Like Jack, I try to avoid slang unless it helps to set the story. I absolutely avoid "modern" slang, as it makes a story feel dated in just a few years. I was re-reading a childhood favourite recently and it was littered with slang that made it (and me) feel positively ancient.

I do, however, try to keep my characters' dialogue appropriate to them - and if that means fragmented sentences and sloppy grammar then I keep it in. Writing is about polish, but that doesn't mean that a novel should read like a doctoral thesis. We'm highly eddicated folk, thee'n me, but ein characters main't be so cliver.

Ouch - yeah, use phonetic dialect sparingly.

Kell Willsen
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