#plus writing a bilingual/multilingual character is a bit difficult

[lideria]

Rosebud. | Johnny

Request: Hi, could you maybe do an imagine of jaehyun or johnny on a reality show with the reader or “y/n” as their spouse and the audience sees how well they treat their child and how smart the child is for speaking multiple languages

Author’s Note: I’ve never ever written something like this before and it is way out of my usual writing style, so please excuse me if it feels a bit strange- it’s on me heheh 

Important for the sake of the piece: I try to write my pieces as gender neutrally as possible, so I pulled a quick headcanon when it came to the parent title. Basically, Johnny calls his spouse rose, and his daughter is naturally called rosebud, because the rosebud is dependent on the rose to grow. By the nature of their relationship, the parent title for the reader essentially becomes rose.

Warnings: None? I think? Please let me know if there is any? English is my second language, so there might be errors!

Word Count: 1719 I’m sorry it’s so short hhhhh

Genre: Pure fluff and nothing else.

Hope you all enjoy! Have a great morning/day/evening/night!! 💚

Out of all the things you would have thought parenthood would bring you, appearing on TV with your child and husband was never one of them.

Maybe, and probably, it should have felt like a given considering your husband was a well known person around the country— the whole world, really. That fact loses its significance once you decide to have a child together. The tours and recordings do not feel like a big deal anymore, because after years of being in a relationship you have already got them down, and being a family; welcoming a child into the world makes its way into the center of all the priorities. Then comes raising the child, spending time with them, getting to experience things with them for the first time.

This is one of them. And it feels all the more exciting since this is the first proper time your daughter would be experiencing something from her father’s world— the world all of you had been distanced from for a good while.

Plus, she seems to like it when you make your way into the set as they start recording, and the studio fills with applause after the hosts announce your names as guests. Johnny and you grab her hands from either side as you walk and lift her up a little, making her giggle.

The audience seems to adore the youngling, because you can see the fond smile on their faces. Left and right, women and men, young and old.

You make your way to the designated seats with your daughter in the middle with Johnny and you sitting on either side of her. The two of you hold the not-so-flimsy looking chair in place just in case because your daughter loves climbing on things, and her falling down and having a crying fit was not something you would want to happen.

“Look who we have here, everyone,” One of the hosts start. “It’s the Suh family!” He applauds, causing another wave of applause to ripple through the studio.

“We haven’t seen Johnny in a long time,” The other host states, prompting a smile from Johnny. After her statement, the first half of the hosts agrees to her words. “That’s true, we haven’t seen him in a studio for a long time now.” Your daughter seems to be lost in the conversation even though both Johnny and you had taken turns explaining her what would happen a few days ago. There are small signals of her starting to shy away a little from all the crowd around you, so you hold her hand and wink at her. This makes her smile a little, and you smile back.

“Actually, correction, we haven’t seen this couple in a long time,” The female host states with a warm smile on her face, her gaze directed at you. “Last time we saw you, you two were newlyweds.”

You nod your head. “Everything happened so quickly. It feels like 5 years have gone past in just a blink of my eyes.”

Johnny agrees in a heartbeat. “Exactly. After we had our daughter and especially after we went back to work it’s like we haven’t even gone through much time, but she’s so grown already.”

“Speaking of, how old is she exactly?” The male host asks, and when Johnny nods his head towards your daughter with a small smile, he smoothly turns to her instead. “How old are you, little lady?”

She takes her hand out of your grasp, and holds up four fingers. “I’m four years old!” Unlike who she had been looking, her answer is rather confident. You quickly add “International,” after she speaks, and the hosts nod in understanding, sounds of amazement leaving their mouths as they widen their eyes. “She’s almost in school!”

“I’m not sure if she’s excited for that yet,” You chuckle. “What do you mean?” A host asks, and before you can even speak, Johnny says the answer. “She’s been experiencing a lot of separation anxiety with kindergarten so we expect her to be less than eager with a full day at school.”

