Hey there, thanks for the question! I speak English as a second language; most English speakers I encounter aren’t native (yes, including fictional people); thus, this is a concern I’ve explored personally when I write.
I think the core principle regarding accent writing is this: it shouldn’t be distracting.
For the same reasons why Stephen King prescribes the basic dialogue tag “said” rather than fancier alternatives like “whispered”, “shouted” or “screeched”, dialogue must be first and foremost easy to read. It must flow like a real conversation – the pace and tone are a lot more important than how specific words are being pronounced by the character.
Focus on what effect the accent has:
Using adjectives to describe their voice in general. Different types of English (American, British, Australian, etc.) will give off a different vibe, also partly dependent on how your character speaks in general:
Lilting: Having a smooth rise and falling quality; sing-song like. Welsh accent is often described as singing.
Posh: from a high social class. This is the term generally used to describe the upper-class British accent.
Nasal: this happens when the sound goes through somebody’s nose when they’re speaking. North American accents are more nasal than, say, British pronunciations.
Brash: harsh, loud, indicative of sounding a little rude.
Slur: speaking indistinctly; words merging into one another.
Using metaphors.
Her voice was cotton and fluffy clouds.
When he spoke, the ‘r’s scratched the insides of his throat.
Mentioning their accent with a brief example(s).
“Would you like to drink some wine?” she said, though her Indian accent gave extra vibration to her ‘w’s and ‘r’s, making the words sound more like ‘vould you like to drrrink some vine’.
“I want some chocolate.” His syllables were choppy and ‘l’s rather flat, saying ‘cho-ko-lit’.
Some Tips:
Don’t phonically spell out everything. Perhaps give a few examples in the beginning, but stick to standard English spellings.
Pay attention to word choice, slang, and colloquialisms.
An Australian person would say “tram”, not “trolley; “runners” instead of “sneakers”
A Canadian may refer to a “fire hall” – what Americans call a firehouse or fire station
If your character comes from a non-Enligsh background:
Use vocabulary from other languages.
“What time was the exam, ah? Two o’clock? Jiayou!” → putting “ah” or “la” at the end of sentences + Jiayou means “break a leg” in Singlish.
“I can’t believe that 4-year-olds have their own SNS accounts now.” → “SNS” is short for “social networking service”, a term used to refer to social media in Korea. This would a subtle difference – even though it isn’t technically Korean at all!
Transpose grammar from different languages.
For example, in French, plural nouns take plural adjectives (whereas in English, you would speak of ‘white cars’, not ‘whites cars’).
─── ・ 。゚☆: *.☽ .* . ───
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💎Before you ask, check out my masterpost part 1 and part 2
Summary: After getting in the Pillar of Heaven, the cycle end and MK cannot go back home. With the help of Nuwa and the color stone, he was send to the next cycle so he could live a new life without the burden of being the harbinger of chaos. MK, now fully a mystic monkey, arrived in this new cycle at the time of Journey to the West, but he have no idea at what point of the book he is! Is it during the pilgrimage? or way before?? he don't know for now, but he will soon know.
Qi Xiaotian/MK: fancy - casual(first design) -casual (new design)
Porty MK
Macaque and Wukong : Fancy - casual
Meihua (oc) : reference
the beginning: chapter 1 / chapter 2 / chapter 3-1, chapter 3-2 / chapter 4
my baby / MK giving you a heart / SIMBA / goodbye jacket
sad monkey / fur dye? / f*ck u / monkey attack / chirping
spider / no party / Red son / Mei / MK chilling with his clones / cooking
being called Dad / shadowpeach hug - kiss(with MK reaction)
artist clone /
All the ask I've answered and post can be found with "the new past au" tag!
My Forgotten Wukong AU masterpost can be found here!
Welcome everyone to the blog’s masterpost💃💃💃
DP x DC: The Dead Man at the Diner
Danny has a hard time maintaining regular jobs. At this point he’s pretty much nocturnal after years of being attacked at night, and possibly just part of his ghostly nature. He’s odd, and a basic google search brings up various news articles about him getting into fist fights with the mayor of a small town. He barely passed high school and college was out of the question, so who in their right mind would hire him?
What’s a job that would work with his odd hours, doesn’t require a college education, and a possible criminal record and a tendency to be ready to throw down is NOT an issue?
