- Joined
- Aug 18, 2010
- Messages
- 211
- Reaction score
- 23
I am soliciting opinions on the use of dialect. My WIP features a character who is a fugitive slave and figures prominently in the story. I do want to use dialect in his speech, but I am debating over how heavy his dialog should be flavored with it. I don't want to go as overboard as to have him sound like Jim in Huckleberry Finn, but I can't have him speaking proper English either.
Any suggestions as to what bits of dialect, proper to a character circa 1861, might I indulge in without it making it to difficult or annoying to read? Such as pronoun-verb agreement, dropping Gs, use of mo', fo', and yo' in place of more, for and you (your). There are other oft-used substitutions I've considered, but I am interested in what others would be able to handle or be comfortable with were they to read such a character's dialog. He will have some amount of dialect, no matter what, so I am looking for some barometer of just how much is enough. I realize doing it properly is tricky so I will do some studying of how it has been done in other instances, using examples from writers who wrote or lived in the period.
Any thoughts?
Any suggestions as to what bits of dialect, proper to a character circa 1861, might I indulge in without it making it to difficult or annoying to read? Such as pronoun-verb agreement, dropping Gs, use of mo', fo', and yo' in place of more, for and you (your). There are other oft-used substitutions I've considered, but I am interested in what others would be able to handle or be comfortable with were they to read such a character's dialog. He will have some amount of dialect, no matter what, so I am looking for some barometer of just how much is enough. I realize doing it properly is tricky so I will do some studying of how it has been done in other instances, using examples from writers who wrote or lived in the period.
Any thoughts?