About Me
- Satima Flavell
- I am a writer, editor, reviewer and dance teacher based in Perth, Western Australia. You might enjoy my books - The Dagger of Dresnia, the first book of the Talismans Trilogy, is available at all good online book shops as is Book two, The Cloak of Challiver. Book three, The Seer of Syland, is in preparation. I trained in piano and singing at the NSW Conservatorium of Music. I also trained in dance (Scully-Borovansky, WAAPA) and drama (NIDA). Since 1987 I have been writing reviews of performances in all genres for a variety of publications, including Music Maker, ArtsWest, Dance Australia, The Australian and others. Now semi-retired, I still write occasionally for the ArtsHub website, and I still teach dance at Trinity School for Seniors, an outreach program of the Uniting Church in Perth.

My books
The first novel of my trilogy, The Talismans, is available as an e-book from Smashwords, Amazon and other online sellers. I do have paperbacks of The Dagger of Dresnia at the low price of $AU25 including postage within Australia. I also have a short story, 'La Belle Dame', in print - see Mythic Resonance below.
Book two of the trilogy, The Cloak of Challiver, will be available again shortly.
The best way to contact me is via Facebook!

Buy The Talismans
The first two books of The Talismans trilogy were published by Satalyte Publications, which, sadly, has gone out of business. Book one, The Dagger of Dresnia, is up on the usual bookselling web sites as an e-book, and I have a few hard copies to sell to those who prefer Real Paper. Book Two, The Cloak of Challiver, will be available soon.
The easiest way to contact me is via Facebook.

Buy Mythic Resonance
Mythic Resonance is an excellent anthology that includes my short story 'La Belle Dame', together with great stories from Alan Baxter, Donna Maree Hanson, Sue Burstynski, Nike Sulway and nine more fantastic authors! Just $US3.99 from Amazon.
Got a Kindle? Check out Mythic Resonance.

For Readers, Writers & Editors
- A dilemma about characters
- Adelaide Writers Week, 2009
- Adjectives, commas and confusion
- An artist's conflict
- An editor's role
- Authorial voice, passive writing and the passive voice
- Common misuses: common expressions
- Common misuses: confusing words
- Common misuses: pronouns - subject and object
- Conversations with a character
- Critiquing Groups
- Does length matter?
- Dont sweat the small stuff: formatting
- Free help for writers
- How much magic is too much?
- Know your characters via astrology
- Like to be an editor?
- Modern Writing Techniques
- My best reads of 2007
- My best reads of 2008
- My favourite dead authors
- My favourite modern authors
- My influential authors
- Planning and Flimmering
- Planning vs Flimmering again
- Psychological Spec-Fic
- Readers' pet hates
- Reading, 2009
- Reality check: so you want to be a writer?
- Sensory detail is important!
- Speculative Fiction - what is it?
- Spelling reform?
- Substantive or linking verbs
- The creative cycle
- The promiscuous artist
- The revenge of omni rampant
- The value of "how-to" lists for writers
- Write a decent synopsis
- Write a review worth reading
- Writers block 1
- Writers block 2
- Writers block 3
- Writers need editors!
