What Not To Do, True Grit Writers

[redbrunja]

Phonetically spell LaBoeuf's dialogue. Not only is it visually ugly, I feel like an idiot mentally sounding out what he's saying. So even if your characterization and prose are decent to good, I'm not going to keep reading.

I know, accents are hard. I sympathize. (That is the reason the plotbunny about LaBoeuf telling his unit about Maddie Ross and having them all thing he's exaggerating is not ever going to get out of my head.) 

ETA: Post about writing accents and dialect here, via chomiji .

Comments

[silver-spotted.livejournal.com]

the plotbunny about LaBoeuf telling his unit about Maddie Ross and having them all thing he's exaggerating

I never knew I wanted this, but now you've mentioned it, I can just imagine the guys' completely disbelieving faces. No way is LaBoef telling the truth, no way.

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

<.< Wow, there's actually a fandom for True Grit? Cool.

And yeah, it almost never ends well to phonetically spell out a heavy accent. It's more effective to use the occasional apostrophe for cut off words or slang. A little goes a long way.