Dialogue in Mutes

I've just started writing something where one of the main characters is mute, and I'm not sure how I'd go about writing her dialogue. She uses sign-language so it's not that she can't communicate, I'm just not sure how I should show it. This is probably more of a question of grammar and punctuation more than anything else XD

I'm not even sure if I should use speech marks, so should I italicise her text, but then apply the same grammatical rules as if it were proper speech?

Gah, this is beginning to annoy me XD

Yeah, I think you do just italicise. It's how it was done in a story I read where there was a mute. Just the gestures, and then what they mean in italics. And of course everyone they come into contact with known sign language... xD

Yeah, italics is good, though I'm pretty sure it's not how you HAVE to do it. You could also do it in quotes, and then, instead of using "said" using "he/she signed." Also, body language would be a big part of that, but you'd have to research sign language for it, probably. My mom's a special ed teacher, so if you have any questions on that sort of thing, I'd be happy to answer them.

For a mute, you'll want to rely more on physical characteristics than dialogue. When she uses signs, you don't have to translate them. In fact, by not translating them, you can give the reader a sense of frustration your character has with communication.

When something really important is occurring, you can have a translator communicate what the mute is saying. Writing it down in italics seems kind of cheap.

Terry Brooks did it in itallics, so you could do that as well if you wanted.

Eh... I would use quotation marks and just say, "She signed, 'I hate being a mute!'" Or something like that.

Tricky question!

Still, I think I would use quotation marks and, even more so, use lots of fancy descriptions.

I think italics would work best. I think it will make a bigger inpact on the reader reading the script if it's in italics, rather than "She/He signed."

I prefer italics, because then it's impossible to forget that the character can't speak. If there are quotes, but you write he/she signed after each one, it might be easy to fall into the flow of the story and sort of forget that the person "speaking" is, in fact, mute.

If you need to remind the reader that the character is mute, you could throw in another character's frustration at not knowing what s/he is saying.

I'd probably go with italics (agh, but I hate italics. personally, I'd just bold everything instead) and from there on, it's like transcribing someone's thoughts. You have the option of adding " "..." he thought" onto everything, but just italicizing it and putting it into first person is usually enough (unless the rest of the story is in first person, in which case that might be a little trickier; you might want to leave in dialogue tags), and the dialogue tags can get old fast there.

Just curious: does the character use signed english or asl?

Feel free to PM me if you need any info about sign language. I'll do my best to help ^_^

Erm, okay. Thanks all, this was really usefull and I think I know what I'm going to do with it now, though by the sounds of things I'll have to be carefull not to write anything just like normal dialogue XD A the moment there's only one other person who understands her, so while they 'yalk' it's translated, but with anyone else it's not (if that makes any sense?)

[/quote]Just curious: does the character use signed english or asl?[/quote]

By ASL do you mean American sign-language? In which case it t'would be the other ^^

yes, I did mean American Sign Language. I was just wondering because they're different culturally.

Read 'The Roman Mysteries'

One of the main characters is a mute (:

For my two cents, I'd say italics. I'm a huge fan of the sideways slant folk and it really gives an "other"ness to the prose, if that makes any sense. There's a reason italics are used for ghostly voices and internal thoughts. It's not as concrete as the typical format, so you'd get the impression that this is not your normal dialogue.

I'd also second Griffinkeeper and say use a lot of body language. Take the time to describe what exactly the person is doing with their body or their face. You could probably get away with saying less in italics and just give the basic impression through body language.

I can see how this is a toughie. Things like this are usually easier to pull off in movies or graphic novels, when you can actually see the person yourself and not have them described. It's easier to pick up on subtleties that way.

Good luck with your writing! I hope it all works out for you.

~GryphonFledgling

Get her to write her thoughts on paper to her friends etc. You could then contrast this with her innate feelings... subtext!

I had a mute at my middle school and he didn't know sign language, so he just groaned and moaned and stuff. I think you should add an occassional groan when the person is signing. In a TV show, Marlee Matlin is a guest star and instead of signing for the interpreter to translate, she says them...I don't know how this helps, but...

And also, if you plan to use ASL (American Sign Language), take it from someone who uses it. The grammar is different from normal English (or Signed Exact English). Let me give you an example:

SEE: "I'm going to the store."

ASL: "I go store."

You see the difference. ASL strips things down to the basic necessites and it is also more visual, sometimes doing visual things with said person's hands instead of sign throughout the sentence. Watch a couple of D-PAN videos (www.dpan.com) and you'll see what I mean!

Hope this helps!

DeafWriter