- Writers, Depression and Addiction
- Writing in dialect, accent or register
- Writing it Right: notes for apprentice authors

Interviews with authors
My Blog List
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Flog a BookBubber 191: Jacky Gray—just not much there - Writers, send your prologue/first chapter to FtQ for a “flogging” critique. Email as an attachment. Many of the folks who utilize BookBub are self-publishe...1 hour ago
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Links: Fanfic Recs, a Kickstarter, & More - It’s still February. It’s the shortest month, but yet it feels like the longest. Maybe that’s because in New England, winter is still happening and we’re a...1 hour ago
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The Emerald Sun: Chasing the unknown - Today was a tougher day from the storytelling perspective. I don’t actually know what Genna and Dan and Yarri and Doyati and the cat are going to find. The...3 hours ago
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Act One: All Setup or Does it Need More? - [image: novel openings, structure] *By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy * *How much goes into setting up the beginning of a novel?* Novel beginnings don’t make ...7 hours ago
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Going places - When one reads the obsolete phrase go to, go to, the meaning is still understood quite well. After to, one “hears” the word hell. However, directions var...7 hours ago
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A double trip to Dubai - I have two work trips to Dubai coming up. There’s a huge variety in what I’m going to talk about over both trips and every Read the full article The post...7 hours ago
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On Re-Viewing The Hate U Give - A while back, I read *The* *Hate* *U* *Give *by Angie Thomas, which was one of the few bestselling YA novels I’ve read which I thought worth the hype. Here...9 hours ago
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Parenting Advice, Elevator Pitches, and the Essential Heart of Story - When my daughters were little I used to read all kinds of books and magazines filled with parenting advice, looking for the nugget of wisdom that would hel...9 hours ago
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Medieval Church and State, and the nun who faked her own death - In the high summer of 1318, a nun of the priory of St Clement near York – Joan of Leeds – staged a daring escape from her convent. She left behind a life o...11 hours ago
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Shopping, Mandarin, Kep - Riddlesworth Hall I always hated shopping but my mother loved it. I remember being dragged from store to store to find things. We were looking for a part...14 hours ago
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The Battle of Agincourt with Michael Livingston - Episode 8 of The Medieval Podcast - Danièle speaks with Michael Livingston about his latest research on where the Battle of Agincourt might have been fought.15 hours ago
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Carter for 600 years -- "by whom he had seven sons and ten daughters" - *© 2019 Christy K Robinson* My grandmother Opal was born a Carter in Iowa. She was part of a small family of two daughters. But she had more cousins than ...16 hours ago
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The problem with historical fiction – Carolyn Hughes - *What *“problem”, you might ask… When I first embarked on writing historical fiction several years ago, I edged my way nervously into a genre that I felt in...20 hours ago
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Elinor Lipman - Elinor Lipman is the award-winning author of many novels, including The View from Penthouse B and The Inn at Lake Devine; one essay collection, I Can't Com...23 hours ago
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Forgotten Books, Remembered (For Now) - I suppose it was inevitable: I discovered a that I am listed as a contributor to a book that I was not aware existed. It’s a 2009 book from the National Ge...23 hours ago
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Book Review: The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray - I am still dipping my toes into the literally fiction pool, finding what works for me and what doesn’t. Books like The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hun...1 day ago
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Feedback on my books… - Dual Visions and Vashla’s World have a ringing endorsement and great feedback from a recent recipient of signed copies. His wife gave them to him for a bir...1 day ago
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276: How to Start a Successful Podcast - The post 276: How to Start a Successful Podcast appeared first on ProBlogger . Learn How to Start a Successful Podcast Do you already have a blog, and wa...2 days ago
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What I've Been Doing Lately - I signed up for Julia Bickerstaff's 100 Day Goal starting on 1 January. The idea is that you set out goals and work towards them one microaction at a time ...2 days ago
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Cover Reveal: We’ll Stand in That Place and Other Stories Ed. Michelle Cahill - Latest Story NewsMy latest story 'The Do' will feature along side what's a fab lineup of Australian writers in We’ll Stand in That Place and Other Stories ...3 days ago
