Day 385: Sunny Sunday Morning

2 Responses to Day 385: Sunny Sunday Morning

1. Stephen Jacob says:

   May 21, 2012 at 11:48 am

   I follow your logic that perhaps Ish should have had a different accent, but I am glad you didn’t go that way. I prefer the “straight read” with only subtle changes in voice for different characters that you did most of the time in the trader’s tales. There were obviously a couple of characters which stood out (Cookie, the initial chief engineer in Owner’s Share), but I preferred that you didn’t go overboard on accents.

   Added to that, Ishmael may come from a different place than most of the others (who come from the virtual “place” of spacerdom), but he also comes from an academic background, so it is very likely his mother spoke in a relatively unaccented voice, and likely that he did too, especially since he didn’t ever really fit in as much as other kids. I have first person experience of this, since my father was an academic who spoke in a very unaccented manner and I grew up with one of the mildest Irish accents you’ll find.

   If you had chosen up-front which other characters originally came from a spacer background and which did not, it might have made some sense that those who did not have different accents, but then that would have taken away from the surprise for Ishmael that he was in a small minority in not having grown up with this sort of life.

   All in all: Don’t second-guess your choices. I think they were spot on. I wouldn’t advocate trying to do more or stronger accents in future works either. When it works, it’s ok, but when it doesn’t it can take one out of the story.

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2. StephenK says:

   May 21, 2012 at 5:15 pm

   Agreed. The mostly straight read works rally really well. I’d also guess it’s safer. You’re much less likely to end up 8 episodes into a podiobook with an accent you or your audience can’t stand 😀

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