The hosts nod in understanding and give encouraging words to your daughter right after, making her laugh with the over exaggerated gestures and sweet mimics. Conversations are cut rather short after that point as the hosts get ready to reveal the real reason why you are on the show, and soon, Johnny’s Instagram stories come up to the big screen showing the three of you in front of a mirror, all in your pajamas.

“Ooh, look at us,” Johnny starts in English when he starts recording, showing off the pajamas. Your daughter seems to be distracted with whatever it is outside of the bathroom, where the mirror is, and where she is sitting on the countertop beside the sink. Johnny bumps her belly with his finger, making you chuckle. “Hey, rosebud, look here.” He points to the mirror and your daughter turns her head to look in the mirror with such an oblivious look on her face, it makes Johnny laugh at her cuteness. He turns his head to look at her, which she also does to look back at him, and he smiles. “What do we say before we go to sleep?”

“We say good night, and we say I love you, and we say goodbye to today, and we say thanks to today for making us happy,” She rambles, in English. The words get quieter as the sentence goes on, thanks to her running out of breath as she speaks. “And we say sleep tight.”

The shiniest, prettiest smile spreads across Johnny’s face at your daughter’s little grammar mistakes. He leans in to kiss her cheek, which is when the camera shuffles slightly. Steadying the camera immediately, he points at you, who is stood smiling at the ordeal. “Now what do we say to our rose before we go to bed?”

Your daughter looks at you, smiling wide. “We love you,” She says in a giddy voice, speaking in your mother language with a slight accent. Her arms hug your waist as tightly as they can muster before she mumbles.“Thanks for the new toys and the kisses. And the bedtime stories.”

And she continues to ramble and thank you for more things, in your opinion, completely sleep driven. Ice creams, delicious food, hugs, playing with her, and more. It makes you laugh fondly when she thanks you for not getting a kitten because now she wants a puppy, and you lift her up so she can lay her head on your shoulder before waving at the camera. “This little one needs sleep now, so good night everyone.”

The video ends right then. The coos of the audience had been clearly audible throughout the screening as they read the subtitles. “So she speaks 2 languages other than Korean?” The videos had gone viral, maybe because Johnny had not made an appearance on a social media platform for a rather long time, maybe because you knew the fans adored your daughter, or maybe really because of the talent she had shown.

Or, maybe all of the three.

“She does,” You confirm. “How did that work out with her being this young?” The female host asks, curiosity washing over her voice. Taking a deep breath, you answer.

“Both Johnny and I knew we wanted to raise her as bilingual, so we were using a mix of Korean and English at home— we still do,”

While you speak, one of the hosts come up to your daughter and offer her a small collection of snacks— some banana milk and a couple of chocolate mushrooms, before going back to his seat. She gasps at her favorite snack and gets to trying to open the bottle, which she fails at, and hands it to Johnny. He peels the cover off and puts the straw in before handing her the milk back, securing it in her hands.

“In my free time I spoke to her in my mother language, which is not much since we all tend to be at home at the same time, and I didn't want to sit her down and teach a language since she might get bored. But last year we visited my home country and relatives for the holidays, and I observed that she would respond to what they say with her actions but not words. So I realized she has a talent with languages, and started speaking to her more with my first language. Now I’d say she can speak around the same amount of words for all 3 languages, right?” You turn your head to Johnny for confirmation. He nods. “I think so too.”

“That is incredible,” The host claims in surprise. “She is so smart, your rosebud.”

At first your daughter seems to get embarrassed by the compliment, but then she grabs the couple of chocolate mushrooms she has and makes her way to the hosts, offering them the snacks. “For us?” The male host asks as if he was not the one that handed her the chocolates just moments ago, and she nods. “I want to share.”

The audience coos once again, and even the hosts hold onto their hearts briefly before they take the snacks out of her hand and thank her.

If there is one thing that embarrasses your daughter more than anything it is getting thanked for something, so it is not surprising when she skips to Johnny for refuge. He picks her up and makes her sit on his lap where she will have the opportunity to bury her face into the crook of his neck to hide, prompting lighthearted laughter from the audience.

“I don’t want to embarrass her further,” The female host whispers. “But she’s also really well-behaved. I think you two make great parents.”