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Publishizer: Do Authors Really Need a Crowdfunding Literary Agency? - *Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware* Publishizer bills itself as "the world's first crowdfunding literary agency." What does that actually mean...6 days ago
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Edward II and Isabella of France, 1322-1326 - After the Tynemouth incident in the autumn of 1322, when Isabella of France rather unfairly accused Hugh Despenser the Younger of deliberately leaving her ...6 days ago
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How FRIENDS Makes Character Archetypes Look Easy - All About Archetypes The difference between archetypes and stereotypes is subtle, but crucial. Archetypes are frequently mistaken for stereotypes and vic...1 week ago
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A Book Ian Likes: The Silver Sun by Nancy Springer - The mid-1970s was a great time to be a fantasy fan. Maybe not an especially discerning fantasy fan, but there seems to have been an awful lot going on in t...1 week ago
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Emerald Fire is on Pre-order - I mentioned last time that I had Emerald Fire up on pre-order. For those of you who have grabbed a copy of Ruby Heart, don’t miss out on the next book. If ...1 week ago
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Emerald Fire is on Pre-order - I mentioned last time that I had Emerald Fire up on pre-order. For those of you who have grabbed a copy of Ruby Heart, don’t miss out on the next book. If ...1 week ago
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DuBay v King: Deposition of James Stenstrum, January 06, 2018 - There's depositions and then there's depositions! The DuBay v King case is far more interesting for what has been said during the depositions than anything...1 week ago
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New Zealand is a beautiful country that is at the end of the line in the global English-language book supply chain - Quite aside from being stunningly beautiful from top to bottom, New Zealand is unique, a nation of 4-1/2 million English speakers that is not on the way ...1 week ago
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Ellen Klages and Passing Strange - Ellen Klages joined us on the show to talk about her novella, "Passing Strange," which appeared on Tor.com... as it turned out, precisely two years before ...2 weeks ago
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Another snippet of Reappraisal - I posted, a month or so back, the first chapter of my second Guerline Scarfe SF-murder-mystery-set-on-Titan, A Reappraisal of the Circumstances Resulting i...2 weeks ago
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Childrens Book Council of Australia Highly Recommends Rainforest Rescue - Childrens Book Council of Australia highly recommends my book, Song Bird Rainforest Rescue. Childrens Book Council of Australia reviewed Rainforest Rescu...2 weeks ago
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History of Rugia: Prince Wilhelm Malte of Putbus - I've already mentioned Prince Wilhelm Malte I of Putbus (1783 - 1854) in my prior post. He was the scion of the Slavic noble family of Putbus (the lords of...2 weeks ago
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Sinister Reads chats with Claire Fitzpatrick - Originally posted on ~ Sinister Reads ~: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your latest story? Hiya. I’m Claire. I’m an author of speculative fiction ...2 weeks ago
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#WEP/IWSG #FIRST CHALLENGE OF 2019. SIGN UP HERE FOR 28 DAYS. - Hello all and welcome to WEP 2019! Here are the full list of challenges for the year~ Our February challenge is the result of an IWSG competition - won by...2 weeks ago
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FIERCE PRACTICE: GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO HATE -- ON THE PAGE! - *A PLOT FOR OUR TIME* *LadyGilraen.Wordpress.com*The 2012 film, “The Attack,” directed by Lebanese filmmaker Ziad Doueri, haunts me still. In fact, it fee...3 weeks ago
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Time to Stay Home - Time levels all of us. At 66, soon to be 67, I am fortunate to be in relatively good health. No prescription drugs needed. No mobility aids. Glasses suf...3 weeks ago
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#328 - Hello: I have written a manuscript “Baked Lunch” and I'm soliciting agents and publishers. Brief Synopsis: I have written an update (2018) of the William...4 weeks ago
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Sol Stein, Stein on Writing (1995) - Carla Miriam Levy About a third of the way through Sol Stein’s Stein on Writing, there is an anecdote that changed the way I think about scene constructi...5 weeks ago
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Annie Wilson Patterson, Mus.D., composer, teacher, author (1864–1934) - [image: annie-patterson-feis-ceoil-1897-2] *Source: * *Full Report of the proceedings at The Oireachtas;**or, Irish Literary Festival*, held in the Round...1 month ago
