When writing a comic about high school kids, the first thing I decided was how they would talk, and that meant figuring out their slang. I’m not sure if anyone noticed, but the adults and a couple of the kids don’t use slang at all. Otherwise, they all use it, dropping the “G” from the ends of most words, using “YA” instead of “YOU,” and “WHATCHA” instead of “WHAT DO YOU.”
Sometimes this can be challenging to remember, and the rules need to change from time to time. For example, instead of “YA,” I still have to use “YOU” in certain situations. When it comes to spell-checking the dialogue, a spell-checker doesn’t pick up spelling errors like that.
I’ve also become more reliant on Urban Dictionary. I’ve learned the spelling of a lot of different words that I’ve always just said but never actually written down on the page until now.
The final line of defense is my fiancée and my editor. If one misses something, the other usually catches it. And possibly I would catch it myself, but that happens less often than you’d think.
