: Re: Can I use spoken English at some places over 'technically accurate English' in a general fiction? I have written my novel as a 'first person singular' and in past tense. There are lot of times

@Annie587

Vote Up Vote Down

In dialog, you most certainly should have your characters speak like real people actually speak, and not in formal written English.
Like in real life, if I hear someone coming in the door and I call out, "Who's there?", they're very likely to say, "It's me". Very few people would say, "It is I." Or the person might say simply, "Bob". They would be very unlikely to say, "The person who has just entered the room is Robert G Miller." You might have a character who talks very formally as a way to make him distinctive, but if everyone talks like that, your story would be wildly unrealistic.
I see that Amadeus mentions using "umm" and "ah" and such words. In real life, we often break up sentences with pauses and words like "umm", and people listening never notice it. I'd say that you should only include such words in dialogue when you need to emphasize a pause. Like:

"Where have you been?" Sally asked.
"I was just, umm, at the, uh, grocery store," Bob replied.

In real life, that might be what someone would routinely say. But if I read that in a story, I'd interpret those as exaggerated pauses, like Bob is lying about where he was and is trying to make up a story.
Whether narration should use complete, grammatically correct sentences is a different question. It depends on the tone you want to create. I think most stories give narration in complete, correct sentences, but you can use more conversational English if you want to create a chatty tone.

(0)

Login to post a comment!