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Happy Public Domain Day 2019! - Today is Public Domain Day 2019, which means (finally!) the end of copyright for works first published in the U.S. in 1923. You are now free to use, reprin...1 month ago
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That Was The 2018 That Was - It's been a strange year. I've only blogged a couple of times, mostly because I've not had anything to write about except one thing, the hugeness of making...1 month ago
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The Calendar Year Changes Again - I challenge you--writer or editor--to strengthen one of your writing skills this next year.1 month ago
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New Year’s Eve 2018 – thank you for everything! - It’s the last day of 2018. I’m thinking a lot about my ancestors as I plan to write the biography of Colonel Thorn during 2019. It’s a tale of lost fortune...1 month ago
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Melbourne, Gold Coast, and Rotorua, New Zealand! - This writing gig is a funny old thing and sometimes it takes me to distant and interesting places. It’s a genuine honour when I get invited to these thin...1 month ago
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Deferring the Garter Meeting. - In Kathryn Warner's book on Richard II I found that in 1386 the usual meeting of the Order of the Garter was deferred from St George's Day, although no rea...2 months ago
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A Primer to Russian (and Ukrainian) Literature - If you ask someone to name a work of Russian literature they will probably give you War and Peace, and if you ask for a second the answer will likely be Cr...2 months ago
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Aging - Every day I grow a little more "old." I become what "old" should be. I fall into the dictate. This is a choice Perhaps even a concession Perhaps a convictio...2 months ago
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My Take on Doctor Who - I have been a Doctor Who fan since its inception in 1963. Even more so of its modern incarnation, beginning with Christopher Eccleston. Of course there hav...2 months ago
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A Movie That No Writer Should See Alone - Really. REALLY. Trust me on this. particularly since this film, ‘Can you ever forgive me?’, is based on a ‘True story’ – and too many writers will see too...2 months ago
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Queens in Shakespeare's plays - *What a fascinating topic! Our president, Frances, has researched and commented on Shakespeare's depiction of the Queen consorts depicted in his histori...2 months ago
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We Were Strangers, edited by Richard V. Hirst - Two things I love so much – short stories and Joy Division. What could be better? "We Were Strangers" is a very well presented collection of 10 short stori...3 months ago
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Setting Helps Define the Story Plot - I’ve been writing fiction for at least twenty years, and for most of those years, I lived in the Detroit suburbs of Michigan. My parents owned property o...4 months ago
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Review: Trace: who killed Maria James? - [image: Trace: who killed Maria James?] Trace: who killed Maria James? by Rachael Brown My rating: 5 of 5 stars Absolutely jaw-dropping, compelling readin...4 months ago
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Prince of Glass draft is done - I’ll be more forthcoming soon. Right now I’m exhausted and must prepare for a small bit of surgery tomorrow. I just wanted to say that the preliminary draf...5 months ago
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Representations of Otherness in Paranormal Romance: Nalini Singh and J.R. Ward - María T. Ramos-García (South Dakota State University) Session 12.2: Love in Other Worlds Abstract: There is currently a very heated debate in progress rega...5 months ago
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Parliamentarians learn about ground-breaking science on debilitating neurological disease - Originally posted on ISHO (ĭsh'ōō) : In parliament house in Canberra yesterday, members of federal parliament took the time to listen to world renowned sci...5 months ago
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The November Tour Press Release - *Peter Grant is coming to a bookshop near you. * Meet Ben Aaronovitch on his epic tour of Great Britain to celebrate the publication of his upcoming, new R...6 months ago
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Dance Photo Shoots - Photo Session Planning & Preparation Have you ever wanted to do a photo shoot for dance but have been a little unsure about how and what really happens? Pe...6 months ago
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Best of the Independent eBook Awards 2018 - I am honoured to have been chosen as a finalist for the eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Awards, along with my co-host at the Speculative ...6 months ago
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War, English Delusion, and the effect on the Economy (4) - It was fortunate for Henry V that someone on the Orleanist side of politics decided to murder the Duke of Burgundy. This persuaded the new duke, Philippe t...6 months ago
