A Round Up: Writing Dialect in Fiction

Aug 28

Aug 28 A Round Up: Writing Dialect in Fiction

by Victoria Fortune

When writing a historical novel, one of the keys to capturing an authentic sense of time and place is through the voices of the characters. Whether writing about British aristocracy of the 16th century, pirates of the 17th century, or Irish immigrants in the 19th century, historical fiction often entails writing dialect. My current project requires capturing the voices of Mississippians, black and white, in the early 20th century. In addition to reading as many books and primary sources as possible from the era, I have also been searching “how-to” and “history of” articles for some context and advice on writing dialect. Here are some of the best that I’ve come across:

Jennifer Sommer’s “Writing in Dialect in Fiction: A History and Study” offers a fairly succinct history of the use of dialect in literature. Sommers explains that the literary realism movement which began around the time of the Civil War reflected “a desire to hear the voice of the regular people. . . . Dialect was used as part of the commitment to writing realistically. . . More and more, dialect was singled out as the central feature of what made American writing democratic.”

Writers attempted to highlight the regional differences of the country through the use of phonetic spellings to convey local accents. However, dialect was often used to indicate ignorance, lack of education and lower status, as in Mark Twain’s work, which is criticized for exaggerating “dialectical features for comic, thematic, and even political purpose.” Having just reread The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I can understand the criticism. The dialect can be hard to parse, particularly Jim’s dialogue which is exaggerated to the extreme. Ironically, Twain was a vocal opponent of slavery, and a major purpose of the book is to mock the hypocrisy of American society for holding itself up as Christian and yet sanctioning slavery, which is fundamentally incompatible with Christian values. But Twain’s purpose is lost on most readers today, who can’t get past his portrayal of Jim.

In the early twentieth century, the use of dialect took on new political overtones. Black writers on the literary scene at the time, intent on demonstrating their intellectual prowess and undermining stereotypes, felt the use of dialect was demeaning. Zora Neale Hurston, an anthropologist who studied speech patterns and whose novel Their Eyes Were Watching God celebrates the richness and depth of the black vernacular, was roundly criticized by other members of the Harlem Renaissance for denigrating black culture through her use of dialect:

“Ah don’t mean to bother wid tellin’ ‘em nothin’, Pheoby. ‘Tain’t worth de trouble. You can tell ‘em what Ah says if you wants to. Dat’s just de same as me ‘cause mah tongue is in mah friend’s mouf.”

Hurston aimed to portray her characters as truthfully as possible, but as Sommers notes, “In an attempt to be truthful and accurate in their telling, an author could lose his reader.” Cast aside by her fellow writers, Hurston spent her final days working as a maid and died penniless, her works out of print.

In the late 70’s, Alice Walker helped bring Hurston’s work out of obscurity. Walker was inspired by Hurston’s full-throated embrace of black culture. “Her work had a sense of black people as complete complex, undiminished human beings, and that was crucial to me as a writer,” Walker said.

Walker went on to write her own masterpiece, The Color Purple, partly in dialect. The protagonist, Celie, has been denied access to education and the novel is epistolary; it would make no sense for Celie’s letters to be grammatically correct. But rather than using Hurston’s heavy-handed approach in misspelling words to indicate phonetic pronunciation and liberal use of apostrophes in place of dropped letters, Walker uses a subtler form of “eye dialect”:

I ast her to give me the picture. An all night long I stare at it. An now when I dream, I dream of Shug Avery. She be dress to kill, whirling and laughing.”

Walker dispenses with apostrophes in place of dropped letters, relies more selectively on invented spellings, and leans most heavily on diction and syntax to convey Celie’s voice. Like Janie, in Their Eyes Were Watching God, Celie is a fully developed and complex character whose humanity comes shining through.

In The POC Guide to Writing Dialect in Fiction, Kai Ashante Wilson says, “speech patterns shouldn’t dispose among protagonist, secondary and tertiary characters such that those using low-prestige dialects read primarily as wretches, fools or scoundrels. Beauty, genius, and heroism—all the trappings of full humanity—should appear at least as broadly and profoundly among speakers of low-prestige dialects as among those speaking high.” Although Wilson addresses her article toward people of color writing dialect, her point is well taken for any writer. She adds, “many readers of every race point-blank refuse to engage with low-prestige dialects.”

This makes writing dialect risky for any writer, but if there is no way around it in order to authentically tell the story you feel compelled to write, then it is crucial to develop an ear for the dialect by speaking with native speakers, and (especially when writing historical fiction) reading as many primary source materials (letters, diary entries, interviews) and contemporary works as possible. Here are some tips for writing dialect.

• Make sure it is necessary to your story.

In How to Effectively Use Dialect in Fiction Writing, Tonya Thompson recommends asking:

“Is dialect integral to the story (for example, is it used to reinforce the main character's outsider status in a close-knit regional community)?” One way to determine this is to write all the dialogue in standard English and then go back and revise where needed to include dialect. This will help you see/hear where it is necessary.

“Are there stereotypical expressions associated with the accent or dialect you should take care to contextualize, use sparingly or avoid?”

In Dialogue in Fiction: Part 1, editor Arlene Prunkl offers some excellent tips for writing dialect:

• Moderation is key. Don’t overdo it. “Choose just half a dozen or so nonstandard spellings and contractions and use them consistently.”

• “Rely on diction, syntax, and idiom” rather than excessive use of nonstandard spellings.

• Pay close attention to verb usage. (i.e. many recent immigrants speak primarily in present tense because they haven’t yet learned to conjugate verbs in past or future tense)

• “Respect your characters. Don’t turn them into a parody of themselves by overdoing any of these techniques.”

This last tip is the most critical one. Above all, treat your characters with respect and don’t use dialect to demean them.