Danny is a cook at a 24hour Diner in Gotham
The man just needs to be able to flip a burger and make breakfast food and doesn’t mind a gun in the face because he’s well used to it. So what if the robber was dumb enough to pull that shit next to the fryer. If he didn’t want something to end up extra crispy he should have stayed out of Danny’s kitchen
Just think of all the folks he would meet.
Sure, the vigilantes of the city would be obvious and you can’t tell me spoiler isn’t dragging folks there to eat. Maybe they notice some weird things about the cook, like he doesn’t breath, his eyes reflect light like an animal’s, or the time he accidentally cut off a finger and it was fine the next day, or maybe the time a robber shot him and he just... didn’t react
Something is weird about that guy
And of course the person I think would love a jersey style diner breakfast at all hours: Harley Quinn
Technically she’s not supposed to bring the hyenas in, health code and all that, but everyone else is to freaked out to tell her and Danny doesn’t care. Frankly he spends his break petting them and they like him because he smells like food.
Really just wanted to draw a Camp Counsellor, Steddie. But being a bit of a horror fan I turned toward the awesome 80s videos of the day for inspiration. Where both of them think a warm summer and babysitting kids is going to be a breeze. Little do they know that they become the Final boys as something stalks the camp 😢 Is it really killing the kids? Or are the boys just stuck in their own nightmare the Camp created for them? DunDunDun!!!! 😨😈
my svsss comic about sqq and his little personality split (what if)
Dan is sulking because none of Dick's friends fear him. He's just "Dick's grumpy/asshole boyfriend"! He hates them all! Except Beast Boy. All the Phantoms vibe with Beast Boy.
(Changed up the ask a tad bc I had an idea lmao)
"So?" Dick asked hopefully. "What do you think?"
His friends had just met his boyfriend, Dan, and he was hoping that they would like him. However, he was disappointed as they all made various faces, most of it negative. Dick wilted as Garth spoke first.
"He seems... fine. Kind of rude and standoffish though."
Rachel frowned. "His soul is even darker than my father's. I think he’s stronger too. I can tell that he didn’t like any of us.”
Vic nodded. "They’re both right. He felt really hostile.”
“Are you sure he’s nice to you? He treats you well, right?” Donna asked, a sharp glare on her face as she looked at her wonder twin up and down. “If he doesn’t, I’ll get rid of him and knock you out of your brainwashing. You’ve been hurt enough, we don’t need another creepy jerk disturbing your life.”
Roy snorted. “He better treat Dick well. Even if he’s stronger than Trigon, we could definitely take him down, right, guys?”
Everyone nodded as Dick sighed in exasperation, although he was smiling a tad. “I promise that he treats me really well. Gar? Kori? What do you two think?”
“Seems chill,” Gar said with a shrug. He stretched out in his kitty form, where he had been curled up and loafing on the sofa. “He gives really good chin scratches and he didn’t hurt me at all. Or any of us. He was really gentle. I can smell he likes Dick a lot too.”
He looked at Kori with a kitty smile, tilting his head. “Kori, you agree with me?”
Kori nodded and everyone looked at her in shock. She smiled and said, “I thought he was quite friendly. Perhaps it was while you all were distracted with the food? He is familiar with Tamaranean customs and was very polite. I can sense that he feels deeply and I can tell that he loves Dick very much.” She looked at Dick with a smile and continued, “As long as you’re happy, I approve. Although his attitude definitely needs work.”
Dick blushed. “Thanks. I like him a lot, though I’ll definitely talk to him about being rude to you guys. He’s kinda… well, maybe not kind of, he’s extremely traumatized, so we’ll work on it. But he isn’t too bad, right?”
He looked hopefully at everyone and they all sighed, looking at each other with looks that promised a team-up if Dick got his heart broken again, before they looked back at him and nodded.
Dick beamed. “Thanks, you guys!” Then he paused and looked at Gar and Kori curiously. “Though I wonder why you two got treated the nicest by him?”
Kori and Gar shrugged, also a little confused. No one had any answers for that either.
Later, as Dick called up Dan to ask him about what he thought, Dick asked, “So… why were you treating Kori and Gar the nicest? Gar said that you were really gentle to him.”
Dan’s response was almost comically bland.
“They’re cats.”
Shen Jiu becomes a Qian Cao Peak disciple AU
This is my excuse of yet another MuJiu AU. Incredibly silly but basically:
Before SJ was accepted to the peaks, the future Mu Qingfang finds him and immediately imprints on this sad traumatized orphan. So he gets his shizun to poach SJ for their peak. They agree, mostly because they have been unable to get SJ to, you know, get a medical checkup.