Both Johnny and you turn your heads to look at each other, and he holds out the hand that is not supporting your daughter’s back. You bump your fist into his, not caring about the reaction from the audience or the hosts because wow, this was a compliment you always wanted to get and it felt good to finally get it from someone.

This experience would definitely be a memorable one after all. “Thank you.”

[amorremanet]

@apolloniae Okay, first: skffghfk, omg wow, thank you!! That means a lot, especially since this passage is all still early-ish in the writing process for me (like… it’s not as early as the borderline stream of consciousness first-person POV stuff that I was writing with this project last summer, but it’s still fairly early), and I consider it pretty rough still

THAT SAID. omg, dialogue is actually something I both love and dread writing, because I never feel like I have the best gauge on how much is enough or if I’m shoving in too much exposition with it or what, but! I have a couple things I rely on

Not-so-fun secret first: that particular section might be a pretty early draft, but I’ve still revised it something like four times, from jotting the initial idea down longhand, through the different typed versions of this scene that I’ve written (which have gotten changed around pretty significantly), and revisions help a lot with dialogue, in my experience. They can be anything from small stuff like figuring out a better word order but mostly keeping things the same, to taking a really sketchy outline (e.g., “A says something about B’s shoes, B thinks A is being rude and what is up with that, and C is just happy to be here, why can’t we all get along” or full on snatches of dialogue, but written in a way that doesn’t fit the characters) and building the scene up from there. Either way, revisions are a writer’s friend.

But, okay. Speaking more generally: the best place to start is just getting familiar with dialogue, both in real life and in fiction. You really do need both of these influences to write dialogue, because getting more familiar with how people speak IRL can help your dialogue feel realistic — and in some cases, it can be really important to have that verisimilitude, e.g. when you’re writing a bilingual or multilingual character and don’t want to fall into some of the more tired, unrealistic tropes of how multilingualism can manifest in people’s speech; and when you’re writing a deaf character (disclaimer that I’m not deaf, and this fic isn’t the be-all and end-all of how to do this well, but I really like the portrayals of Steve and Clint in, “Trump Diet” by caloriebomb on AO3, and they’re pretty well-researched and well-written portrayals of deaf characters).

On the other hand, though, only listening to how people talk IRL isn’t enough. You can learn a lot from that, for sure — especially when it comes to things like how people present themselves from situation to situation, and how their speech patterns or word choices can change in different contexts (from full-fledged code-switching, to more simple things like swapping in child-friendly substitutes for swear words when you’re with your godkids/younger sibling/grandma/whoever) — but you also need to look at how different techniques for writing dialogue work or don’t in order to figure out how to best present the dialogue so that it helps tell your story.

Different writers also have different strengths that you can learn from, e.g. JKR is really good at blending summaries of things the audience already knows into new scenes (like Harry witnessing the, “Snape brings Remus his Wolfsbane Potion” scene, then immediately running and telling Ron and Hermione), vs. Neil Gaiman’s ability to make dialogue read as realistic and natural even while his characters are talking about patently non-realistic things like magic and whatnot (which I think especially comes out in American Gods, but I’m biased because I’ve been rereading it in honor of the TV series starting), vs. the way that the late, great Terry Pratchett had of really making the dialects, accents, and so on a part of his characters, rather than something pasted on (JKR can also be good at that, but sometimes she goes a bit overboard). So, reading as much as you can is good, and paying attention to how the different writers use dialogue will help you write your own.

Unfortunately, a lot of dialogue-writing ends up being a, “play it by ear” sort of thing. You can easily overdo it with flowery dialogue tags, or repeating, “said” too much. Having too much action between bits of dialogue can bog down the scene, but not having enough can make it feel like nothing’s happening while these people talk (plus, what characters do or not during a conversation can help characterize them as much as, or arguably more than, what they say and how they say it).

