Katherine Frances's Blog, page 193
July 23, 2017
Ahem... I’m back
Long time no seeSo, I’ve been away for an immeasurably long time. But I’m back now, and better then ever. The short of it is this;
I’ve got new work, new prompts, more visceral definitions and the posts you all followed me for in the first place. I’m all queued up and ready to go.
If you’re interested in knowing what I’ve been up to and what I plan to bring to the table for you guys, look no further:
"I thought the idea of education was to learn to think for yourself."
- Dead Poets Society
(via amortizing)
July 22, 2017
"Sometimes the things we want in life are just not the things Life wants for us."
- My Heart Bleeds Poetry #29
Charlene Pablo ( via @inevitable-realities )
Teen Dialogue and The Use of Slang
I’ve seen here and there that writer’s shouldn’t use slang in their dialogue, which is an opinion I disagree with. I’m just putting this out there because I like to reinforce the idea that in writing as well as in all art, there are thousands of opinions and many of them differ, so in the end you have to do what feels best for your story if you’re feeling conflicted about advice you’ve been given.
Do use slang, in my very humble, non-authority-on-writing opinion. There’s a few reasons why I think for teenage characters, and all characters, slang can be an essential part of communication.
1) The first job of dialogue is to represent the character in the realest way possible. If the character is stuttering, show us how.
Ex: “I- I don’t know about all that, John. I really don’t, I-… I’m just the post man for Christ’s sake!”.
If representing your character in a real way demands the use of slang, almost always, use it– unless you think it’s going to greatly confuse the reader.
2) It’s true that slang changes all the time. Basic slang though, such as ‘yeah’ and ‘okay’? Those are hardly even slang anymore, people know what they mean, adults, kids, teens, and they’re not going away. Here’s the truth of the matter. There are going to be things in your novel that people in 50 years will not understand. And because you’re not a time traveler, you’ll have no way of knowing what that is. Could be an outdated electronic devise, could be a obsolete daily routine, could be literally anything. So trying to edit out all of these things is nonsense. Your story takes place in a time period, write about that time period and don’t worry about the future.
3) It’s possible that you don’t know anything about the slang your character would use. If you don’t know how your character would realistically talk, you’re not equipped to write that character, especially if they’re going to be a central character in your story. You need to do some anthropological research. Go into a teen hang out spot in your town, do some eves dropping. Go online. Go literally anywhere young people open there mouths, which is pretty much everywhere. Also this is important; Slang is locational as well as generational. This means that right now, teenagers from one town could be saying things that teenagers in another town have never heard of. This happens all the time, and has even happened to me when I was in high school within my own friend group. This pretty much gives you the license to make crap up. A teen will read it and just think it’s slang they’ve never heard of. This is even more realistic if it’s between close friends, because friends make up words all the time that no one else gets. Again, with this, the only restriction is that your readers need to understand what they’re saying. But give the readers credit, they’ll be able to fill in the blanks most of the time.
Ex: “That’s so fetch.” “Grechen, stop trying to make fetch happen, it’s not going to happen.”
Fetch is not a word (in the way it was used), nor is it slang that existed before hand, but we get it! We know what fetch means, and we understand whats happening in this scene.
Take home message: The most important thing about dialogue is that it makes sense, it conveys what you want to convey, and it sounds real. If you can do all these things without slang, than by all means you should. But some characters just don’t make sense to speak in perfect, formal English, and you shouldn’t force them to talk in a way that is unnatural. It will damage your characterization and skew how your reader views them.
Ahem... I’m back
So, I’ve been away for an immeasurably long time. But I’m back now, and better then ever. The short of it is this;
I’ve got new work, new prompts, more visceral definitions and the posts you all followed me for in the first place. I’m all queued up and ready to go.
If you’re interested in knowing what I’ve been up to and what I plan to bring to the table for you guys, look no further:
Where I’ve beenA lot has happened in the near year it’s been since I tuned in to my tumblr family. For one, I graduated.
You’re looking at the proud owner of a shiny new BA in psychology with a minor criminology. After that, I started working as a councilor in a placement for adolescents who have broken the law to some degree, and usually have a history of trauma. That was a trip, and I’m sure the experiences will effect my blog, as well as my writing.
Oh, I also got engaged.
I’m soon to be moving, planning a wedding, applying for doctoral programs, and of course, writing. That’s one thing that will never change. So, without further ado:
What I’m bringing to the tableWell first off, I’m sure to post the occasional pic of my babies
Ignore the smiling dope*
For those of you who follow my writing: I have some projects on hiatus, and I have some projects soon to be produced.
-Harry Potter fan fiction is (hopefully temporarily) on hiatus. I have to get back into the swing of it before I start regularly publishing, but I intend to do so.
-Desiderium Series: This was originally intended to be a trilogy, but things happened and now I’m not so sure it will be. To be frank, I can’t publish something I’m not 100% behind, and I’ve started to realize I may have written a third because I thought series were supposed to be trilogies, and not because the story needed it to be a trilogy. So, I won’t rule out the possibility of a third coming one day, but it won’t be any time soon. The story is mostly complete as two books. As for the few unanswered questions in the second, I’ll leave that doorway open for future me to contend with.
But, I have new and better things on the way.
-A new series that is three books deep so far, and more to come. Publishing process on the first book is soon to begin.
-Possibly a serially released, free fantasy about warriors with magical abilities and physical cunning. And romance. And drama. Duh.
Let me know if you have thoughts! I’d love to hear what people are interested to see from me, or inversely, not interested in.
For those of you who follow my writing blog (more so then my actual writing): I plan to continue Visceral Definitions, writing advice, prompts, art inspiration, and writerly humor. Check out my Writer’s Library for an ever growing compendium of writing prompts, resources, as well as the back log of all Visceral Definitions.
I want to start posting more personal updates, excerpts and ideas from my life, as well as progress on publishing my latest projects. And my cats. They may become the star of the show.
Anyway, thanks to all my followers that stuck around, and to those of you who have recently followed me for my old content, know there will be more to come!
"The universe works in mysterious ways, and just as the heavens shift so that certain planets may..."
It seems almost cruel… to find a love so perfect only to lose it after such a brief time, but it is simply because your paths were destined to cross but not converge as one. You are, to each other, but a shooting star… a momentary flash of brilliance… a beacon of light sent to brighten each other’s lives and illuminate each other’s true path.
So let them go with a thankful heart… Wish them well on their journey and accept with grace the fact that some people fit perfectly into your heart but not your life and it is as simple and as complicated as that.”
- Ranata Suzuki | Crossing Paths (via wnq-writers)
"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places."
- Ernest Hemingway (via nl93)