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SFTV 101 - SFTV 101: 1952 to 1980 For anyone interested in the history of science fiction, fantasy and horror on television, here is a list of episodes recommended...10 months ago
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Buying my books - So I have taken to Lulu - who originally assisted with the publication of The Woodcarver's Son . Anyone wanting to buy a copy of either the Woodcarver's S...11 months ago
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On Indefinite Hiatus - (Which I pretty much have been from this site for a while already, but for real now.) You can find most archive content through the On Writing page, and li...1 year ago
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Amazon Ranking and Bestseller Lists - What's the Deal? - It's really hard to draw conclusions in the self-pub marketing game. After almost ten years of self-publishing on Amazon, I still don't know why some ebook...1 year ago
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Literary Executors: Why you don’t want to be one, and how to know if you need one - So. A writer friend asks you to be their literary executor. You’re not exactly sure what a literary executor does, but you know you should feel honoured: a...1 year ago
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Promo for a promo - Check this out - it's my crowdfund campaign to fund an extra scene in my Cyrano film. The film is based on my novel *Pyrotechnicon: Being a True Account of...1 year ago
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First comes painting, Then comes sketching - While enjoying my new acrylics hobby, I started a painting and decided I wanted to include a dragon statue in one of them. There was, though, a hurdle I ha...1 year ago
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2017 Ditmar Winners Announced - Over the Queen’s Birthday weekend, spec fic fans gathered for Continuum 13: Triskaidekaphilia. Continuum is always a great convention, and this year it was...1 year ago
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Writing about the Crusades and talking about a "meddlesome priest" - The Middle Ages are in the news again, so here is a roundup of recent news articles. We start with three good reads from historians talking about the crusa...1 year ago
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The One and the Many – every Sunday - My first serious girlfriend came from good Roman Catholic stock. Having tried (and failed) to be raised as a Christian child and finding nothing but lifele...1 year ago
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A Shameless Plug Ian Likes: Bibliorati.com - A little-known fact is that I once had a gig reviewing books for five years. It was for a now-defunct website known as The Specusphere. It was awesome fun:...1 year ago
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Book Review - Nobody by Threasa Meads - Available from BooktopiaThe subtitle for this work is *A Liminal Autobiography*. Liminal: 1. relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process. 2...2 years ago
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A whole 'nother year-and-a-bit - Well, we have let this blog slip, haven't we? I guess Facebook has taken over from blogs to a very large degree, but I think there is still a need for blo...2 years ago
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2017 Potential Bee Calendar – & ladybirds and butterflies - Bees on flowers – all sorts of flowers (& bees) – and lady birds and butterflies. There were hundreds (literally) of photos to choose from. This is a small...2 years ago
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And Father Dragon said "let there be a planet...." - *Lo and behold, Dragon made a planet!!* Oh, I'm so very proud of myself so forgive me if I brag a little bit - way too much. I'm in the process of learni...2 years ago
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What is dyslexia? - *" **The bottob line it thit it doet exitt, no bitter whit nibe teottle give it(i.e ttecific lierning ditibility, etc) iccording to Thilly Thiywitz ( 2003)...2 years ago
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Maken Melodye on #WhanthatAprilleDay16 - Goode Friendes and Readeres of thys Litel Blog, Yt doth fill my litel herte wyth gret happinesse to invyte yow to the thirde yeare of a moost blisful and p...2 years ago

Favourite Sites
- Alan Baxter
- Andrew McKiernan
- Bren McDibble
- Celestine Lyons
- Guy Gavriel Kay
- Hal Spacejock (Simon Haynes)
- Inventing Reality
- Jacqueline Carey
- Jennifer Fallon
- Jessica Rydill
- Jessica Vivien
- Joel Fagin
- Juliet Marillier
- KA Bedford
- Karen Miller
- KSP Writers Centre
- Lynn Flewelling
- Marianne de Pierres
- Phill Berrie
- Ryan Flavell
- Satima's Professional Editing Services
- SF Novelists' Blog
- SF Signal
- Shane Jiraiya Cummings
- Society of Editors, WA
- Stephen Thompson
- Yellow wallpaper

Blog Archive
Writing in dialect, accent and register


From time
to time, writers need to depict a character who speaks with an accent, in a
dialect, or even in a foreign language. And quite often, we will have a group
of characters who are involved in, let’s say, magic. The area of interest, be
it magic or anything else, will require its own register, of which more later.
Idiosyncratic speech can make writing tricky. But before we consider how best to handle the situation, let’s take a closer look at just what these terms mean.
