Helping your Character have a Voice.

Hey guys! theapprentice here! Second post! BOOYA! XD

So today, we are going to be talking a bit about giving you characters a voice. And it’s not as much their actual voice, but more the way they speak that we’re discussing.

So lets say you have a character that…. had a british accent! Or maybe he’s chinese! Australian, German, Scottish, just someone with a freaking awesome accent! How do you go about writing that? Well, off the top of my head I can think of two general ways.

1. Fake it till you make it.
   No kidding guys. I do this quite a bit in the roleplay physicogiggles and I are doing right now (Apocalypse). I have this chinese character named Sano. He grew up in what used to be China and has a pretty freaking thick accent. -_-’ No kidding guys, sometimes I regret making him talk like that. BUT! In the end it is worth it! (plus that’s just the way he is, so what am I gonna do about that? ;) )
   I’m just suggesting to you guys to “fake it”, as in just spell the words they say like they sound! When your character says something with an accent, just sound it out and that’s how it’s spelled! (spelling phonetically for the win!) But anyway… If you know the accent you’re writing pretty well and know how it sounds with different words, this way should be a sinch. But if you’re working with an accent that you aren’t familiar with, then look it up! Try to find recordings and maybe even clips from movies, that sort of thing. Just so you know what you’re working with. How about I give you a couple simple examples really quick?
   
   “Hello governor!” + English accent = “Ello Govna!
   “Top of the morning to you!” + Irish accent = “Top’a the marnin to ya!”
   
   Get it? It’s not too hard, and a lot of you probably already do this anyway, but yeah. Let’s go to the other way, shall we?  :) (and if you guys ever want more examples just let me know and I’ll edit some more it )
   
   2. Skimming. Lots of skimming.

Now there’s the first way of phonetic spelling, or there’s this way. Skipping and skimming. Now either of these ways work, it all just depends on what you as the writer prefers. For this, lets say that you have another character with an English accent. Most people, if not all, know what that sounds like, right? So in this scenario, if you really don’t want to mess with dialogue, then you might want to just try this first and see if it works for you! :) Maybe in your story this character has a description? Just say that he’s English! Or have another character comment on the accent, thus the character has to say plainly “I’m from England.” Or, you could just describe the accent itself! Talk about the character’s “clipped words” and “longer vowels”, that sort of thing. If you know what you’re talking about, you’ll be fine! ;)

That's all I've got for you guys today! Hope it was helpful in some way! Thanks for reading. Now go and write something amazing! GO! You can do it!! XD

~theapprentice