Monday, December 7, 2015

A WORD IS WORTH A THOUSAND PICS

OK…
I’m going to fess up…
I filled out a form on Match.com…
A year ago!
But quit because of…um…er…well…
I’ll write about that in another post.
But even though I quit my subscription…
I still get teasing emails like this one that reads…
HE emailed you. Find out what HE said.
** thinking…thinking…thinking **
Yup, I dared to open the email from—HE
(FYI there were no photos, just his words)
Hi my name is Ronnie you sure nice looking woman
What?
Huh?
Interpretation please!
No, not the sentiment…
I get that he thinks I’m a nice looking woman…
And yes, sometimes we all misspell…
But surely…  
There are missing words, no?
Like, “you sure are a nice looking woman.”
Or IS this the way he talks for real?
His vernacular?
And if it is…
** thinking…thinking…thinking **
An image is forming in my brain…
That he’s a backwoodsman with no teeth…
Scraggly hair…
And a couple of hound dogs by his side.
But then it occurred to me…
It was because of his vernacular…
That I got that image in my head…
So I’m wondering…
How important do you think vernacular is in a story?
Have you ever used a character’s vernacular…
In any of your novels?
Care to give an example?

Always,

Em-Musing

6 comments:

Unknown said...

So, this is why they say.... Show, don't tell!!

Arlee Bird said...

I've never even explored on of those sites and I seem to get emails everyday with "women" saying far more graphic things. I'm sure it's all a phishing scam and my wife would be very upset with me if she knew I were responding to such sleazy messages that I receive.

I'm not so hot with vernacular so I've avoided it for the most part. I probably slip into it on occasion and I have experimented--with vernacular that is.

Arlee Bird
Wrote By Rote

Anne Gallagher said...

I do use vernacular in my stories. For instance, one of my characters always says, "How you doing?" Not "how are you doing?" It's just a quirk of his.

I think if we write the way people actually speak, it lends a lot more to the story than if we used "good" English.

And hey, it's great to see you again. I'm glad you're back from your whirlwind tour. I haven't been by because I've been, well, writing, and junk. But I'll be watching for you from now on.

And yes, in answer to your question on my blog, the new book will be out in paperback. but not until after Christmas. Lots of formatting to do for that. Ugh.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Indeed that's why it's so important. Can you imagine if Edison had a southern slang? Everyone would've thought he was an idiot.
I've seen worse. Robyn at Life by Chocolate posts personal ads sometimes and they are hilarious.

Misha Gerrick said...

I have, and it does completely alter the voice. :-)

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