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If you want your story to sound authentic, you must learn and use the slang of the city(ies) in question. The New York Times had a fascinating dialect quiz a few years ago, and the author just pu...
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#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-13T12:00:40Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25598 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T05:48:52Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25598 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
If you want your story to sound authentic, you must learn and use the slang of the city(ies) in question. The _New York Times_ had a fascinating dialect quiz a few years ago, and the author just put out a book called [_Speaking American._](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0544703391) I haven't read it, but it sounds like a good place for you to start to grasp how regional dialects differ. Beyond that, you'll have to travel or spend a lot of time speaking with locals to get the flavor of local language. You may get some from documentaries or news, but real people will give you the best results. If you want to describe the city properly, same thing: travel or start researching films/documentaries. If you are writing about a real place, you have to experience it to write about it.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2016-12-20T23:15:05Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 1