: Re: Really Stuck: Writing Dialogue I am currently working on my first novel so forgive me for making what is probably considered the mistake of a 'novice'. My novel is set in the present, however

@Goswami879

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If your antagonist is living in the present time (but is 1000 years old), then is there any reason to believe that his speech hasn't evolved? Think about what happens to people when they move to a new place with language patterns different from the ones they grew up with; don't they tend to adapt?

That said, people adapt slowly, and a 1000-year-old character probably has a lot of built-up habit/precedent. So perhaps he speaks a slightly different English than other characters, one infused with archaic words and odd grammatical structures. Don't go as far as Yoda, but you can make him linguistically different without having to write in a foreign language (which your readers probably won't understand).

As for the fact that he didn't speak English all that time, translation of dialogue into the reader's language is pretty common. Tolkein's elves speak Elvish but you can understand most of their dialogue -- but you still know they're not human.

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