A language is a communication system shared by a number of people. English is today an international language, not limited by national borders. Esperanto is an invented language, intended to provide a relatively simple means of communication among people who have no common language. Auslan is the sign language of the Australian deaf community. Cornish is a dead language that has been revived by a few natives of the county who are eager to give the ancient tongue a new lease of life.
Most languages contain more than one dialect. A dialect is a variety of language used by a specific speech community. A dialect may have noticeable differences in grammar, syntax and vocabulary from the ‘standard’ form of the language. ‘Dialect’ implies that it is spoken by many or most people who live in a particular area, so we talk, for instance of someone speaking in a Yorkshire dialect. But Black American English is definitely a dialect, and it is not limited to any particular area. Cultural factors can also come into play.
There’s a difference between a dialect and an accent. The term 'accent' usually refers to the way people pronounce words in a particular area. For example, most English people pronounce the name of the fodder crop lucerne with the accent on the second syllable, while their Australian cousins put the accent on the first syllable. Both Brits and Australians pronounce ‘buoy’ the same way as ‘boy’, while their Stateside buddies will say ‘booi’. However, Brits, Aussies and Americans (and Kiwis, South Africans Canadians and Indians, among others!) who speak a reasonably standard form of their country’s version of English can generally understand each other without too many hitches, so they are said to be speaking ‘with an accent' rather than ‘in a dialect’.
But try putting a country Cornishman, a country Queenslander and a native of the Deep South in a room together. You would probably get a few laughs from their mutual incomprehension because it’s quite likely their accents would be so broad, and would contain so many mutually unintelligible words, that they could be said to be using dialect rather than accent. This is less true today, of course, than it was even 30 years ago, but even so, anyone who travels around the different English speaking countries will tell a story or two about failures of communication.
So what about our last term, register? A register is a variety of language associated with people's occupations and interests. 'Register' describes variations in language use connected with a particular topic. For instance, if I go to a writers meeting, I will hear expressions such as ‘protag’, ‘POV’, ‘sub’, synop’ ‘blurb’ all of which are either limited to people involved in writing and publishing or have a different meaning in the literary context than they do in everyday speech. But I might go straight from the writers meeting to review a ballet, and my review is likely to contain words such as pirouette, pas de deux, balon, elevation, flic-flac and entrechat, all of which are French in origin because France is where ballet was first codified, so it based its vocabulary on that language.
All of us have more than one register, which we will use in appropriate contexts. It’s useless for me to natter on about POV or balon at a get-together for people who practise Yoga, for example. I might find one or two folk there who knew what I was talking about, but generally, it would be inappropriate. We all know intuitively to restrict register use to its proper context.
So how would we deal with these situations if they form part of a story we want to set down on paper? Let’s start investigating that.
It is indeed a curly problem. Full-on dialect or an entire new language would be too hard to follow, because most readers are not willing to learn a whole new vocabulary. Some readers are willing – just look at the number of SF fans who have learnt to speak Klingon or Elvish. My friend Joanna Fay has even been known to write verse in Elvish now and then! But these enthusiasts constitute an exception, not a rule. Most readers cannot be bothered learning too many new words, especially since reading science fiction and fantasy invariably means learning strange new given names, family names and place names. We might also have to fix entire world-maps into our heads! Expecting us to learn an entirely new vocabulary is probably going a step too far.
How, then, can a writer represent an accent in writing? Let’s say, for instance, that you’ve decided to have a main character who comes from London. George Bernard Shaw did this very nicely in his play Pygmalion, which later became the musical My Fair Lady. He introduces his heroine, Eliza, this way:
Idiosyncratic speech can make writing tricky. But before we consider how best to handle the situation, let’s take a closer look at just what these terms mean.
A language is a communication system shared by a number of people. English is today an international language, not limited by national borders. Esperanto is an invented language, intended to provide a relatively simple means of communication among people who have no common language. Auslan is the sign language of the Australian deaf community. Cornish is a dead language that has been revived by a few natives of the county who are eager to give the ancient tongue a new lease of life.
