YA Slang in Writing

Every once in a while, on one of my writers’ lists or on facebook, someone will want to know what slang they should use in their young adult novel. My answer? None. Don’t do it. I think the exception is when you are trying to date your story. If you feel compelled to use slang for your story, consider keeping it to a minimum.

If you are writing a contemporary, by the time it gets on the shelves you can be sure new jargon will have replaced what was in vogue when you wrote it, assuming you could keep up with the ever-changing meaning of teen language while writing the book. Current lingo will likely be outdated before the first draft is finished.

You could invent your own vocabulary for your fictional world, though. I’ve seen this done quite well in many books. Kids do this is real life constantly. Within groups, teens make up their own private language, nicknames, and figures of speech unique to their crowd.

As an “old” person, I’m not aware of how widespread certain sayings are. At this moment as I am writing, in the small young adult circle I am familiar with, dishing out juicy gossip is known as “giving the tea.” For all I know, by the time this post goes up it will be out of fashion. I may not even be using this saying correctly, which is another pitfall when appropriating slang for a novel. It’s like the outdated youth worker trying to be “hip” with the kids.

I’ve been told words like awesome, cool, bummer, and totally are completely out, even though I’ve heard, or overhead, teens using them, and read them in books.

Will writing devoid of colloquialisms sound authentic? In any fiction, voice is what makes it authentic.

While it’s true kids have a few words they like to repeat in conversation, having dialogue in your story reflecting actual repetitive speech, or speech with slang can annoy the reader. We don’t write exactly the way we use language in our everyday lives. Writing an authentic character develops relatability with the reader. Peppering prose with the latest sayings may not do that.

Being cool happens the same way it always has. You’re only cool when you’re not trying to be.

Write realistic, well-rounded characters, and save the slang for those opportunities to embarrass the special young people in your life.

That’s my totally cool and awesome advice for writing slang. Do you have a tip to share? Leave a comment!

Donna Jo Stone writes YA contemporary novels about tough issues but always ends the stories with a note of hope. She blogs at donnajostone.com.