SJ is apphrensive cause A) who tf is this med student clinging onto him 24/7 B) why does he want to help him??? Without anything in return?? and C) he is a monster who can do no good, so why would he go to a peak of doctors? Surely this must be a mistake?
But it's okay, they can *teach* him how to do good. They can teach him to help, that all these things are choices rather than something you need to be born with. Slowly, but surely.
His cultivation problems? Can be fixed! They can treat him immediately, and somehow, a certain An Ding disciple always finds stupidly rare plants for the treatments he needs. It's not perfect but I imagine that a lot of his cultivation problems could be resolved. Especially with a shixiong who is all too eager to help out. And make sure he eats right damnit!! Shidi one meal every few days is NOT good nutrition!
Since I personally like to imagine that SJ is a plant nerd, maybe he becomes the plant encyclopedia for the peak. His bedside manners need work, but he's a great pharmacist!
Going down to the brothel to sleep is also no longer a huge problem. No Liu Qingge, he's obvs going there for clinic practice and helping out the women in the brothel! They need medical assisstence without judgement you know.
As for his Qi-ge predicament, maybe he is able to sense something wrong about YQY's cultivation and confronts him then and there cause Qi-ge. Qi-ge what stupid thing did you do. Qige you dumbass.
Mu QIngfang still becomes the peak lord, but SJ is happy to do his thing on the peak, probably a hallmaster or simple pharcamist/specialist. Somehow MQF wormed his way into SJ's prickly guarded heart and SJ's his closest confidant on the peak, to the point that he trusts SJ to handle other peak lords as patients too. (He's good at knocking out LQG so the brute will finally get treated. No you can't walk off a broken leg and 10 broken ribs shixiong.)
Either way, they're happy, they're cozy! Maybe one day SJ brings Ning Yingying along from one of his trips down the mountain. She'd do great on QIng Jing, but she has decided she wants to stay on QIan Cao with Jiu-shushu. Another day he brings in Ming Fan from the disciple selection, and as always Ming Fan becomes the eternally stressed mom-friend to all his shidis on the peak.
TLDR: Shen Jiu is literary happy on every other peak than Qing Jing how the fu-
I know the Stranger Things fandom has collectively decided that Steve's parents are The Worst, but I also like reading stories where they aren't or where they are, but that perspective is complicated. Here are some recs (finished and unfinished fics and please check the tags yourself):
Aftermath by help_me_no
Interesting depiction of Steve's parents, especially him mom, as an absent parent who still loves Steve and has an impact on his life.
and they were SPOUSES (oh my god they were spouses) by narceus
Chapter 4 is from the perspective of Steve's mother. Steve's parents go to dinner with him and Robin after finding out they've been married for several years. This is one of my favorite depictions of Steve's parents which doesn't make them less absent but shows their behavior from their perspective and is absolutely wonderful
I was born when they took my name by WingedQuill
Steve is Seven and his parents are scientists who stole him from the lab and protected him all these years. They're good parents who love him and who worry about his safety.
count to thirty. breathe twice. repeat. by WingedQuill
Steve's parents are still absent, but with a twist. SPOILERS. They are both queer and have partners outside Hawkins. Steve doesn't know this, because they wanted him to have a normal life and not be affected by homophobia in Hawkins.
Jackrabbit Underneath by Grey_Lark
Steve is Seven and his parents are still not great people, but they are present through his early life (which is depicted in the story) and influence what goes on later. The impact of their family dynamic on Steve is really shown. His mother suffers from strange headaches.
you carved the space for my sadness to be seen for once (hold on to me) by ohstars
Steve's mom is a central character in this fic. When Steve becomes a teen parent, she steps up and divorces his father. Steve and his mom have to navigate their estrangement as well as the mother-son relationship between them and the father-daughter relationship between Steve and his daughter
Car Hangs by maiamaryse
Steve's parents are still not great parents in this, but they appear as characters who feel real and fully-fleshed, especially Steve's father.
Verses Out of Rhythm by thankyouplease
I don't usually read or post Harringrove fics, so here's your warning that Steve and Billy have a past, toxic relationship in this one (no Billy redemption). Endgame is Steddie. Steve's parents are a distant presence until the end of the fic, but they are still nuanced characters and decent people, even if they aren't great parents.
Welcome to my page! This is were I keep the cats, books, and dimension-traveling characters!
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