Most languages contain more than one dialect. A dialect is a variety of language used by a specific speech community. A dialect may have noticeable differences in grammar, syntax and vocabulary from the ‘standard’ form of the language. ‘Dialect’ implies that it is spoken by many or most people who live in a particular area, so we talk, for instance of someone speaking in a Yorkshire dialect. But Black American English is definitely a dialect, and it is not limited to any particular area. Cultural factors can also come into play.
There’s a difference between a dialect and an accent. The term 'accent' usually refers to the way people pronounce words in a particular area. For example, most English people pronounce the name of the fodder crop lucerne with the accent on the second syllable, while their Australian cousins put the accent on the first syllable. Both Brits and Australians pronounce ‘buoy’ the same way as ‘boy’, while their Stateside buddies will say ‘booi’. However, Brits, Aussies and Americans (and Kiwis, South Africans Canadians and Indians, among others!) who speak a reasonably standard form of their country’s version of English can generally understand each other without too many hitches, so they are said to be speaking ‘with an accent' rather than ‘in a dialect’.
But try putting a country Cornishman, a country Queenslander and a native of the Deep South in a room together. You would probably get a few laughs from their mutual incomprehension because it’s quite likely their accents would be so broad, and would contain so many mutually unintelligible words, that they could be said to be using dialect rather than accent. This is less true today, of course, than it was even 30 years ago, but even so, anyone who travels around the different English speaking countries will tell a story or two about failures of communication.
So what about our last term, register? A register is a variety of language associated with people's occupations and interests. 'Register' describes variations in language use connected with a particular topic. For instance, if I go to a writers meeting, I will hear expressions such as ‘protag’, ‘POV’, ‘sub’, synop’ ‘blurb’ all of which are either limited to people involved in writing and publishing or have a different meaning in the literary context than they do in everyday speech. But I might go straight from the writers meeting to review a ballet, and my review is likely to contain words such as pirouette, pas de deux, balon, elevation, flic-flac and entrechat, all of which are French in origin because France is where ballet was first codified, so it based its vocabulary on that language.
All of us have more than one register, which we will use in appropriate contexts. It’s useless for me to natter on about POV or balon at a get-together for people who practise Yoga, for example. I might find one or two folk there who knew what I was talking about, but generally, it would be inappropriate. We all know intuitively to restrict register use to its proper context.
So how would we deal with these situations if they form part of a story we want to set down on paper? Let’s start investigating that.
It is indeed a curly problem. Full-on dialect or an entire new language would be too hard to follow, because most readers are not willing to learn a whole new vocabulary. Some readers are willing – just look at the number of SF fans who have learnt to speak Klingon or Elvish. My friend Joanna Fay has even been known to write verse in Elvish now and then! But these enthusiasts constitute an exception, not a rule. Most readers cannot be bothered learning too many new words, especially since reading science fiction and fantasy invariably means learning strange new given names, family names and place names. We might also have to fix entire world-maps into our heads! Expecting us to learn an entirely new vocabulary is probably going a step too far.
How, then, can a writer represent an accent in writing? Let’s say, for instance, that you’ve decided to have a main character who comes from London. George Bernard Shaw did this very nicely in his play Pygmalion, which later became the musical My Fair Lady. He introduces his heroine, Eliza, this way:
‘Ow, eez ye-ooa san, is e? Wal, fewd dan y' de-ooty bawmz a mather
should, eed now bettern to spawl a pore gel's flahrzn than ran awy athaht pyin.
Will ye-oo py me f'them? [Here, with apologies, this desperate attempt to
represent her dialect without a phonetic alphabet must be abandoned as
unintelligible outside London.]’ Note Shaw’s directive at the end. Having established the accent, he
modifies his representation of Eliza’s speech considerably thereafter, and
tells us he is about to do it. But Shaw was a playwright. A novelist can’t step
into the text and explain that she’s given up on the accent, so she has to find
another way of approaching the problem.
