On The Subject of Things That Annoy Me

In my last post I discussed one of my pet peeves, and I decided that I could stay on that tangent, mainly because it is easy to write about things that make you miserable. Also I had the 100 post controversy and discovered it is because I have a number of posts in my draft section. Most of these are posts that I either wasn't able to finish or just ran out of steam during, so at some point they'll probably end up here.

As for today I wish to talk about writing in accents. Now I understand the need to have the character's voice match where they are from, but many authors over do it and it drives me mad. In fact I literally threw the last book I was reading across the room because the accents where driving me so batty. If it gets to a point where I have to reread a sentence 2-3 times because I couldn't understand what was trying to be said it just isn't worth it. My last book was really interesting, but it was literally too frustrating to read and so I stopped and have no intention of picking that book up again.

One of my first creative writing teachers also had this pet peeve. I'm not sure if I got it from him, but I agree that there are ways around putting in incredibly thick accents. One way that often works really well is syntax. When people talk they have a cadence to how they speak and that often gives a better feel of the accent then 12 apostrophes ever will. I can see putting in a few apostrophes ever once in a while for emphasis but when ever word is abbreviated it gets maddening. However, I have to agree simply adding the clause "she said in an Irish accent", does not cut it. That doesn't help the reader and just looks lazy. I can also see putting in the heavy accent if the other characters in the book cannot understand accent as well - but that has limited application since you still want your reader to understand.

And that is all I have to say about that.