Slang and Slang Use, Feast yer mince pies on this one! Options

[Guest_Jox_*]

Hi,

In another tile, Don and I had a brief discussion on slang (reproduced in the next post in this tile). However, it seems to me that the subject is a very wide one and has big implications for all writers. So what do you think about slang? Do you / would you use it and, if so, when? What are the dangers and advantages of using it?

Please post your thoughts in this tile.

Oh the sub-title?? "mince pies" is Cockney (London) rhyming slang for eyes.

James.

[Guest_Jox_*]

Thanks Alan and more to follow - excellent.

Fran...

Good point about JJ.

I'm quite stuffy about this and don't like slang (though, of course, I use it - but try not to). I mind it far less than cliches per se - but there's the rub; most slang is cliche. And cliches (which, of course, I stumble into as well as anyone) as the spawn of the Writing Devil for me. They undermine anything instantly. One the one hand, I think that the phrase is dull and undermined to start with and, on t'other, I think the writer is a lazy so-and-so. So yes, I don't like slang in narration but it is very useful in conversation. I take your point, that the narrator might have use slang because of his / her poor grasp of English - in which case, I agree one is justified in using it - but it still grates.

And before anyone jumps on me for using slang or cliches - I repeat, I admit I do - but I don't want to, so please do point it out, but no reason to be smug :) I'm no angel - I told them where they could stuff their harp and walked out... only to find I'd been declined a place, anyway. But, I must say, it’s very warm down here on a cold Winter’s day and toasting the 1980s UK Conservative government is great fun.

James.