Slang in Writing

[BigAndTall]

Ok, my first time I think making a thread. Keep in mind I am just a reader here. I write for myself but don't "show it."

Here is my question as I will try to start a discussion on something that even I do as a writer. (when I write)

Why is slang not used in writing like we use it when talking?

Is it because we try to write in proper English where as we are not corrected for speech?

 

[cloudy]

I use slang constantly in my writing, maybe more than most, even, but it's all used in dialogue. I think that's where slang belongs, to be honest.

When I write, I would like to think that someone that isn't from the southeastern part of the states would be able to enjoy it, and the slang that I use is very southern, since that's where I live. IMHO, it's just not very um......polished, maybe is the word I'm looking for, to use slang anywhere BUT in dialogue.

 

[Guest]

Ok, my first time I think making a thread. Keep in mind I am just a reader here. I write for myself but don't "show it."

Here is my question as I will try to start a discussion on something that even I do as a writer. (when I write)

Why is slang not used in writing like we use it when talking?

Is it because we try to write in proper English where as we are not corrected for speech?

Good topic, Big!

I have that exact problem with my writing - the dialogue and internal thoughts in particular.

I do think I tend to type in "proper" English, and not just transpose directly from my mind what I think the characters might say. Using a certain amount of slang does go a long way towards characterisation, so I think it can be a very important factor.

There are masters of the use of slang here at the AH, Pops is one of them. If anybody wants to read how it's done well, and really hear a character "talk" to you, read one of his stories.

Anybody got any tips on how to lose the instinct to keep things "proper"?

Lou

 

[matriarch]

Re: Re: Slang in Writing

Good topic, Big!

I have that exact problem with my writing - the dialogue and internal thoughts in particular.

I do think I tend to type in "proper" English, and not just transpose directly from my mind what I think the characters might say. Using a certain amount of slang does go a long way towards characterisation, so I think it can be a very important factor.

There are masters of the use of slang here at the AH, Pops is one of them. If anybody wants to read how it's done well, and really hear a character "talk" to you, read one of his stories.

Anybody got any tips on how to lose the instinct to keep things "proper"?

Lou

I read my stuff out loud to myself.
If it ends up sounding like Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte (I wish), then I know the dialogue needs loosening up.

Simple, but effective.

 

[cloudy]

I just write my dialogue the way that I actually talk......but then, there's a big difference between "english" and "southern" most of the time.

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: Re: Slang in Writing

I read my stuff out loud to myself.
If it ends up sounding like Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte (I wish), then I know the dialogue needs loosening up.

Simple, but effective.

Good point!

I rarely go back over mine and read it aloud, it seems I probably should. Either that or get someone to read it aloud to me, I might hear it even more then. Hmmm, there's an idea.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

The really fun thing about sci-fi is that you get to make up new slang if you want. (But always for use in dialogue.) This can sometimes help flesh out your setting society more fully.

Published authors sometimes see one of their made-up words get out into general use.

Do you grok Heinlein and his waldos?

 

[BigAndTall]

I just write my dialogue the way that I actually talk......but then, there's a big difference between "english" and "southern" most of the time.

Being from the New Orleans area someone's story is getting a read by me


I read one of Lou's stories today and was thinking about this line.

[Tatelou]
She clenched her fists, gritted her teeth and screwed up her eyes, as he continued to pound his engorged cock into her hypersensitive cunt.[/Tatelou]

I was intrigued by the term "cunt" as I know that is in some places considered a very shocking term for slang.

Does you writers tend to use terms like that where it might not be such a big deal where you are from? Are certian terms used more than others for shock affect? (such as I thought this term was used than for).

 

[neonlyte]

Re: Re: Re: Slang in Writing

I read my stuff out loud to myself.
If it ends up sounding like Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte (I wish), then I know the dialogue needs loosening up.

Simple, but effective.

Same here. After a while, you develop a natural distinction between narrative and dialogue.

Now try it to develop it for a Foreigner speaking English, adding enough mistakes, and formality for authenticity without it becoming gimikky(? - that's got to be wrong!).

