o. writing help

HOW TO WRITE: DIALOGUE

FOR TEENS

to help you depict

how teens talk the

right way

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dialogue is one of the trickiest parts for a lot of writers to get down, and teenagers especially. surprisingly, this applies to teenagers almost as well as it applies to adults—and i think we've all read a YA novel written by someone totally out of touch with teenagers.

personally, i don't have trouble with dialogue, but after analyzing my own (acclaimed? not by anyone important) dialogue versus the stilted speech i've read, i've come up with a list of tips for the YA writer.

. this is a tip that extends beyond teenagers, because most people contract almost anything they can. however, a lot of writers still refuse to do it, and i think it's even more pronounced in high-intensity situations and teenagers.

a lack of contractions is generally reserved for formal situations, emphasis, or seething anger.

. what?! i can hear you protesting. but teenagers are the inventors of most slang! maybe, but i can't actually remember a time as a teenager when i used slang and any adult other than someone particularly clueless didn't not understand.

commonly accepted "slang" like "okay," "yeah," "cool," and others should be used liberally.

note that this does not apply to jargon terms. i would classify words like "shipping" as jargon because it makes no sense outside of a fandom community. not necessarily a "teenage" community. use jargon like normal.

. puberty is awkward. if your character says something awkward, this is fantastic!

but everyone feels awkward. if your character says something foolish, they will know. if they say something hammy, even for comedic effect, they will probably be uncertain while they do it. not even the "popular" kids are all-confident.

. this is another tip that should be used for all dialogue, but is especially useful for teenagers. and not all misunderstandings need go unspoken. have your questions say something nonsensical and have their conversational partner go, "that didn't make any sense."

this get cut as "unnecessary" a lot, but i don't think it should. it emphasizes character's emotional states. and if a character misunderstood something, they might bring up it up later in the conversation and have it re-explained (this can also be good for exposition).

. this one is mostly for conversations with more than two people.

teenagers, especially on their free time, will not stick to one topic, even in the same sentence.

the topic should jump around and cover a lot of things, and not everyone in the group will be focused on the same conversational gambits.

but this has to be contained somewhat in writing, or it gets too confusing. all the topics have to spring from somewhere that the reader knows, and die when the conversation gets serious or focuses in on what the conversation is there to advance, plot- or character-wise.

but at the end of the day, you just have to listen to people talk. listen to teenagers talk. what are they talking about? what do they care about? they aren't a foreign species, even if you think yourself strange and different (or too adult).