Aasiyah Qamar & Nolwynn Ardennes

Hello everyone!

I hope you're having a lovely time, and that the weather in your part of the world is not as dreadful as the one here on the higher plateaus of Mauritius! Sun is barely out at 8 am, you drive in the clouds on the motorway so much there's swirling fog around you, and on some days, you wonder if you yourself ain't living on a cloud so much you can't see anything outside! Add to it a blistering icy wind and practically no ray of sun during the whole day, urghhh!

Makes you just wanna pull up a quilt and watch TV, or read, or sleep... Just as well then that we recently got access to a new channel on the satellite dish. Lots of American stuff on it, but it's dubbed in French since we get access to satellite channels that air in France. But still, it's the programmes that matter.

That's how I watched my very first episode of Kitchen Nightmares a few weeks ago, and been totally hooked ever since, even going on binges on weekends when the show airs for most of the evening. I have to add that a big, big, big motivator is the yummy dish Gordon Ramsay himself (pun fully intended here!) I'd heard about the man, read about him, looked him up on the net, but nothing compared to actually seeing him 'in the flesh' and in action. Can you say tall, blond, handsome and fit as an athlete with a body to die for in one single go? Like a friend of mine was saying, he can cook too - sign me up!! And that accent -- ahhh, turns one to mush, I tell ya!

Now, there's something about a British bloke many people don't realise - they're mostly potty mouths. And Ramsay's no exception! Despite the French dubbing, you can clearly hear every inflection of his voice, and every choice word he utters. My husband watched only one episode and went, he swears too much. I agree, but hey, he's British and British men swear (especially outside the aristocracy!)! That's how they actually talk, with a swear word, a curse, an expletive sandwiched between every two other 'normal' word. Just watch movies like Layer Cake (with the none less yummy Daniel Craig!), Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, Death at a Funeral (cutey Matthew McFadyen here), and Guy-Ritchie directed flicks such as Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Definitely not something you'd want your kids to watch or even overhear! If one were to obliterate the swearing in them, you'd only hear bleep-bleep-bleep throughout the movie! Again, hubby watched those movies with me, and every time, he went - too much swearing even if the story's good.

I was like - face it! British men swear, and that's what adds to the authenticity of the movies I mentioned above, and even Ramsay's discourse. In books, you'd see something similar in Martina Cole's books which are set in the criminal underworld of the London East End. Choice words, expletives and definitely authentic manners of speech and behaviour. It's actually fresh, natural, and completely authentic to hear people talking like that, because that's what you'd get to hear in real life too.

Which then brings me to the issue of authenticity in writing. In my current WIP, the hero is from New Zealand. I've never set foot there, and the only Kiwis I know are from movies and Facebook! How then do I make this hero sound authentic?

Research, research, and more reasearch. Check NZ slang dictionaries online to get a feel for how they talk. Watch every interview I can find of Peter Jackson, LOTR NZ director, on Youtube, to hear the accent. Read everything I can find about NZ culture, to know what the minset and behaviour is like there. And finally, the best imo, contact someone who's a local. I'm lucky that one of my trusted and dear friends is a born and bred Kiwi. Caught her on IM, and had a lengthy chat about how and what NZ men are about. Sent her drafts of dialogue, to know if the hero sounds local. Asked her about little details only a local can enlighten you about, like, would an NZ bloke call his girl darling or babe?

At the end of this, and as I'm writing this hero, Logan, he's starting to emerge as a real, local New Zealander. I so want people to go, he sounds really authentic, especially if a Kiwi were to pick up the story and read it. And I want people who don't know New Zealanders to go, I didn't know they were like this, and get a real, respectful, and authentic feel of what these men are about.

The feel of authenticity - that's what I'm striving to infuse into my story. For the heroine, Neha, I already jumped into the deep end of the pool with the whole domestic goddess episode.

Now tell me - you as writers and readers - how do you go about infusing authenticity in your works? Does this authentic feeling make a difference in your reading and/or writing experience? I'd love to hear your take on this!

Oh, btw, started writing the WIP and I'm 8K down so far!

From now till later, cheers!