To Be or Not to Be…Groovy?

I love young people. I love how their future stretches out before them, waiting for choices to be made and adventures to be had. I love their fresh way of looking at the world. I love how, whether they are conscious of it or not, they’re trying on new personas like clothes, trying to find the right fit, until something suits them and just works. And I love how their language parallels all of this–how their use of words evolves and grows and adapts in a ceaseless process of fitting into the fluidity of their lives.

As writers for a young audience, dare we try to keep pace?

If you’re writing for teens, I would highly recommend that you spend some time hanging around them. (Notice I didn’t say “hanging around WITH them.” There’s a difference. If I have to explain it to you, you might want to forget the whole thing because there’s a good chance they already think you’re dorky, creepy, or both.) You want to observe their speech patterns, but should you necessarily try to mimic them in your work?

I’d vote no.

Because here’s the thing: by the time you get something published, chances are good that the cutting-edge teen slang you mimicked is going to be so last year.

I use a lot of teen slang in my interactions with fellow adults. Why? Because I think it’s hilarious. I do it self-consciously, for effect. The other day I told my friend Catherine that she’s “totes gorg.” My tongue was firmly implanted in my cheek; even though the sentiment was sincere (she really is lovely), it was just funnier to say it in teen speak. Catherine responded by telling me that her daughter and daughter’s friends have been driving her, well, “totes cray” lately by saying that everything is “totes cray.” Don’t you love it? I do. But I won’t be using “totes cray” in my fiction because it will date my work. Slang changes too fast for a novelist to keep up.

Writers must similarly beware of pop culture references. The band/actor/musician/clothing brand/website you mention in your book this year may not be relevant next year–I think I mentioned MySpace in my first novel. Who knew it would become a land of tumbleweeds a couple of years later? (Of course, by the time I post this, it may well be a trendy new throwback kind of thing to do…who knows?) When it comes to cultural references, you’re safer with established legends–I recently used an allusion to the Rolling Stones, for instance (whether it stays after a few rounds of edits remains to be seen). However, even that can be dangerous. For example, what if you’d compared a character’s dad to Bill Cosby in a book you wrote last year and the book came out this month? Who’d have imagined that a reference to the guy who was America’s favorite dad for decades would be controversial today?

Considering the possible caveats, you might want to just invent fictitious celebrities/trends/whatever. Then you eliminate the danger of your reference becoming outdated or tainted.

All I’m saying is, tread carefully with trends or you run the risk of coming across as the stock character of the school counselor who thinks he’s super “with it” (my favorite is Jeff Rosso from Freaks and Geeks–a moment of silence for this fantastic show that died way too young).

Remember the movie version of The Brady Bunch? The whole conceit is how goofy 70s style becomes when dropped into a (then) contemporary setting. Davy Jones, dangerously long and pointy shirt collars, and dance moves that glorified the human thumb had their day in the sun, but like most fads, time marched on without them.

So, to recap…Groovy is groovy only when used with a full-on awareness of how goofy groovy is…got it?

Groovy.