 

[cloudy]

Being from the New Orleans area someone's story is getting a read by me

Oh, you'll recognize the setting for my Halloween story, then.

Thanks for giving it a read.

 

[Guest]

I just write my dialogue the way that I actually talk......but then, there's a big difference between "english" and "southern" most of the time.

I try to do that, but maybe I just talk too proper. Nah, I don't think that's the case, I use a lot of slang when actually talking.

My real problem is when I write a story which includes characters from different regions, or even countries. My novel, from last year, for example, I had a few English people in it, a couple of Scottish people and some from the US. Reading back through it, it is very hard to distinguish between the characters, purely from how they speak. I'm having to do a lot of re-work on that.

Lou

 

[cloudy]

I try to do that, but maybe I just talk too proper. Nah, I don't think that's the case, I use a lot of slang when actually talking.

My real problem is when I write a story which includes characters from different regions, or even countries. My novel, from last year, for example, I had a few English people in it, a couple of Scottish people and some from the US. Reading back through it, it is very hard to distinguish between the characters, purely from how they speak. I'm having to do a lot of re-work on that.

Lou

I can't help with the Scottish part, but any help I can give you with US accents you are more than welcome to. Not sure what regions your characters are from, but I've got this area down pat , and the Northeastern isn't that hard, either.

 

[Guest]

I read one of Lou's stories today and was thinking about this line.

[Tatelou]
She clenched her fists, gritted her teeth and screwed up her eyes, as he continued to pound his engorged cock into her hypersensitive cunt.[/Tatelou]

I was intrigued by the term "cunt" as I know that is in some places considered a very shocking term for slang.

Does you writers tend to use terms like that where it might not be such a big deal where you are from? Are certian terms used more than others for shock affect? (such as I thought this term was used than for).

I don't think "cunt" is seen as a horrible word here, when used in the right context. It can be a very powerful and sexy word - it is to me anyway - when used sparingly.

I do tend to use that word sparingly, to have an impact. I never intend to shock, as such, but I do try to use certain strong words as a device in my writing to really hit the reader with the intensity and dirtiness of that particular sex scene. Most of the time I use the word "pussy".

So, yeah, I guess I do use slang in the narrative, when I believe it will have the appropriate impact on the reader. It seems it did in this instance.

Thanks for reading that story and bringing this up!

Lou

 

[cantdog]

That's the ticket, having an ear for it.

I am not helped by comparing my characters' speeches to my own verbal style, though. I do actually think and talk in sentences, with all the modifiers non-dangling and tucked in. So I have to compare it to my firemen or my students or my parishioners. But it's like acquiring a palate as regards the appreciation of wine, food or beer, or acquiring an appreciation of the subtleties of musicianship or cinematography. You have to do it some to get good at it.

Good dialogue is irreplaceable, and bad dialogue hauls your reader right out of a story.

But you can certainly use slang as a narrator. It never got in the way of Archie Goodwin's readability in the Rex Stout books. So many authors here use first person that I feel sure there is a lot of slangy narration.

I greatly prefer third person omniscient , so that the reader can "feel" the sex for the participants of both sexes, and to play with what happens when people act at cross-purposes. So my own narrator tends to be more straight, and my slang is more confined to the dialogue. But I've done both, especially when a character is telling a story.

One thing we haven't mentioned about that, though. Authentic dialogue is repetitive and filled with ums and ahs and whatnot. Trim! Pare down! To make it flow well and move along at an involving pace while still calling to mind the sound of real dialogue is a matter for the red-pencil work after you get the whole thing down there, for me. But you have to do a good thorough rewrite for pacing and redundancies.

 

[Guest]

I can't help with the Scottish part, but any help I can give you with US accents you are more than welcome to. Not sure what regions your characters are from, but I've got this area down pat , and the Northeastern isn't that hard, either.

Thanks for the offer! One is from California, but there is also one from Georgia and another from North Carolina. I'd be interested to know if you could tell me any commonly used regional phrases, and certain nuances in speech. Cheers, babe!

Lou

 

[Boxlicker101]

Ok, my first time I think making a thread. Keep in mind I am just a reader here. I write for myself but don't "show it."

