By Christine Kohler
I have lectured on voice, dialect, and using foreign language within English-language texts. In many cases it is difficult to separate the three, especially in a novel liike NO SURRENDER SOLDIER (Merit Press, 2014) which is set on a Pacific island and all the characters are POC (non-white). However, for the sake Read More
Sep 20, 2014 12:00 PM EDT
Thanks for the helpful tips! My WIP has regional Maine dialect so I'm considering similar issues. I'm here via the SCBWI group on LinkedIn.
- Sarah Laurence
Sep 20, 2014 6:13 PM EDT
Sarah, I have not been to Maine more than once as a child, so I could not give specific advice. However, since you are in SCBWI, that's a great place to find critique partners or beta readers from Maine. Also look for children's books with Maine settings. My best guess is that historical ones may use dialect more than contemporary novels. Best wishes!
- Christine Kohler
Sep 22, 2014 5:47 AM EDT
Christine, that's excellent advice for someone outside Maine, but my issue is different. Since I live in Maine, I know the accent, but my concern was that writing in dialect makes it harder to understand, especially for teens unfamiliar with Maine. My solution was having a narrator who speaks without an accent. However, having a secondary character with a strong accent is central to the plot. My SCBWI crit partners and teen beta readers seem to follow it okay, but it's a challenge balancing authentic dialogue and clarity. Hopefully my NYC agent will help me with that. Your post and comment were helpful too. Thank you!
- Sarah Laurence
Sep 22, 2014 6:52 AM EDT
Sarah, yes, your NYC agent should be a good judge of whether the dialect is too heavy to read easily. (Although authors in the SW part of this country have funny head-shaking stories about NYC editors who don't know what javelinas are and insist on a translation word.) She might ask you to run your manuscript by a couple of children/teen readers who do not live in Maine.
I had an editor from NJ/NY who requested I have a YA novel read by teens, and since my main character is Hispanic I selected 5-6 Hispanic teen males and females in West Texas to read, and then ordered pizza during their discussion of my book. This was after I had two Hispanic women (one a teacher and one a magazine editor) beta read and paid a Spanish professor (who was also Hispanic) to check context and spelling of all Spanish words. I went to these great lengths in GRIDIRON GIRLS not just for dialect, which was nearly non-existent since the girl lived in West Texas and was first generation American, but for authenticity of character-culture-language.
After you receive a contract and your book is being released, I would love to hear back from you and have you write a guest blog about your challenges and decisions regarding dialect from first draft to final copy of your story set in Maine.
- Christine Kohler
Sep 22, 2014 7:38 AM EDT
Christine, I agree that research, fact checking and beta testing is especially important when writing outside one's personal experience and/or ethnicity. It makes me all the more eager to read your latest book, knowing this. Thanks for your encouragement about my WIP. I will definitely take you up on your guest blog invitation if my YA novel sells. Sorry to monopolize your comments, but it's been a really helpful conversation.
- Sarah Laurence
Sep 22, 2014 9:13 AM EDT
No worries. I love discussing craft. Plus I started READ LIKE A WRITER so that I could still teach writing. I look forward to hearing the good news when you sell your book!
- Christine Kohler
Dec 29, 2014 3:19 PM EST
Great blog. I know I'll come back to it when I'm figuring out this part of my novel!
- Carol Baldwin
Dec 29, 2014 4:07 PM EST
Thank you! When I retired from teaching writing for the Institute of Children's Literature I started this blog as a way to continue teaching.
- Christine Kohler