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Monday, 5 December 2011

Six Sentence Sunday: Slang

This is a little something I wrote for a workshop on world-building. It doesn't come from a story or a book, but I find the snippet intriguing enough to that I probably will write a story around it. It's eighteen sentences, so I think I'll post the whole of it over the next few Sundays.

You can also take this an example of the importance, in world-building, of the use of some well-developed slang that fits your world. I was told this was a good example of how to introduce slang.
The girl, maybe twelve, if that, waved a hand at Berhk’s clothing. ‘You’ll get smeared walking ‘round here like that.’
 ‘Smeared?’ Berhk looked down at his clothes, plain and unornamented, a little ragged around the edges, mended in places. They were none-too-clean, though not so dirty he couldn’t stand it, but nothing like the silks he was accustomed to. Why should he care if they got a little dirtier than they already were?
You can find more Six Sentence Sunday writers here.


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19 comments:

Julia Rachel Barrett said...

Love your six sentences!

Krystal Wade said...

Love the description of the clothes. Really tells a lot about his character!

Sadie Hart said...

-grins- Love his confusion over being 'smeared.' I know I've been confused often enough over a new slang word.

Ciara Ballintyne said...

Thanks! I really liked this snippet - hence why I'll write a story including it!

Ciara Ballintyne said...

Don't miss next week when she explains it to him! :-)

Xakara Author said...

Nicely descriptive and a good capture of his confusion. :)
 
~XakaraA Way To A Dragon's Heart 6SS

Ciara Ballintyne said...

Thank you :-)

cate peace said...

Such a good point about worldbuilding, especially in SF and fantasy. I love Berkh's confusion. Great six!

Amberr Meadows said...

I love your six. It leaves me wanting more, and that is always good. Also stumbled the post. Hope you had a great weekend!

Ciara Ballintyne said...

Definitely, I'll be doing a post this week on worldbuilding as a tie-in. Thanks for stopping by!

Ciara Ballintyne said...

Oh good cause I'm always picky about the six I choose. Glad to know it's paying off!

Jenny said...

I'm not the best writer in the world, so using slang in anything was never easy for me. But I'm working on it!

Sherry Roberts said...

I'm intrigued. Apparently, his clothes are going to get him into trouble no matter what--whether they are too fine or not fine enough.

Ciara Ballintyne said...

I had simply never thought about it until I did the workshop on worldbuilding. And when you consciously think about it, it's HARD.

Ciara Ballintyne said...

They're too 'neat'. Obviously orchestrated, if you will - an obvious effort to blend in, which therefore fails.

Heather B said...

Nice six. Very descriptive. Made me want to keep reading.

E. P. Beaumont said...

I have a funny feeling that a dictionary of local idioms might come in handy here... I suspect that there's more at risk than getting grubby. You build the suspense without being obvious about it.

Ciara Ballintyne said...

Glad to hear it, thanks for commenting.

Ciara Ballintyne said...

Oh yes, Berhk definitely needs a handbook!

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