I know that my editors specifically wanted a Southern writer for the two series I’m writing for Penguin. They do get the South when they hire me on.
That being said, portraying a specific region can be tricky. I think dialect can be annoying to read, if you’re using it broadly. Southerners are fond of dropping gs, for instance. That would get old after a while. In fact, if you phonetically wrote out Southern dialect, it would be incredibly difficult to read.
So what I aim for is using some Southern vocabulary/colloquialism, and traditions/customs, climate, and common local settings to help readers take a vicarious trip to the Southern US.
In dialogue, it’s also easier to bring it out in a natural way. Many Southern women (and some men) use endearments in addressing nearly everyone—even strangers. That’s something that’s easy to drop into dialogue.
There are some words that are apparently too obscure and cause readers to slow down or pop out of the story while they try to decipher it. That’s not, obviously, what we want. I’ve had editors edit out a number of word choices that I didn’t think anything about. But the reason I didn’t think anything about them is because I’ve always lived in Southern states. So tote as a verb went, buggy was quickly dispatched for shopping cart (a particularly soulless substitution, I thought), roll in terms of pranking (it was fascinating having a discussion with my Manhattan-based editor on toilet papering someone’s yard…it’s roll down here, but apparently not up there). But the one that particularly stumped me was when my editor asked me what the heck an eye was (in terms of cooking). I emailed several friends and family before responding to her. What else do you call it? You put your pot on an eye and bring the water to a boil. What on earth could it possibly be? No one had any ideas, so I emailed her back and told her it was the black coil on top of the stove. She substituted heating element. I shook my head over that one but left it alone.
Traditions or customs are also important ways to bring a region into your story. Food is hugely important in the South… it’s not particularly healthy food, either. So writing in fried chicken and potato salad and ham biscuits and barbeque (I’ve got a whole series with barbeque as a hook), pimento cheese sandwiches, black-eyed peas…it all goes in to give readers a taste of the South.
Customs surrounding weddings and funerals are thrown into the books, too. The fact that there is a huge food-centric process to grieving here plays a part in my books (and provides my sleuth with opportunities to interact with suspects). The close-knit nature of many extended families in the South, the willingness to talk with strangers (along with what might seem like a contradictory suspicion of outsiders in small towns), and the slower pace of life.
Writing a region also involves bringing in settings where people commonly interact—whether it’s a diner or a ball field, or a church. And it’s difficult to realistically write about the South without bringing in church somehow, although I don’t touch religion itself with a ten-foot pole. Actually, now that I think of it, I’ve had two murders take place at church.
Even the old architecture—houses with big verandas and space for rocking chairs. Swimming pools, screen porches, and gobs of air conditioning.
Which brings in another element—the weather and climate. The long summers. And humidity that can almost stop you in your tracks when you walk outside.
Do you focus on a particular region in your writing? How do you pull a reader in?
Image: MorgueFile: katmystiry
Elizabeth – I think you’ve put your finger on one of the most important ways to give a book a solid setting. It’s those subtle touches that make such a big difference. As you say, certain customs, kinds of food, and events let the reader know without any sense of confusion where the story is set.
I also use things like scenery. My work’s set further north – in the U.S. Middle Atlantic (Pennsylvania). So for instance, if I mention trees, it’s oak trees, not cypress or magnolia – that kind of thing.
Wonderfully done.
I need to get back to Savannah this winter.
The South gets so much attention in the literary world. You have so much culture and history. It’s like it’s own country (well, it almost was one!). With the exception of the Midwest, no other U.S. region is as well-represented and fascinating to readers than the south. You’re very lucky to be one of those southern writers!
Happy reading and writing! from Laura Marcella @ Wavy Lines
I imagine ‘slam’ and ‘double-wide’ weren’t your editor’s favorite words either.
Customs are a great way to show region. Especially with food. Such as hoping church gets out a little early so you can beat all the Baptists to the buffet.
Laura –It’s an interesting place, all right. With my genre, I keep to the highlights. There’s also quite a bit of poverty and ignorance here, but those are for other genres to wrestle with. Although one day I’d love to take a stab at Southern Gothic.
Alex–Ha! You’re right. And I keep running into things that they edit out…and I have no idea they’re dialect.
Yes! Yes, we have a game called Beat the Baptists here. You *have* to be in a seat in a restaurant at 12:15 or else you’re doomed! (For those who aren’t familiar, the Baptists have very loyal church-goers, huge congregations, and are fond of eating Sunday dinner out. But their services run a bit later than most–I’m Presbyterian–so we can beat them if we hurry out of church…)
Margot–I think the more subtle it is, the less like a really boring lecture, the better!
Flora and fauna for the area…good way to establish setting.
Jack–Check the weather before you do…we’re supposed to have an unusually cold winter (and I’m trying to figure out what on earth I did with my sweaters…)
I am now SOOOO mad at your New York editors. Interesting regional terminology is what makes regional mysteries FUN.
(Also the correct northern word for “eye” would be “burner.”)
I “hear” the northern lower Michigan dialect as I write, but it’s normal to me, so I just write the words. But people do assume a dropped G means “southern” so I try to add in some localism when I have someone who speaks with a dropped G. (“Ya, that’s where I’m goin’, eh?” Well maybe not both Ya and eh.)
