Any advice on how to write accents???
I've been exploring how to work on how to distinct characters who have an accent from those who would (sorta) have a more standardised way of speaking.
For example, so far in my crossover fic I've got two characters with distinct accents: one Texan, and one Scottish. My current method is writing their dialogue completely normally (no phonetic spelling or dialect) but bolding it so I can come back later and adjust the flavour. It helps me keep the flow going without getting bogged down in "how would this sound" midscene.
But here's where I'm second guessing myself: when you've got more than one accented character, how do you make them sound distinct without going overboard? Do you lean into a few specific word choices? Adjust sentence rhythm? Or do you just trust the reader to remember who's who and keep the accent subtle?
I'd love to hear how you handle this in your own work, or even examples where you've seen it done really well. Just gathering ideas and having a curious little chat. 😊