I don't often try to write in accents unless they're rather subtle...I feel like goin' out of mah weh to make a charactah talk like dis labels their speech as crude or 'exotic', which isn't how I feel about foreign accents at all. I love accents; I think they're a beautiful and natural by-product of human language acquisition~. So I usually either mention them explicitly or just give the character different word choice that sort of 'exudes' a certain way of speaking:
At the moment, I was busy scrubbing every last molecule of dirt out of my boots, when I noticed Prasiolite sitting with a stack of books in the corner.
I stopped scrubbing. “…What are you reading?” I asked.
“Books. You have heard of books, haven’t you?”
“Do not test me, Prasiolite; I’m not in the mood…have you ever been snapped in the face with a dirty rag…?”
“Rather than threatening me, you should be thanking me. I’m only trying to help you take your mind off your worries.” Then she smiled at me. Prasiolite smiled. At me.
“…Don’t do that,” I said, terrified. “I take it back; you can test me. Please be mean to me…if even you’re nice to me, then I’m definitely on death row…”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Come over here and look at these.”
I did as I was told. In the stack, I noticed a Register, some Metallurgy ritual manuals, and quite a few Ingot tractates. It looked just like…
“…My mother’s library,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Great. Wonderful. This cheers me right up…”
“You’re familiar with religious literature??” Prasiolite asked.
“I’ve read all kinds of junk like this. When I was 11, I had the whole Register memorized. My parents were both priests, so this was pretty much all we had in the house. I wasn’t even allowed to look at anything else…”
“I never would have thought you had a childhood like that…then again, I guess it makes sense. Maybe that’s why you’re so rebellious.”
“That’s it, just keep taking digs at me. Don’t let up.”
^Prasiolite is supposed to have a South African accent, or something similar. I really don't know what to do with it (especially since 'South Africa' technically isn't a country that exists in this world) so I just try to make her speech more formal, and generally line up with how she sounds in my head.
On the flipside, Blue Vitriol (the narrator) has a very informal way of speaking that usually clashes with that of the characters she interacts with~
“…Y’all can look around here as much as you please, but I’m sure there ain’t anythin’ like that on my property,” said the voice of an old man. “Just what do you think I’d be doin’ with some interdimensional whatchamacallit?”
“Sir, we’re not accusing you of anything in particular; the fact is that the signal was detected here. Besides, it’s possible that someone else may have been responsible. Does anyone else live here with you, besides your domestic servant?”
“Just my grandson…come to think of it, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the one responsible for this whole mess; I tell you, that boy is as weird as they come. I’ve been sayin’ for years that he ain’t right in the head…probably gets it from his mother’s side…”
Trevor frowned. “…That’s Pop,” he said. “What’s he doin’ out here? He never leaves the house, not on his own two feet…”
^'Pop' has a Southern accent, obviously. ^^ It's actually pretty thick; a real Tennessee drawl, but I don't do much to portray it apart from a few ain'ts and, as stated, word choice.
His grandson, Trevor, has a similar accent, but it's even more subtle. He mostly just drops g's, and occasionally says 'y'all'. ^^
(By the way, these are two different novels)