The best way, perhaps, is to pick out a few characteristics of the
dialect and show only those in the way you transcribe the character’s speech.
To make your point, you can be a bit heavy-handed when you first introduce the
character and then tone it down over the course of a few scenes until only
hints of the accent remain. But don’t copy Shaw’s efforts by trying to
represent the accent by long screeds of text with apostrophes to denote dropped
letters. He was giving us a lesson in what not to do!
So can you ever use a seriously full-on accent? Most readers, I think,
are OK with an accent that involves just one or two characters, and if those
characters are of the ‘cameo’ kind – people who just drop into the story once
or twice to fulfil some purpose of the plot – so much the better. But an accent
can pall if it is general throughout the book. It is tiresome to read long
screeds of text with apostrophes to denote dropped aitches at the start of
particular words and dropped g’s from the end of –ing words, for instance, as
you would have to do with a Cockney accent like Eliza Doolittle’s. Strange
spelling to represent regional pronunciation is also a sticky problem, and
without using IPA (the International Phonetic
Alphabet) it’s not reliable. Besides, most people don’t know IPA.
Perhaps the safest way to approach the writing of an accent is by
representing not the sounds so much as the patterns and figures of speech that
characterise both accent and dialect. For example, using Yorkshire again, we
might have a character use expressions such as ‘our lass’ when referring to a
daughter or sister, or ‘our kid’ for a son or brother. Idioms such as ‘Put wood
in th’ole’ for ‘Shut the door’ and ‘Mash the tea’ for ‘pour boiling water on tea
leaves’ would also quickly set the scene as Yorkshire. (West Australian author
Anna Jacobs does this kind of thing particularly well in her historical novels,
which are set in Lancashire.)
You can, however, get away with introducing a handful of dialectal words
whose meaning is always obvious from the context. Greetings are an obvious
choice. The standard Yorkshire greetings ‘Eh yup’ (an old Norse greeting –
Yorkshire was overrun by Vikings in the ninth century, as any Bernard Cornwell
fan will tell you!) ‘Aw reet then’ (All right then) and 'Nah theen' (Now then)
will immediately tell your readers where they are, as will the old Cockney
‘Wotcha, cock!’or the Australia 'G'day'. Even people from other counties or countries will
quickly cotton on to the fact that these are greetings. If you’re working with
an invented society, it’s easy enough to create a few greetings for your
characters to use.
Register likewise needs to be introduced gradually and in a piecemeal
manner, dropping in a word here, a phrase there, making sure that the reader
has ample opportunity to digest each new word or expression before bringing in
more. Let’s say we have a magical system that involves a process called
sprunking, that involves taking several different spells then condensing and
combining them so that the wizard has only to work one spell for all to take
effect. Here’s a bit of imaginary dialogue between a wizard and his apprentice:
‘Shaynee, did you remember to sprunk in the speeded-up turnip-cooking
spell when you set up the cauldron for the stew?’
‘Yes, sir, I sprunked it in with the fire spell.’
‘You did what? Demons below, child, haven’t I told you a dozen times or
more that you can only sprunk similar things together? A fire spell is a fire
spell; a cooking spell is a cooking spell, and you can’t mix the two. First you
must deal with the ingredients. You must sprunk in the bit about fast cooking
when you call up the turnips.’
That will give the reader a bit of an idea what’s involved in sprunking.
To reinforce the idea, the author might show Shaynee working another spell a
few scenes later; a spell that involves sprunking, say, a wood-drying spell
while making fire.
So, when introducing dialect or register, start with just one or two
words, mention each one a couple of times, then introduce one or two more
related ‘jargon’ words the third time the first two are mentioned. Repeat from
the top until all the required new vocab has been introduced. If you throw too
many new words at your reader in the first few scenes, some of them will give
up before the end of chapter one and possibly refuse to look at anything of
yours again, ever!
Slowly, slowly, catchee reader.
The article first appeared in two instalments on the Egoboo blog in 2012.
The article first appeared in two instalments on the Egoboo blog in 2012.
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