: 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

@Caterina108

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The thing that bothers me in the examples given is that the misworded phrases, quite frankly, make no sense, at least to me. If the translation was not provided, I would never guess, that dandy means lady (the word having exactly the opposite meaning), and built is a substitute for milk.

Even if you call milk silk, it would not help, because the phrase is so laden with senseless malaprops, that is starting to sound like a jargon or code, which the reader does not know, and do not understand.

And people tend not to read things they do not understand.

In order for intentional word substitution to work, it must be clear for the reader, what was the correct word that got butchered. Then it might even have some primitive comic effect:

Alrighty, folks, let's excrement with this...

Or (this one is from real 2.5-year-old art student):

There are two kinds of paintings: extract and reallipstick!

Writing a character who talks code undecipherable by anyone but the author is precarious unless that is the whole point of the story (there are mental disorders which make people speak in a similar manner), and he is a key witness to a murder case, whom no one understands.

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