I did make it a minor plot point in The Man Who Did Too Much that in Michigan we pronounce “Pere Marquette” as “Pier Marquette” when we’re talking about anything but the person. And of course, I use the places and the laid back seasonal culture of a tourist economy.
Of course, I have an outsider to the region as a major character, to ask questions and react. He gets to observe things like social distance (a good three feet!) too.
BTW: I learned when I was a baby writer that every indication of dialect you add intensifies the dialect in the readers mind, so if you don’t want people to imagine a really thick accent, just put in a single reminder once in a while. (Hence the “Ya” or “Eh”, but not both, and not often, unless you want to exaggerate the accent.)
Camille–I know. I’ve bitten my tongue a few times. Figured it’s always good to pick our battles, right? The only time I really fought back was years ago when there was a deliberate error in the *other* direction–an editor changed/uncorrected something to make it wrong (but, she thought, Southern). I said that the character was educated and there was no way she would have written/said that. It was changed. :)
I like ‘burner’ *so* much more than ‘heating element’. Gosh, wish we’d have come up with that.
Right–lots of dropped gs in plenty of dialects. I hear that our dropped g was a British holdover.
So, so easy to overdo dialect. I like your idea to do sporadic examples in a character’s dialogue. And I also like your idea of having an outsider to the region to react to some of what he hears/sees/experiences.
I remember trying to read “The Secret Garden” as a kid and really working to figure out the dialect of the gardener (Ben, was he?). I guess he had a Scottish accent? Something? Rural England? It was really, really tough to figure it out and it made an impact on me.
I grew up in the South and there’s still a lot of Southern in me. But we called toilet-papering “T.P.’ing” and I never, ever heard of an eye on a stove. You’d just put your pot on the stove. If I was asked, I’d probably call it the burner or heat-coil. Maybe it’s even more regional than just “south”?
But it’s sad tote & buggy were removed – I’ve never even thought of those as southernisms! My favorite southerism is calling all soda “coke”.
Lady Saotome–I think you’re probably right. In fact–my mom’s from Macon, Georgia and I know she says things that people in SC have never ever heard.
You made me smile with the coke. :) We order like this:
Waiter: “What would you like to drink?”
Customer: “Coke.”
Waiter: “What kind of Coke?”
Customer: “7-Up.” :)
Yes! lol
I remember going someplace once (not in the South) and asking for a coke and being told “we only have Pepsi” and we were like, “and your point is?”
I also remember watching a movie and a girl offers a guy a pop & next thing they are sitting outside drinking cokes. And my sisters and I were so confused! We thought they must have been out of pops and switched to coke instead? ;)
Oh – and my favorite southern expression ever, “I’m peachy as frog’s hair!” Cracks me up, every time.
Lady–Ha! Love it!
The first time I ever heard someone use the word ‘pop’ for ‘soft drink’ was when I was in college. I was so totally confused….
So many funny expressions. I used to hear, in regards to unattractive people, “he was nobody’s pretty child.” That can still make me smile :)
For lighter reading, I can see smoothing things over a bit. But if we can figure out what Mark Twain meant when a kid says to Tom Sawyer “Top that hat!” or when Tom “‘lowed he’d lay for that kid” then we can sort out tote and buggy. (Which, having lived in Texas 7 years, wouldn’t confuse me none.)
“Eye” would have gotten me though. Never heard that one. In Texas it’s just “the stove top” most places.
But heating element? Really? Is “burner” some obscure northernism?
Some friends from here in Wisconsin went to visit family in Utah. They stopped in a restaurant on Friday and ordered “the fish fry.” What they got was blank stares.
Round these parts, every restaurant except the fast food chains has all-you-can-eat fried fish on Friday nights. All of them. I guess when you live in a state that’s 30% rivers lakes and streams, you do something about it.
I have to ask your outsider’s opinion, E — where did my book fall on this spectrum? Did I throw in too much Irishness, not enough, or did you even notice?
Joel–Ha! Well, I’m no Twain, cause that stuff got edited out in no time! :)
I really could barely stomach ‘heating element,’ but you know…picking your battles and all that. Now, if I’d put ‘eye’ (or, for that matter, tote and buggy) in dialogue, I could have gotten away with it. I can get away with anything in dialogue, as long as there’s good context.
Wonder what they call it in Utah? We do have fish fries here in Charlotte (think our church threw one for charity last year), but I think that’s due to the influx of folks from other parts of the country to our warmer clime. :)
I thought your use in “Through the Fog” was subtle and a nice accent to your story. And that’s what we’re all shooting for.
Here’s a trick I use with editors.
If the word can be figured out in context, I offer that as a reason to let it stay. It’s the same thing as a character using professional jargon or historical terms used in a period novel. Readers aren’t dumb, and most can figure it out.
I do my best to introduce midwestern things in my books–my region where I live. Being that I live in a major BBQ hub (Kansas City), it’s easy to have my characters eat at every BBQ joint in town! ;) Other things that make it into my own stories are the weather predominantly, as well as a bit of state rivalry (Kansas/Missouri–and not the college sports teams!) If I can ever get a story set outside of the metro, I’m sure I’ll be facing waving wheat fields and herds of cattle roaming the prairie. :)
Marilynn–I’ll have to see if I can get away with it. If it’s in dialogue, it’s never a problem, but in narrative, they usually aren’t wild about it.
Liberty–State rivalry is a great idea and food is always wonderful. Nice to play up the good parts of our region.