I have started to write the backstory and synopsis of my western that is set to take place about the mid 1840s into and thru the gold rush.  

I have not written a western before in the ten years I've been writing so I have been doing a lot of research - mainly on the socialism of alcohol (for one little scene) but also research on dialogue. Not necessarily how they spoke, because I have a good family member that knows all about that so that is not the issue.

The issue is in terms of their slang when writing it on script. I would take the approach that it's the same as any other screenplay genre and write as they speak. Though a few screenplays I've read that are westerns they write like that and it takes a little getting used tot what is being said not to mention trying to decipher the spelling.

On one site I read a script and the writer used yaw and gut - for the drawl. Do you write it like that or is better to write it like get, etc and tell the actor what dialect to use?

I reserved a couple books on writing westerns at the library, but figured I'd see what this group thinks and if there is a standard of it's really up to the writer.

Thanks.

If it's a feature it's best to write your dialogue as normally as possible and let the actor add the drawl.  It's generally ok to put a small amount of flavour in but by no means put all the drawl in.  

If it's a short and the drawl is very important to the story then it's ok to include it but you'll get lots of people complaining about it.

Quoted from mattman2900 On one site I read a script and the writer used yaw and gut - for the drawl. Do you write it like that or is better to write it like get, etc and tell the actor what dialect to use?

Yuck.  Don't do it.

Nothing is more annoying than a script where you have to stop and try to translate what the character is saying.

More than a few of those is a definite "set this script aside" moment.

Clarity, clarity, clarity.

I agree with Ren and Stimpy, here.  Don't write in the drawl.

A couple of years back, someone wrote a script with German characters.  Their dialog was written with a German accent which made next to impossible to read.  And that was all the readers commented on, the accent.


Phil

Vocabulary color is good.
(sh*t to manure, understand to reckon, etc.)

Syntax color is distracting, unless absolutely plot critical.

Good luck.

E.D.

Thanks everyone. Pretty much what I expected - just needed clarification. As noted  the screenplays that I read in regards to westerns had different ways of writing - and the easiest ones to read were with less drawl creation.

I use certain words like pa for the informal dad or father, and a few others as ED  said "Vocabulary color" but syntax is annoying.  If I find the script where the WHOLE thing was written with drawl within the dialogue I'll let you know.  

Quoted Text Nothing is more annoying than a script where you have to stop and try to translate what the character is saying.

No kidding. That script I read, I actually made it to page 2, but could not for the life of me get what they were saying well, I maybe got half of it, but by the end of page 2, my head hurt.

Thanks again, now time to research how far out in left field a eighteen-year old female sheriff would have been circa 1848.