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@noah-cochran

All those descriptions are polarizing and almost trite because when I read fantasy books it seems that the kind’ve out-of-the-way cultures or non-main character cultures have those less than pleasant accents

See, that’s exactly what I was talking about.

Language is inherently neutral, or at least, should be. Having an accent is just as neutral a trait as hair color. The problem is exactly as you said, it’s often used to denote other qualities, like stupidity or primitivity.

I’ve sometimes seen characters having an accent written as though it was supposed to prove that this character was either dumb, primitive, or a villain.

Accents are often used for comedic effect, which, admittedly, happens in real life all the time. I make fun of my own accent all the time, but as usual with banter and characters teasing each other, there’s a line between it being funny and it being rude.

I think it’s the tonal difference between “We sound so different, that’s funny!” and “You sound different and therefor stupid, haha.” (Has also happened to me. It ain’t fun.)

Villians being the only characters with an accent is instantly iffy. (Except if it’s a British accent. The Brits have earned it XD)

As you said, how you describe it makes a definite difference, as does who you assign the accents to. For example, that accent:

a rocky shore of hard and soft sounds.

That particular character was a villain, but that exact same accent was also given to the love interest and several others who were on the ‘good side’.

On that note, there’s the connotation of strong (foreign) accents being “lower-class” which is why I conciously chose to give the royal, highly educated characters strong, noticable accents. I thought it would be cool.

Admittedly, I’ve also brilliantly bungled this by describing the villain’s accents a little too harshly and I have to go back and fix that because it sounds very off. Messing up is a part of the process XD

I don’t think I had a definite point with this XD Just some thoughts on that subject.

I guess what I’m needing now is more words to describe accents rather than the normal: rough, thick, gravely, twangy, and the such.

I’m pretty sure you can find lists of these on the internet, I usually just wing it and fix it later XD

At first I wasn’t so sure about it, but the more I read it the more the imagery makes sense and I actually quite like it. xD It does go down that “rough and thick” alley I’m not a fan of though.

Thanks, I was messing around with that character voice (Very fun to write, she uses a ton of metaphors and weird language. It was brilliant fun to write since half of it makes you go “That’s… wrong but it works.”)

I do see what you mean, and I’ll think about that. I don’t think describing an accent (or especially a voice, since I was more describing his voice) as rough is an inherently bad thing, but I will look at it.

Okay, so my brain is about to explode trying to figure out how I should utilize character arcs and story structure.

First of all, that’s a mood XD

They struggle with this in the book, but my question is, can I just have them struggle with it in book 1? Can I just show their conflict/weakness/lie they deal with, and not have a midpoint for it?

Short answer, yes, absolutely.

Longer answer, it’s fine to have characters without immideate character arcs, or character arcs that don’t get started until later. It might actually be better since it will make the story more focused.

I have at least one character who carries around his lie for two and a half books before he does something about it. Admittedly, he’s not a POV character until the third book, but I’d say it counts.

Besides that, I think it depends on how you execute it. You definitely could make it work. I’ve never tried this so I don’t have any specific advice, but I see no reason why it couldn’t work.

Oh, and can I just say that having such a variety of betas is hilarious. Your least favorite part of the book (the mid section with a lot of fighting–which you gave great tips for improving it btw) is one of my other betas’ favorite section of the book. xD

Goodness, that’s hilarious XD I’m rereading and annotating my second book and I’m wavering between “This is the next work of literary genius” and “All of this is trash and I don’t know whyyy” XD It’s a rollercoaster. I think contradictions is a part of the process, as is trying to understand why something is/isn’t working.

I do plan on discussing some of those beta answers you left btw, I’ll get to them sometime soon.

Please do, you know how much I love elaborating XD