ways you can subtly help a reader hear a character's accent. This excerpt from "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman is great because it offers several different examples of ways a writer can do it:

Spoiler

"You are at Brakebills South." The man’s voice was oddly flat, with a slight Russian accent, and he didn’t look directly at Quentin when he talked.

...

"You are here to internalize the essential mechanisms of magic. You think"—his accent made it theenk—"that you have been studying magic." Medzhik. "You have practiced your Popper and memorized your conjugations and declensions and modifications."

...

The man muttered something, tapped once resonantly on the table, and the dishes began noisily arranging themselves into stacks as if they were magnetized. "You need to do more than memorize, Quentin. You must learn the principles of magic with more than your head. You must learn them with your bones, with your blood, your liver, your heart, your deek.“ He grabbed his crotch through his dressing gown and gave it a shake. “We are going to submerge the language of spellcasting deep into who you are, so that you have it always, wherever you are, whenever you need it. Not just when you’ve studied for a test."

...

Quentin listen to this in silence. He didn’t especially like this man, who had just referred to his penis and whose name he still didn’t know.

I used that scene for inspiration when I wrote this line in one of my stories that takes place in Italy:

Spoiler

Ted and Andromeda whirled around to see an older wizard standing in the doorway with his wand pointed straight at them.

“I wish you had not put me in this predicament,” he growled. He rolled his r’s slightly, wore a hat with a black feather in it, and had an airy white beard that quivered as he spoke. For some reason, it made Andromeda inexplicably nervous that he was wearing simple brown robes during Carnevale. “You are, I think, the reason for all this chaos today, no?”

 

It feels natural. I like it.

 

If it helps you make the character's voice distinct, memorable and enjoyable, then yes. If it ends up ruining the flow for the reader or just starts being annoying, then no.

 

When you really want to differentiate someone with an accent from other 'common tongue' characters, I think use of unique sentence structure, colloquialisms, and context clues are more important than phonetically sounding out most of the accent. Maybe pick a few sounds to truncate, flub, or extend consistently (such is the case with Hagrid and Fleur), but you really don't need to go overboard.

If you want a great example of how to do this effectively, look to Rock (the big silly Horneater chef guy) in Stormlight Archive.

 

When writing Viktor Krum one must маке суре то юсе тхе сйриллик екуивалент оф леттерс фор аутентиситй