- Joined
- Jun 11, 2010
- Messages
- 4,404
- Reaction score
- 2,208
So, I’m dabbling with some ideas for my ficcy, and I’d like some ideas for my characters.
Basically, I want to introduce the Swords of Justice at the beginning of the prologue and I’d like them all to have some unique way in which they speak. This is what I’ve gotten so far:
- Keldeo: Juvenile and Americanized speech pattern, which a mildly rebellious attitude (“What are you gonna do now?” “C’mon! Gimme a break!”).
- Terrakion: Slang-like pattern, which sounds like he has some thick accent (“Ya ain’t gunna slack of’ while I’m ‘round, kiddo!”).
And… that’s it. I’m uncertain about Virizion and Cobalion. I would like Virizion to have a more French tone, maybe with some French phrases thrown here and there (like « mon chérie »), while I’d like Cobalion to have a more formal and refined tone. The only issue is that I don’t know well how to put them on paper, so to speak, so I’d appreciate if someone could give me some tip of how to write them like this.
Thanks in advance. ^^
Mixing English and French in the same sentence is fine:
"Why, I don't know what you mean, mon amour," said Virizion.
The trick is to not really use more than 2-4 words in French, methinks, or really obscure phrases. I think most people would be able to pick up that "mon amour" = "my love". But just in case, I'd put a list of translations at the end of a chapter for people to reference.
For formal... you could get rid of contractions and/or use fancier vocabulary, but that can easily come off as pretentious as well, and you don't want it to get to the point where people have to look up the dictionary every 5 seconds.
"I do not know what you mean, comrade," said Cobalion.
Feel free to post excerpts from your fic in our Samples Thread and ask for feedback on the dialogue. :3