Dialogue and slang
Slang. Depending upon your story’s character and their social, ethnic, or work situation, you can use slang to enliven that character’s dialogue. Take Juno for example:
* Hey, shut your gob for a second, okay?
* I am definitely up the spout.
* You know like a woman with a bum ovary or something. Or some nice lesbos.
* Spank off to this with motion lotion.
* Rip off the Band-Aid and let it bleed.
* I don’t want you to get ripped off by a couple of baby-starved winguts.
* I’m a pawn shop rocker.
* I hear they can be kind of a time-suck.
* Get more snatch from the batch!
* Park it, dude.
* I drink tons of booze, so you might get one of those neuter-babies that’s born without junk.
* Hey, what kind of swag did you score?
* Do you think I’m going to flake out on you?
* Share the love, Tits!
* Look, I have a snooze button now.
* Prom is for wenises, anyway.
* You are the chosen custodians of this big-ass bump!
* God, Mark! Just do me a solid and stay with your wife.
* Because they’re you’re fave.
* You never deserve any of the poo I unload on you.
* You’re just golden, dude.
* Bren, when do I get that Spinal Tap thing?
* As boyfriends, Paulie Bleeker is totally boss. He’s the cheese to my macaroni.
Screenwriter Diablo Cody’s use of slang is one of the most memorable elements of the script. But it also helps to define the Protagonist’s (Juno) character and her problem: Supposedly wise beyond her years, Juno needs to flirt with adult romance (the Trickster Mark Loring) and have those illusions shattered and deliver her baby before she can ‘go back’ a few developmental stages to her appropriate age — a teenage girl, one who can happily accept Paulie Bleeker (Attractor) as her equal. That sassy mouth Juno has, dripping with smart slang, helps to sell the core internal issue she has to confront.
Slang is a useful tool for a writer — and one of the best resources I ever bought was “The Thesaurus of Slang,” edited by Esther and Albert Lewin. Unlike most slang dictionaries which provide definitions of slang words / phrases, this book flips it around: You look up a ‘regular’ word and the thesaurus provides you with a bunch of slang equivalents. For example, look up the word “cash” and here are just a few of over 50 slang words: “bread, dough, loot, skins, folding green, happy cabbage, glory roll, moolah, geech, gravy, chicken feed, coin, dead presidents, bones, boodle, spending snaps, biscuit, tin, and handsome ransom.”
Just yesterday I read this news item from Cynopsis Digital:
The whole social networking phenomenon is providing a unique looking glass into popular youth culture than can be utilized by anyone interested in studying hyper current habits of the adolescent human race. HarperCollins has turned to the Bebo community to find Britain’s latest slang words. The words were originally short-listed by a panel of 14–18 year-olds and have been divided into six categories; money orientated, ‘cool’, friends, girls/boys, street language and put-downs (always a source for inspiration). Bebo’s 10.5 million unique users in the UK are currently casting their votes and views on which of the slang words they think should be included. The list of teen slang words selected for the 30th edition of the Collins English dictionary will be made public by Bebo this summer. In the meantime, here’s a little primer:
Piff — Good
Stunting — Showing off
Co-dee — Friends
Sick — Cool, good
Pee — Money
Breh — Boy
Shifted — To get arrested
Pinky — £50
So if you’re writing a story about young people in the U.K., this list of current slang could be helpful in creating a sense of verisimilitude with your characters.
One more thing: When I read through that list of slang from Juno, it occurred to me that it’s almost possible to track the entire plot just reading those sides of dialogue.
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