How to Write Dialogue for Applejack - A Friendly Guide · 2:09pm May 29th, 2014
The first thing people seem to want to do is misspell words on purpose so that the words will be read in the same way that she speaks them. This is most commonly done by replacing “I” with “ah” or, strangely, “Ah” to keep the punctuation correct. I’ve also seen, “Mah” (my), “Thang” (thing), and “allus” (always).
I get why people want to do it. Applejack’s accent[1] is a unique part of her character. But the thing is, fan fiction is a written medium. A spoken accent does not properly translate to the written page. It slows down the reader and breaks the flow of the story.
The Uncle Remus stories are a good example of a phonetic accent. The writer worked very hard to transcribe the dialect of the Deep South in the 1800’s. No doubt it’s very accurate, but you’ll also notice that it’s a huge pain to try and read it. When you change how a word is spelled to keep the accent intact, the reader has to work harder to understand what you’re trying to say. If the accent is thick enough, they might find that they actually have to read it out loud to understand it. Fanfic readers have a limited amount of patience for stories, so if you slow them down by transcribing an accent, there’s a pretty good chance they’re just going to give up altogether. And I know you’re thinking of Hagrid’s accent in the Harry Potter series, but just because J.K. Rowling did it, it doesn’t mean you can get away with it.
But all is not lost! You can still write Applejack-specific dialogue and make it sound like it's actually her talking without resorting to misspelling words. After all, Rarity has a distinct accent and most people get her dialogue right, more or less, without having to resort to phonetic spelling. The difference is word choice. Rarity uses flowery speech (simply dreadful) and pet names when she’s talking (darling), making her distinctive.[2] You can do the same with Applejack. It’s easy.
First, her country mannerisms lend her to using a lot of similes. This is an English Lit term that you probably learned in high school and forgot, so let me refresh you.
Simile [noun]: a comparison between two unlike objects using ‘like’ or ‘as’ or ‘than’
Example: “It’s chiller than a timberwolf’s toenail out here!”
See? Easy. Next, you want to toss in some adjectives that the others don't use very much, if at all. Use words like 'right' 'awful' or 'mighty', you get a really Deep South, good old boy country accent. I can't think of specific examples from the show (because I have to leave in five minutes), but they fit right in with her character.
“Mighty nice day out.”
“I’m awful proud of you.”
“That’s right neighbourly of you.”
And don’t forget the other stereotypical Southern mannerisms, such as “y’all” and “ain’t”. “Y’all” is a pronoun for the plural second person, that is, "You all." It's another contraction, which means you can't spell it "ya'll". It’s not a substitution for the word we normally use because there actually is no word for second person plural in English, which means that you can't use it when you're addressing just one person. Example:
"Twilight, y'all got that book I was askin' for?" - is incorrect.
"Pinkie, Dash, y'all need to cool it with the pranks." - is correct.
“Ain’t” is another version of ‘is not’ or ‘are not’ or ‘am not’ and can be used in all three places. If you want to cheat a little, (like I do) drop the last ‘g’ off any word that ends in ‘ing,’ and that will give her speech a bit of a twang without distracting the reader from the whole thing. Or at least, it doesn’t in my opinion.
Lastly, remember that if someone is reading your fic, they’re probably going to insert Applejack’s voice over her dialogue themselves as they read it. We already know what her accent sounds like, there’s no need to spell it out.
Trivia footnotes:
[1] - Applejack’s accent is not a real accent heard in any part of the southern States. It’s actually a mash-up of about six or seven regional accents. I didn’t actually read this in an interview somewhere; I can tell by listening to her. Most actors who put on a southern accent will do the same thing - take what they know about it and make their best guess, hoping that no one will notice the difference, or ignore it if they do. For the record, it’s a mix of Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee, and probably some other places that I can’t pick out.
[2] - Rarity’s accent is called Mid-Atlantic and it was Tabitha St.Germain’s own idea. The idea had always been to make Rarity sound high-class and educated, but the original idea was probably something resembling a British accent. Thank goodness they changed it, because I can’t imagine what pony fic would look like with people trying to type a British accent out phonetically.
Huh. Interesting, interesting. While I think using an accent every once in a while adds a bit to the dialogue, I can see how an excess of it can be distracting.
Actually, you just gave me an idea. I'm gonna go back and edit most of my Southern stereotypes, but for Fiddlesticks, I'm gonna keep the Ah replacing I and such. See, in my headcanon, Fiddlesticks is Octavia's twin sister, and she ran away from home when she thought that the high society life wasn't right for her. Eventually, she became an honorary member of the Apple family, and as such, I want to give the impression that she's trying too hard to put on a fake accent.
The plural of you is ye, so y'all means 'ye all'.
Very helpful thank.
Thank you so much, this is very helpful.
I’ll try my best and use what you have suggested.
This is super helpful
Wow, this is very helpful. I was worried about writing Applejack, because, yea, I was thinking along the lines of Hagrid, but this had help me know what to do without worrying. Thanks