One of the biggest pitfalls for a lot of writers is that we put too much dialogue in, usually focusing on the parts of conversations that don’t do anything to help show who the characters are or tell the story. Like, unless your characters have a particularly unique way of saying, “hello” (and showing that to the audience helps establish the characters for us), or there’s something important about how they answer questions like, “Nice day, isn’t it?” (e.g., the, “Wonderful weather this morning” / “Yes, but I always carry an umbrella” exchange from CATFA, because it’s not actually about the weather, but is the password into the secret SSR laboratory), or, “How’re you doing?” (e.g., your character is someone who doesn’t actually respond to that question with some variation on, “Fine, and you?”), then there’s a lot of dialogue that you can probably skip.

However, it can sometimes be difficult to tell where the too much/not enough line is, once you get past that — which really just goes back to the, “Revisions are your friend and you shouldn’t be afraid of them. They don’t mean you’re a bad writer; they’re a part of making your work stronger and telling your stories in the best ways for them” point.

Finally, though, the best rule of thumb is just knowing your characters. Knowing at least a few baseline things about where your characters come from and how they present themselves are helpful for finding their voices and keeping true to it in different scenarios. A character who excessively tries to mold themself according to what other people want them to be, or who unconsciously mirrors those around them, probably won’t have the same speech patterns as a character who doesn’t give a fuck what other people think of them, or who might give a fuck but is too tired/upset/intoxicated/whatever to censor themself effectively. Characters’ upbringings and backgrounds can also come out in their dialogue, so being (more or less) clear on them can be helpful.

One pretty classic example of these ideas is the trope where someone who’s going about in unfamiliar circles may be able to emulate other people’s behaviors, pick up the common speech patterns, verbal tropes, and lingo pretty well, and so on…… but still has a particular verbal tic or cadence to their speech that they can’t shake.

For instance, my Sebastian, from that passage, grew up in a wealthy family that would be minor nobility if the U.S. acknowledged that we totally have a de facto system of nobility (and his paternal grandparents often make a big deal out of how they’re descended from a legit, “Our ancestors earned their title as knights in the service of the King of France before certain well-to-do members of the Third Estate started buying their way up into our ranks, back before the glorious Ancien Régime was even a Thing” noblesse d’épée bloodline). He’s been around folks from a mix of different backgrounds during his time in school, and more so in his adult life, which has involved a lot of hijinks in places that would make his Grandparents go, “Good Heavens, why are you slumming it with the lower classes” before focusing on the actual issues like,, “Why on Earth were you dating an ecoterrorist” and, “Oh dear, our grandson who wanted to join the priesthood when he was a boy seems to have developed a serious problem with opiates”

Like, real talk? Roland and Cecile love their grandchildren, they really do. But when Sebastian went to rehab, they tried to push for sending him to a ridiculously expensive inpatient clinic in California with a huge, pedigreed list of celebrity clients because they thought of it as Rich People Rehab. The explanation, “No, okay? If I’m doing this, then I’m going to this place in Minnesota that exclusively hosts LGBTQ clients because I really don’t feel like I’ll be helped by potentially being around homophobic fellow patients and/or staff”…… was mostly met with blank stares that were the human equivalent of the, “buffering… buffering…” spinning wheel of doom, and the response, “…But going there will put you in treatment with the common rabble, why on Earth would you want that.”

Thankfully, Abe and Marceline, Seb’s parents, were nowhere near this bad — but that classism and the emphasis on how We Are From A Distinguished, Noble Bloodline, So Act Like It were still part of the atmosphere that Seb and his siblings were raised in. Their experiences in schooling moderated it a bit (though less so for, say, eldest brother Max, who went to Posh Boarding School for all four years of high school, then did his undergrad at Columbia and grad school at Harvard), and Seb got a lot of moderation by learning the hard way that sounding too posh in a decidedly not-posh environment is a dead giveaway that you don’t belong there and might get you mistaken for a Federal agent. But it’s hard to completely shake that posh upbringing, and it comes out sometimes in his phrasing, his word choices, etc.

On the other hand, though, Seb is also a human disaster in ways that affect his speech (…and he’s multilingual, but that doesn’t fall under the heading of, “human disaster things”). The trick with those parts of him — like his anxiety and how it kicks into overdrive in certain situations (like, when he’s talking to Stephen, his sponsor’s curatorial assistant, who Seb is crushing on) — is finding a balance where it’s part of his characterization but also doesn’t get completely impossible to read (like the mistake that some people make when writing characters with stutters, where they overdo it to the point that you can’t tell what the characters are saying, but because the writers didn’t do this on purpose, you’re expected to know what’s being said).

