Perspective can color a person’s interpretation of what they see or hear. Perspective is also truth because that IS what the individual believes happened.
The way that you paint a scene for your readers will not only affect the way your character sees it, but will also affect the way your readers interpret it. If your setting is gloomy and the atmosphere is heavy, you are setting up a perfect scene for a tragedy, murder or crime; if everything is bright and sunny with the smell of fresh baked cookies or bubblegum, expect cheery and lighthearted action to take place.
If your character always speaks gruffly with forceful and curt words, no one would expect that same character to be a delicate “shrinking flower”. Nervous stuttering wouldn't fit the average high powered executive. A squeaky, whiny voice probably won’t seem very sexy in a romance story.
Obviously your grammar and punctuation can also make a big difference in the way someone will interpret your words in a story. I recently saw a T-shirt with the three lines, “Let’s eat Grandma - Let’s eat, Grandma - A comma makes all the difference”. Placement of phrases in a compound sentence can also change the meaning, “The girl having lunch with the big hat…” versus “The girl with the big hat having lunch…”. Or the famous “Woman without her man is nothing” and the two interpretations, “Woman, without her man, is nothing” versus “Woman, without her, man is nothing.”
Depending on the region where your book or story is read, words that you use can have drastic differences in meaning. An example of the varied meanings is the term “trunk” in the U.S. or the expression “boot” in the U.K. Some regions will also have commonly used slang expressions. A monster can be an imagined threat hiding in a child’s closet, or used as a slang expression can be an insult to a person’s appearance or even an anatomical reference. Depending on the region, the names of some mythological creatures can be either harmless folklore or a tainted act.
Regional idioms can be used to give your character’s background some color, or are just more easily understood in some areas of the country. My mom, who was raised in South Carolina, always said “Cut off the lights”, but my dad, New York raised, always said “Turn off the lights”. In my book Hyphema, the lead female character is a Pakistani immigrant – when she and her husband receive a threatening note which uses the phrase “an eye for an eye”, she says “that only makes for bloody eyes” because that is what the phrase means to her.
Choose the words you string together carefully. Research dialect in the region your character comes from to make them seem more authentic. And research phrases that would be used in your target region so that you don’t inadvertently send the wrong message.
Writing Exercise: (1) Punctuate these sentences: “Other than that one thought he was not there”; “I saw a man eating lobster”; “The butler stood at the door and called the guests names”; “Look at that huge hot dog over there”. (2) Punctuate the following letter to have different meanings: “I want a man who knows what love is all about you are generous kind thoughtful people who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior you have ruined me for other men I yearn for you I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart I can be forever happy will you let me be”
Writing Prompt: Make a list of at least five phrases that you know can have different meanings.
