There are great writers, and then there are great writers who use annoying local dialect in their dialogue which makes it really annoying to read. If you’re a loyal reader with a good memory you’ll know that a while ago I abandoned Irvine Welsh novels because of his (as perceived by me) overuse of Scottish dialect that was difficult to understand. (He’s the guy who wrote Trainspotting, among others, if you’re not sure.)

So, here’s the thing: Irvine Welsh, who I do think is a great writer apart from this flaw, is coming to the Perth Writers Festival in 2010. This was the impetus I needed to read another novel from him, so I picked his newest one, Crime. The good news is that I finished it, and loved it – it’s a pretty dark story about paedophiles but totally page-turning. It’s also set in Florida, rather than Scotland, with only a couple of major Scottish characters, so that meant that the dialogue I’m scared of was a lot rarer than in some of his other novels.

But just the same, I was occasionally quite bogged down trying to figure out what those Scottish characters were actually saying. Example: “I was gaunny take her … Tess came down wi it in there” is relatively simple to “translate”, but still slows down my reading; “An awfay sweet wee lassie, and she’s been nae bother at aw” starts to stretch things for me. Like I said, these kind of phrases are few and far between in Crime, but it reminds me why so many writing teachers suggest – implore! – that you should avoid writing in strong dialect. A few words here and there – “Aye” for yes doesn’t bother me in Welsh’s work – should be enough to remind us that these people sound a bit different.

What do you think? Would you be annoyed if an Australian character in a story I wrote went around saying, “Struth mate, watcha reckon we get the barbie goin’?” all the time? Does strong dialect in novels bother you? Let me know in the comments.

Tags: dialogue writing, Irvine Welsh

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