: Re: Can I use spoken English at some places over 'technically accurate English' in a general fiction? I have written my novel as a 'first person singular' and in past tense. There are lot of times

@Bryan361

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If you look at actual transcripts you will realise quickly that fictional speech is not the same as actual speech - and that this is a good thing.

It's totally ok to include mannerisms and limited slang to establish a character, but taken to extremes characters may date quickly or be totally unintelligible outside of the time or place in which they lived or the author wrote. Real speech can also leave too much implied (too much work for the reader) or simply not advance the narrative enough (be too boring).

Disclaimer: I disliked Huckleberry Finn. Other opinions are possible.

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