Author Habits That Annoy You

[KRAD]

Also, when Chekov’s (and to a lesser extent Scotty’s) dialogue is written sans accent. Maybe that makes me a lazy reader, but that’s vat I like.

I'm the opposite. I hate phonetic spellings of characters who speak with an accent. You can show who's talking by word choice and phraseology. I challenge anyone to read A Time for War, a Time for Peace and have any trouble picturing James Doohan saying any of Scotty's dialogue in the book.

 

[STMSTS]

I figured the character accents was an editorial choice. A powerful line that has always stuck with me was from the Star Trek V novel since I read it as a wee lad was: It would be some time later before Chekov realized that Sybok had spoken to him in Russian.

I'm the opposite. I hate phonetic spellings of characters who speak with an accent. You can show who's talking by word choice and phraseology. I challenge anyone to read A Time for War, a Time for Peace and have any trouble picturing James Doohan saying any of Scotty's dialogue in the book.

I can absolutely understand that. Scotty is less of a ‘thing’ for me because I find his vernacular more distinctive (and as others have pointed out, occasionally some go way too far in their indulgences with him). Chekov doesn’t really have much unique in his word choices )but I still miss Keptian and wessels).

 

[Nerys Myk]

I figured the character accents was an editorial choice. A powerful line that has always stuck with me was from the Star Trek V novel since I read it as a wee lad was: It would be some time later before Chekov realized that Sybok had spoken to him in Russian.



I can absolutely understand that. Scotty is less of a ‘thing’ for me because I find his vernacular more distinctive (and as others have pointed out, occasionally some go way too far in their indulgences with him). Chekov doesn’t really have much unique in his word choices )but I still miss Keptian and wessels).

If you hear it Chekov's voice then the Keptains and Wessels will appear

 

[Christopher]

I'm the opposite. I hate phonetic spellings of characters who speak with an accent. You can show who's talking by word choice and phraseology. I challenge anyone to read A Time for War, a Time for Peace and have any trouble picturing James Doohan saying any of Scotty's dialogue in the book.

Come to think of it, you were the first editor I encountered that with, not Marco. I double-checked, and I wrote Scotty's dialogue in the first draft of S.C.E.: Aftermath with a phonetically spelled accent, and you changed it to standard English in the copyedit. But I'm pretty sure Marco had the same opinion of phonetic accents.

 

[Greg Cox]

Honestly, accents rendered phonetically can wear out their welcome rapidly, and certainly doing so has fallen out of fashion. Early on, I admit, I threw some "keptins" into Chekov's dialogue, but was asked to refrain from this by some editor or another.

These days I content myself to simply mentioning "Scotty's thick Scottish burr" or "Chekov's distinctive Russian accent" and leave the rest to the reader's imagination.

 

[FredH]

Honestly, accents rendered phonetically can wear out their welcome rapidly, and certainly doing so has fallen out of fashion.

Just look at a lot of early-20th-century (pulp?) fiction with a comedy minority/foreign/overly-Texan character.

(EDIT: Or, come to think of it, X-Men dialogue for Rogue and Gambit to this day, even after the Claremont era…)

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

These days I content myself to simply mentioning "Scotty's thick Scottish burr" or "Chekov's distinctive Russian accent" and leave the rest to the reader's imagination.

Right, and it wasn't that long ago that I got a very rude awakening in my own novel, in which I was giving a fiercely Irish character an accent that wasn't even remotely Irish (more Scots, or possibly even Yorkshire).

 

[Greg Cox]

Just look at a lot of early-20th-century (pulp?) fiction with a comedy minority/foreign/overly-Texan character.

(EDIT: Or, come to think of it, X-Men dialogue for Rogue and Gambit to this day, even after the Claremont era…)

See also some of the impenetrable New England dialects, rendered phonetically, in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by Lovecraft.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

See also some of the impenetrable New England dialects, rendered phonetically, in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by Lovecraft.

I'm even less interested in reading any Lovecraft than I am in reading any Orson Scott Card. But be that as it may, I remember somebody I knew tell me about landing in Boston, for the first time, and thinking he'd been directed to "Pax Street." (Park Street, of course).

 

[FredH]

See also some of the impenetrable New England dialects, rendered phonetically, in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by Lovecraft.

Those Dunwich yokels and their dark rites…