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Q&A How do you write dialog for a character with malapropism without it seeming forced?

Is this a comedic story or a straightforward/dramatic one? If it's a comedic story, then just run with it, because everything is supposed to be exaggerated. Your characters may not even have to no...

posted 7y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:42Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26525
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:04:09Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26525
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T06:04:09Z (over 4 years ago)
Is this a comedic story or a straightforward/dramatic one?

If it's a comedic story, then just run with it, because everything is supposed to be exaggerated. Your characters may not even have to note the malaprops.

If it's a straightforward one, then the other characters should notice the slips. If your character speaks _frequently_ in malaprops, you may be editing them out because you subsconsciously know that it's a weird way to speak, and your other characters are behaving as though it's not happening — which doesn't work for a non-comedic story.

You can get away with more of this in a dramatic story if English (or whatever you're writing in) is not Mr. Malaprop's first language. You might possibly also be able to do it if Mr. Malaprop himself is aware of it because it happens when he's very nervous (or something similar) and can't stop himself. Then it becomes character development: he knows it's happening, he knows how it sounds, but he can't fix it.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-02-06T02:54:51Z (about 7 years ago)
Original score: 3