Anyway, I’m sorry this got kind of long, but I hope it helps a bit! Dialogue can be tough to work on, but you can learn a lot from experimenting with different ideas and techniques, and just continuing to work on it, even when you hate what you’re writing. ❤️

[comicteaparty]

August 24th-August 30th, 2019 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from August 24th, 2019 to August 30th, 2019.  The chat focused on the following question:

What is your favorite aspect when writing character dialogue?  What is your least favorite aspect?

HiddenElephant

My favorite aspect when writing character dialogue is when characters get into arguing or other verbal conflict; this stuff writes itself! My least favorite aspect is remembering to put in all the minor character verbal tics, such as no sharkfolk using contractions. Oh, and the obligatory link: http://thewideocean.thecomicseries.com/

spacerocketbunny

I love writing personal or emotional dialogue for characters, it's fun to see how they all express themselves differently in these situations and how they handle it! One thing I struggle with is adding bits of different languages in character dialogue if they're bi/multilingual. I'm not bilingual myself and I don't have the best resources or references to turn to when writing dialogue, so I worry if it comes off a bit silly(edited)

keii4ii

@spacerocketbunny I'm bilingual and know a lot of multilingual folks IRL. I don't know if this is universal, but it seems to be the case among the people I know: if someone is fluent in both languages, they won't switch between languages while talking to someone not fluent in both languages. (This ruined the character Mako for me, in her intro scene in the Pacific Rim movie...)

Someone who's only fluent in one language might very well be different. Also could be different if the two languages share a lot of similarities, e.g. two Latinate languages. Most of the bi/multilingual people I know speak Korean/English, so it's hard to mix them up unintentionally.

deo101

I am also bilingual, though it is in ASL so it would be incredibly difficult for me to even "accidentally" switch between languages. Though, I can attest that all my multilingual friends (usually spanish/english) don't really switch either. I can think of one time a friend yelled angrily in spanish at a videogame which was an accident, but that's it.

spacerocketbunny

In any instances that I have written parts with a bit of different languages it's always been intentional on the character's part, so none of them have been "accidental slips" and whatnot, Thank you for your insight though, that's very helpful!

kayotics

As per the question: dialogue is my favorite part to write, in all honesty. Probably why comics are fun for me. I think my favorite part about dialogue is figuring out how to weave exposition into natural character interactions. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to do that (like someone explaining a problem), but for things that the characters would naturally know (like how the world works or relationships between other characters) I enjoy trying to tie in exposition for the reader while still making it seem natural. Least favorite is probably just keeping things trimmed down, I tend to get carried away. I also find remembering character voice a little difficult to implement, like one character using specific words or ways of speaking. And the comic plug: https://www.ingress-comic.com/

mariah currey

Lol same X') sometimes it feels more like the plot is directed more by conversations I want the characters to have than anything else. That's kind of an exaggeration, but the most fun part for me is thinking about the emotional exchabge between characters. And yeah my least favorite part is editing the dialogue down. I tend to write long so a lot of the time it's like a puzzle of trying to figure out how to still communicate what I'm trying to get across in half the words I originally wrote it to be. Link: http://rainydaydreams.mariahcurrey.com/

AntiBunny

I don't so much write dialogue, as I do let it play out in my head. The characters of AntiBunny http://antibunny.net/ sort of just write their own. Each has their own mannerisms from Piago's unexplained southern accent, that none of her family shows, to Pooky's use of British slang picked up from watching too many Britcoms. So my favorite part is just playing the scenes out in my head, and letting them form organically. Least favorite part is when it comes to the final draft, and cutting it down to what will fit on the page and flow well with the action. A lot has to go in the name of flow, just like a realistic organic conversation can't really be depicted in fiction and tell a cohesive story. So it has to be distilled down to the message that needs to be delivered, and then that needs to be balanced for what will display properly in sequential art.

