Dialects, too much or too little?

Sorry, I've been such a bad blogger. I'm revising my first YA trying to get in shape before I sent it to the manuscript critique service that I've used before. Bev Katz Rosenbaum, who wrote 'I was a teenage popsicle' does fantastic critiques. I'm kind of excited yet trepidatious to see what she's going to say about the manuscript. Still, I want to get it in the best shape possible before I send it off.

I've already shaved off about ten pages out of the manuscript, but the last 60 pages of the manuscript need alot of tweaking. I can't believe that I actually sent this off to an agent now that I've re-read it. Three of my characters in Crazy Little Thing Called Love are foreign, Theo is Greek, Penny is English and Demetrius, who is also Greek, was sent to school in England. So, I'm very conscious as I go through the manuscript that their voices are distinctive compared to my American characters.

I was thinking about this tonight when I went to the Strand Bookstore to kill time before I went to work. I love the Strand, 3 floors of books all just waiting to be read and bought. Downstairs, among the review paperbacks, I found a book by a well-known chick-lit author, who's new book is partially set in Ireland. As I flipped through the book, I was kind of appalled at the writing for the Irish characters.

It was all written in the worst kind of dialect imaginable. Lucky Charms leprechaun Irish. Words were spelt like 'cawl' for 'call' and 'forst' for 'first.' But the worst was that the love interest kept saying 'yiz'. It made me wonder if the author had ever read a Marian Keyes book or any Irish author. Not even John Millington Synge wrote dialogue that was as appalling as what I read in this novel. She thanks a woman who she says helped her with the Irish portions, but obviously the help wasn't great. And this wasn't the first time I'd noticed this tendency. She had a character in her last book who was West Indian who sounded like a Madame Cleo clone.

It reminded me of Nicolas Cage's bad Italian accent in Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

On the other hand, I just read a review of a book, where the reviewer felt that she didn't get enough of the hero's Scottish accent. It's a real toughie when it comes to how to convey that a character speaks with an accent without relying on cliches.

I have a character in my second YA who is French Canadian, and I work with a guy who's French Canadian, so I'm very careful to listen to how he speaks. I've also thought of throwing in a few french words every now and again when he gets stressed or at a loss for words.

Do other people find it hard to write for characters with accents, and what was the worst experience you had reading a book?

Thanks for reading.

EKM