Writing Dialect

Writing dialect can be a difficult task, but most long-term writers find they need to tackle it at some point, especially historical authors. Dialect immediately makes characters seem authentic, helps elaborate details about their background, and adds flavor to their story. It's a part of creating distinct voices for characters. However, written dialects can also be a distraction, frustrate the reader, and bog the story down. Therefore, they need to be done well. 

With all the risks involved, some authors hesitate to write in dialects at all. One author spoke of being terrified of using dialects, because there're so easy to get wrong. She knows that writing it incorrectly can be worse than not using it at all. I recently read a western novel that not only overused a cowboy dialect, but often used the wrong words and hurt the novels authenticity and made it less believable. Yet, if they are done well, dialects can illuminate a story and make them special. And, in certain cases, the story won't be nearly as believable if you don't use them, for example a historical story set in the South in the 1800's that includes slaves talking.

All four of the books in my Appalachian Roots series use dialects. Here are some tips for doing them well:

• Be subtle. Use distinctive words now and then without respelling most of the dialogue, which can be a nuisance to read. This is especially good for major characters who appear in the book often.
  
• If you need to use heavy dialect for authenticity, do so only in minor characters, so the reader won't need to wade through too much of it. I did this in Cleared for Planting. I allowed very minor characters that rarely appeared to use a heavy Appalachian Mountain dialect, because I wanted the reader to get a real taste of how it sounded. However, the more a character appeared in the novel, the less a dialect they used, and a word here and there was sufficient.
  
• Another thing that helped me in this series is that I grew up in Appalachian culture and knew the dialect well. Don't tackle a dialect you are unfamiliar with without help. Research is good, but get someone who knows to read your text also.

For the slave dialect, I relied on the Black dialect I knew from years of teaching in the South. Still, I got a reader to make sure I had it right. And again, I didn't have major characters that appeared

often use heavy dialects. In Sown in Dark Soil, Patsy had been taught to use better English than most, because her uneducated speech had irritated Ivy, her mistress. In Uprooted by War, Moses had had his tongue cut out by a cruel master and had secretly learned to write a little, but he couldn't talk. In Transplanted to Red Clay, only very minor characters spoke in the dialect of newly freed slaves.

Although writing in dialect can be hard, it can also be fun and rewarding. Don't put it in unless needed, but do include it when it makes your writing stronger. Readers deserve to have the best story possible.

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