Here is my question as I will try to start a discussion on something that even I do as a writer. (when I write)

Why is slang not used in writing like we use it when talking?

Is it because we try to write in proper English where as we are not corrected for speech?

Like Cloudy, I try to have my characters talk the way they would be expected to talk, and that means some slang. In the narrative, though, I avoid slang except for sexual terms. Since it is smut, and not a sex manual, I say something like "She loves the way I eat her pussy," rather than "She loves the way I perform cunnilingus". I almost never refer to sexual intercourse. I almost never say penis or vagina. I could but it just doesn't seem right.

 

[ChilledVodka III]

The really fun thing about sci-fi is that you get to make up new slang if you want. (But always for use in dialogue.)

'Smegging love-tunnel.'

 

[BigAndTall]

Thanks for the offer! One is from California, but there is also one from Georgia and another from North Carolina. I'd be interested to know if you could tell me any commonly used regional phrases, and certain nuances in speech. Cheers, babe!

Lou

Well i think that there is something there you have to be careful of though.

There are the people that write just for shits and giggles.

And there are those that nitpick over their writing.


For example. If your trying so hard to get a regional dialict down, and someone from that area reads your piece, than chances are they are going to go "we don't talk like that" no matter how hard you try.

Like, no one I knows says "nawlings" for new orleans, and yet, that is how its viewed. I realize that how we actually say it is almost impossible to spell. Something like nu oawleens. But if you read that in a story I could see someone saying "what the fuck was that."

So i guess you would have to pick and choose what slang and local terms you can use.

 

[Guest]

Well i think that there is something there you have to be careful of though.

There are the people that write just for shits and giggles.

And there are those that nitpick over their writing.


For example. If your trying so hard to get a regional dialict down, and someone from that area reads your piece, than chances are they are going to go "we don't talk like that" no matter how hard you try.

Like, no one I knows says "nawlings" for new orleans, and yet, that is how its viewed. I realize that how we actually say it is almost impossible to spell. Something like nu oawleens. But if you read that in a story I could see someone saying "what the fuck was that."

So i guess you would have to pick and choose what slang and local terms you can use.

Yep, I completely agree! I would use any terms sparingly, but just try to give a hint that all of the characters didn't sound as if they were brought up by the Queen herself.

I know exactly what you mean. I've read books by mass market published authors (US), who have included an English character is their novel, the dialogue rarely sounds right. I even once read something like, "Tally ho, chaps!" NOBODY in England says that with a straight face.

Lou

 

[cloudy]

Thanks for the offer! One is from California, but there is also one from Georgia and another from North Carolina. I'd be interested to know if you could tell me any commonly used regional phrases, and certain nuances in speech. Cheers, babe!

Lou

People from California are almost accentless, as far as those in the US are concerned.

Georgia's accent is very soft, and drawled out.....not twangy like you'd hear from someone from Tennessee, or up around the Smokey Mountains. My accent is very, very similar to Georgia's, but you've only heard a little of my speech.

People from the south make a lot of one-syllable words into two syllables, for some reason. For instance, "door" is pronounced with two syllables: doe-wer".....same thing with "four."

Other words are slurred incredibly. "Fire" is pronounced "far" by some, same with "tire," etc. And any short word with "en" at the end is pronounced like it had "in" there. "Ten" and "tin" are the same.....etc.

Of course, there's the inevitable "y'all" (no, it's not "you-all" either ), and we like endearments: darlin', sugar, sweetheart.....Everybody gets called those, even people you don't know. But for me, I only call someone "sugar" if I'm fixin" (there's another one) to get sarcastic, and my southern accents gets much heavier.

Fixin'- getting ready to do something, as in: "I'm fixin' to go to the store."

If someone's going to take you to the store, they're going to "carry" you to the store, and you don't carry something, you "tote" it.

"You ain't right" can either be a horrible insult, or a comment on something hilarious someone has just said.

I'll keep thinking, and see if I can come up with some more for you....

