For me, the tricky bit is how to write dialogue for those less refined and/or lower class characters; adding contractions and altering syntax is fairly straight forward, but I'm never quite sure how much dialectal variation to include (e.g., dropped letters, atypical contractions, etc.). It sounds fine in my head, but in print, I'm never quite sure how far to go.
...and I think I just admitted to hearing voices in my head... ah well. At least they're Jane Austen's characters and not, say, Thomas Harris or Stephen King's...
-Jean