FeatherNotes

As far as the bilingual tibit goes- my family has a lot of french /english speaking people and phrases often go in and out of each language when speaking to each other. The sentence doesn't straight up go into another language mid thought, rather its peppered in. Often when the point can't be articulated in the speaking language, in my example, french would be used to emphasize a feeling. And it's something I've done and seen a lot- i think it depends on where the speakers are in these situations. There are specific bilingual provinces and states that show people doing the same (im from quebec and the way the pepper in both languages is very much how they speak.) So, when writing characters, having a sense of environment and placement of culture is something to consider to flesh them out with dialogue. My least fave part of writing is trimming as well to fit the pages and not sound too wordy haha

Tuyetnhi

For me, I have fun writing dialogue when there's conflict and tension between two characters, like a situation where another has to decieve through their words or confessing their feelings. It does play a bit of foreshadowing but I also want it to appear as contingent as possible lol. About the bilingual thing, I'm also bilingual but i often struggle trying to say the right words either in english or vietnamese (such as describing a certain word in english to a Vietnamese speaker and I end up saying the english word of the thing I want to describe lmao. It happens a lot). I think that situation is common with a lot of folks who grown up in a bilingual household (such as both of your parents speak 2 languages, and you end up assorbing most of that native language of the country your in instead your parents native tongue). I'm planning to incorpate this through my MC's dialogue for that kind of naturalism (plus other factors too lmao).(edited)

least fav part is also trying not to be wordy as well. lmao. i do like trimming dialogue just to make it feel kinda punchy in a way depending on the character.(edited)

snuffysam

For Super Galaxy Knights http://sgkdr.thecomicseries.com/, I just love writing dialogue in general. Figuring out how different characters should react in different situations, figuring out a way for it to all sound natural... it's all fun. The one thing I dislike is when I have to explain some concept to the readers in a character's voice. Taci explaining energy usage to Mizuki was fun because he's the type to lord over his knowledge of something. And Pejiba explaining magic abilities to Mizuki made sense, though that dialogue still feels a bit lacking to me. But there's this one upcoming scene in book 3 where I HATE the dialogue, just because there's no other way to explain stuff other than "as you know, only one in every million people can survive the radstream" and it's annoying.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I love finding moments to slip in random quirky character-building dialogue bits in Phantomarine (http://www.phantomarine.com/). The phenomenon of having a character say one thing - funny, heart-wrenching, relatable, or otherwise - and have the audience immediately fall in love with them (or hate them intensely!) is something I like trying, because I’ve experienced a similar phenomenon many times, both with fictional characters and in real life. Sometimes, all it takes is a single sentence for me to go “Ooh, you’re a unique one. I like you. I want to know more about you. What’s your deal?” My gold standard is the introduction of Lilo in “Lilo and Stitch.” She’s instantly memorable and relatable in her weirdness. My instinct is to streamline dialogue to convey information as clearly and quickly as possible, but adding those non-essential characterization moments is so important - it makes the characters so real, and breaks up the pacing nicely, especially in a story that’s generally pretty serious. Those quirky bits make the experience so much more fun.

Steph (@grandpaseawitch)

I absolutely love writing dialogue for http://oldmanandtheseawitch.tumblr.com/. I think it's really where a lot of characterization shines, especially if you know how to use speech bubbles fluently to do so. Every character has a different beat, a different musicality. Ains (and most of the Pub Lads) tend to have dialects a bit like dropping a rock into a puddle. A sudden beat with few ripples--they're laymen, fishermen, you have to get across a lot in only a short time span. "Yep," "nope," and for Ains, he's especially prone to this. Witchy, comparatively, when he finally talks (minor spoiler but not that surprising), has a purring, flowing, flowery sort of language. Ains is very upfront and forward. Witchy's comes across as having an ulterior motive. Dialogue becomes another means of illustrating their individual personalities. My least favorite part is purely technical: formatting and consolidation. Having to pick where you sacrifice legibility for character and character for legibility. Blurbs don't always fit nicely into bubbles, or I have to add a word so as to not break the rules of bubble formatting too much.