Today, we are taking a break from our Postmodernism series.
Instead, we will be talking about accents and personal mannerisms.
Everyone has an accent. It's usually based on many factors, but the most prominent one is where you live. The reason for that is fairly complicated, so we're not going to deal with it. :)
I'm going to use my accent as an example. I am a Minnesotan. Minnesotans have an interesting habit of saying "cool" all the time. This is part of my accent, but also, Minnesotans always say "cool" in two syllables. We can't really say it in one. If you're from Minnesota, or live around Minnesota, you might know what I mean. If you're not, I'll try my best to explain. Basically, we say "coo-uh-l." It doesn't sound exactly like this. . . there aren't really words to describe it. Anyways, this is an example of an accent.
Now, we are going to talk about personal mannerisms, or how each individual person talks. An example of one of my personal mannerisms is: I say "in any case" a lot. However, my mom says "at any rate." They both mean the same thing, but are different personal mannerisms. Other types of personal mannerisms are: volume (Do they start talking softly and get louder, etc.), stuttering, etc.
You might be wondering how this relates to writing by now. Well, characters are people (or. . . living creatures) too, so they also need accents and personal mannerisms. If you are writing a historical novel, or novel that takes place in our world, you can use the language we use now or look up language used in the past. However, fantasy writers can use this too. Do different regions speak differently? Do certain groups tend to have similar mannerisms?
Post about your writing or accent in the comments!
Also, sorry if my posts have been really short or late recently. I have not had time to pre-schedule a lot of posts at once, and I have a lot of homework. Sorry!
By the way, have fun trick-or-treating (or passing out candy. :) ).
Spruce Nogard
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments will be visible after approval. Thank you for your patience.