On 22 May 2001, at 21:24, Sajeev wrote:
> I am planning to write an Action-Adventure Fiction Work in American
> English. :-) In this regard, I am looking for some guidance
>
> 1.) to write proper American English, especially conversations.
> 2.) about some popular current American fiction works / authors.
> Could you please find some helpful sites for me?
>
> This fiction work, if finished, would be dedicated to SeeknFinders, I
> promise.
This is not an easy question to answer. Conversation is rarely
grammatically correct. Therefore, dialog in a fictional setting
would not be very realistic if it followed each and every English
grammar rule. A good author inflects dialog with colloquialisms,
accents, and in some cases, the slang of the times. It also depends
on your characters. If you characters are highly educated, their
dialog would tend to me more grammatically correct, but even in that
event, dialog still becomes spiced with words and inflections that do
not always follow the rules. Imagine reading a novel about coal
miners from West Virginia and the author wrote their dialog in such a
way as they were all speaking "The King's English." Such a novel
would not be believable.
There is an old adage in writing -- "Write about what you know." You
might find more success writing a story about something in India and
then translating that into English, but trying to preserve the
character of the dialog into the translation.
Here is a page that will give you some tips on the writing dialog
style:
http://www.ba.k12.ok.us/schools/bahs/nlyons/teachers/Miser/dialog.html
I think you will also find the following style and usage links at the
WritersExchange site at About.com, helpful:
http://writerexchange.about.com/arts/writerexchange/cs/
styleusage/index.htm
Note: The above URL is actually one continuous line and should be
entered into your browser's address box as one line.
Good luck, Sajeev.
Alan
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