 

[razor_nut]

I think this boils down to writing what you know.
I moved to the New England area only a couple years ago and the accent hit me like walking into a brick wall. If someone who'd never been exposed to New England slang would think it funny if one of my characters said "Oh my God, his cock was wicked huge!" Out here though, every thing is wicked this, wicked that, and someone knowing the New England culture would fimiliarize with that, bring out that character more to them; more than if I had just written "Oh my God his cock was really huge!"

PS~ Love the new avatar Lou

 

[BigAndTall]

People from California are almost accentless, as far as those in the US are concerned.

Georgia's accent is very soft, and drawled out.....not twangy like you'd hear from someone from Tennessee, or up around the Smokey Mountains. My accent is very, very similar to Georgia's, but you've only heard a little of my speech.

People from the south make a lot of one-syllable words into two syllables, for some reason. For instance, "door" is pronounced with two syllables: doe-wer".....same thing with "four."

Other words are slurred incredibly. "Fire" is pronounced "far" by some, same with "tire," etc. And any short word with "en" at the end is pronounced like it had "in" there. "Ten" and "tin" are the same.....etc.

Of course, there's the inevitable "y'all" (no, it's not "you-all" either ), and we like endearments: darlin', sugar, sweetheart.....Everybody gets called those, even people you don't know. But for me, I only call someone "sugar" if I'm fixin" (there's another one) to get sarcastic, and my southern accents gets much heavier.

Fixin'- getting ready to do something, as in: "I'm fixin' to go to the store."

If someone's going to take you to the store, they're going to "carry" you to the store, and you don't carry something, you "tote" it.

"You ain't right" can either be a horrible insult, or a comment on something hilarious someone has just said.

I'll keep thinking, and see if I can come up with some more for you....

What about "that dawg don't hunt"

(not admitting to using that term either

 

[cloudy]

What about "that dawg don't hunt"

(not admitting to using that term either

You forgot the definition!

it means that something won't work, or doesn't make sense.

 

[Guest]

People from California are almost accentless, as far as those in the US are concerned.

Georgia's accent is very soft, and drawled out.....not twangy like you'd hear from someone from Tennessee, or up around the Smokey Mountains. My accent is very, very similar to Georgia's, but you've only heard a little of my speech.

People from the south make a lot of one-syllable words into two syllables, for some reason. For instance, "door" is pronounced with two syllables: doe-wer".....same thing with "four."

Other words are slurred incredibly. "Fire" is pronounced "far" by some, same with "tire," etc. And any short word with "en" at the end is pronounced like it had "in" there. "Ten" and "tin" are the same.....etc.

Of course, there's the inevitable "y'all" (no, it's not "you-all" either ), and we like endearments: darlin', sugar, sweetheart.....Everybody gets called those, even people you don't know. But for me, I only call someone "sugar" if I'm fixin" (there's another one) to get sarcastic, and my southern accents gets much heavier.

Fixin'- getting ready to do something, as in: "I'm fixin' to go to the store."

If someone's going to take you to the store, they're going to "carry" you to the store, and you don't carry something, you "tote" it.

"You ain't right" can either be a horrible insult, or a comment on something hilarious someone has just said.

I'll keep thinking, and see if I can come up with some more for you....

WOW! Thanks, Cloudy!

That gives me a few things to throw in here and there. As I said, I don't want to over-do it, by any means, just add a little regional "flavour" that others will get.

Lou

P.S. Razor: Thank you!

 

[Xelebes]

Do you grok Heinlein and his waldos?

The problem I have with sci-fi slang is that the writer usually has no sense of linguistics. Take a look at the sentence. It does not flow off the tongue at all. It's jagged and has no semblence to the flow of the english language.

If I were to make that flow better, it would be read as:

Do you 'gree Heinlein and his aldos.

Now, I'm not goint to claim that mine is any better but it does have a more agreeable sound to it and it does sound like the words are from another English word, corrupted.

'Gree could possibly come from the word Agree which, though a leap in logic could possibly see the connotations with Agree and like or love.

Aldo - well, it just sounded similar with "others" and other languages have it, possibly a mix of the Greek word "Allo" and the German word "Oder".

Not sure, but to me there is a greater flow in words.

Tolkien pulls this off well.