It can be extremely difficult to write a character with an accent, however accents are also great for giving characters distinctive voices.
As a general rule, accents are best displayed using vocabulary and sentence structure. Compare the following:
“He ain’t gonna tell you nothin.”
He ain’t going to tell you nothing.”
Both convey the speaker’s accent, but the one without the misspellings is less distracting. And once a character’s accent has been established, the reader will fill it in. It doesn’t need to be reestablished every time the character speaks.
Learn as much as you can about the dialects you’re using in your novel find out if they have any distinct vocabulary or phrasing. Then use that as consistently as possible.
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He Said, She Said: Dialogue Tips
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