Voices

There is a bit of discussion going on about the voices of Mistmantle characters. I never write in strong dialects or accents because that can be a struggle to read, and therefore slow down the reading process. The reader wants to be absorbed in what a character says and where that leads us, not struggling over the pronunciation. Archie's War is mostly set in Yorkshire and I just hint at the Yorkshire-ness of it, missing out 'the' and maybe slipping in a Yorkshire-ism now and then. A Yorkshire lad might say 'right' instead of 'very'. I like to sketch accents in lightly.

If a character has voice mannerisms, they bring them into the story all by themselves. I don't have to make it up.

The important thing about Apple's voice is that it rarely stops, and she can never quite finish a sentence because she doesn't know where she left the beginning. I imagined her as broadly West Country (think of Sam Gamgee in the film of Lord of the Rings), but the excellent Andrew Sachs, when he read it on the CD, makes her more an East End London squirrel. There's something a bit Yorkshire about the moles, practical creatures that they are. Hope is breathy and eager and well spoken. Gleaner is petulant, and Tay sounds like a headmistress or a very severe magistrate. Brother Fir is a combination of various people I have known, principally two Franciscan brothers. He has Brother Richard's eyes and his limp, but his mannerisms are more to do with Brother Dennis. The 'H'm' is all his own.

If this isn't the way you hear them, don't worry. The way you hear them is what's right for you. They are telling you their story in a language you share. They're good like that. They communicate. That's what cin stories do.