: Re: How do you write dialog for a character with malapropism without it seeming forced? I have a character who has a tendency towards malapropism but I find that in every sentence she speaks I

@Carla500

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Is this a comedic story or a straightforward/dramatic one?

If it's a comedic story, then just run with it, because everything is supposed to be exaggerated. Your characters may not even have to note the malaprops.

If it's a straightforward one, then the other characters should notice the slips. If your character speaks frequently in malaprops, you may be editing them out because you subsconsciously know that it's a weird way to speak, and your other characters are behaving as though it's not happening — which doesn't work for a non-comedic story.

You can get away with more of this in a dramatic story if English (or whatever you're writing in) is not Mr. Malaprop's first language. You might possibly also be able to do it if Mr. Malaprop himself is aware of it because it happens when he's very nervous (or something similar) and can't stop himself. Then it becomes character development: he knows it's happening, he knows how it sounds, but he can't fix it.

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