Quantcast

How Do You Handle AAVE or Black Slang in Writing?

AndroidChick

General Manager
Joined
Jan 12, 2017
Messages
1,763
Reaction score
Reactions
24,873 628 37
26,096
Alleybux
7,900
Hey guys! I'm working on a story, and my MC and many of the cast are black teens. They use AAVE and/or black slang sometimes though not frequently. When it comes to beta readers and getting editing done, usually the people seem to be white or other non-blk people (a lot of times people are anonymous online, so who really knows).

How do you handle AAVE or other black cultural sayings and slang?

Do you try to edit the phrases ahead of time, or just leave them as-is? Or are you fortunate enough to have black beta readers and/or editors?

Ex:
"Yeah, Tiff, we saw her yesterday at the mall. Girl was on mute after popping her gums all day," Jada says, trying to balance her brother in her arms and hold the laundry basket close to her hip.

"Deidra ..." I begin, trying to bite back the words, the inevitable words that will start another disagreement between us. I can't deal with this today.

Deidra, still ranting, drops her brother roughly on the bed. "I guess the girl thought we were going to jump her or something. Tiff, y'know. Ain't nobody was thinking about that girl. She started it."

This makes me wonder how authors who write Urban Fiction handle this. But now with AAVE being so popular with Gen Z maybe it's not such a big deal.
 

`Bella

General Manager
Joined
Mar 12, 2009
Messages
1,014
Reaction score
Reactions
5,764 158 12
6,148
Alleybux
42,222
Use black editors and beta readers who will understand the slang and your vision.
 

LaVieBoheme

Block and ignore the racists. Don’t feed them.
Joined
Jan 17, 2017
Messages
21,291
Reaction score
Reactions
358,286 10,574 2,206
399,908
Alleybux
1,500
Hey guys! I'm working on a story, and my MC and many of the cast are black teens. They use AAVE and/or black slang sometimes though not frequently. When it comes to beta readers and getting editing done, usually the people seem to be white or other non-blk people (a lot of times people are anonymous online, so who really knows).

How do you handle AAVE or other black cultural sayings and slang?

Do you try to edit the phrases ahead of time, or just leave them as-is? Or are you fortunate enough to have black beta readers and/or editors?

Ex:
"Yeah, Tiff, we saw her yesterday at the mall. Girl was on mute after popping her gums all day," Jada says, trying to balance her brother in her arms and hold the laundry basket close to her hip.

"Deidra ..." I begin, trying to bite back the words, the inevitable words that will start another disagreement between us. I can't deal with this today.

Deidra, still ranting, drops her brother roughly on the bed. "I guess the girl thought we were going to jump her or something. Tiff, y'know. Ain't nobody thinking about that girl. She started it."

This makes me wonder how authors who write Urban Fiction handle this. But now with AAVE being so popular with Gen Z maybe it's not such a big deal.

I'll be a beta reader, but I'm in my 30s so I may not understand Gen Z speak.

I know how we spoke when I was growing up in the 90s/2000s.
 

tiffinla

Starter
Joined
Feb 23, 2013
Messages
273
Reaction score
Reactions
577 39
737
Alleybux
21,730
HA ha… Im a trader and saw AAVE and thought the stock was moving. Let me take my old azz to another room. carry on!!
 

wanderwoman

alleybuxstrugglelife
Joined
Jun 27, 2019
Messages
30,252
Solutions
3
Reaction score
Reactions
319,173 7,864 3,406
372,156
Alleybux
2,256,050
You may not have to use it in every piece of dialogue. When I do accents, sometimes I'll just introduce it, explain it and then write normally because I've already established it with the reader and they'll read it that way automatically.

Good luck.
 

Twocents

Tryin 2 have fun
Joined
Jan 27, 2021
Messages
83
Reaction score
Reactions
233 2 1
242
Alleybux
15,542
Honestly, I just write it the way it sounds when me or anyone else who talks that way sounds. Like one of the members up top said: lots and lots of apostrophes. :worship
 

eggcellence

The Embodiment of Black Eggcellence
Joined
Feb 4, 2021
Messages
794
Reaction score
Reactions
3,174 283 113
3,114
Alleybux
31,336
Hey guys! I'm working on a story, and my MC and many of the cast are black teens. They use AAVE and/or black slang sometimes though not frequently. When it comes to beta readers and getting editing done, usually the people seem to be white or other non-blk people (a lot of times people are anonymous online, so who really knows).

How do you handle AAVE or other black cultural sayings and slang?

Do you try to edit the phrases ahead of time, or just leave them as-is? Or are you fortunate enough to have black beta readers and/or editors?

Ex:
"Yeah, Tiff, we saw her yesterday at the mall. Girl was on mute after popping her gums all day," Jada says, trying to balance her brother in her arms and hold the laundry basket close to her hip.

"Deidra ..." I begin, trying to bite back the words, the inevitable words that will start another disagreement between us. I can't deal with this today.

Deidra, still ranting, drops her brother roughly on the bed. "I guess the girl thought we were going to jump her or something. Tiff, y'know. Ain't nobody was thinking about that girl. She started it."

This makes me wonder how authors who write Urban Fiction handle this. But now with AAVE being so popular with Gen Z maybe it's not such a big deal.
Girl what yo book called? I wanna support a sista!
 

skybantralist

Dookie Braid God
Joined
Jun 24, 2015
Messages
20,590
Reaction score
Reactions
110,731 9,307 8,625
113,147
Alleybux
704,283
It stay dark upon these lands. For a thousand, thousand years no man, no beast, no rock nor tree has seen da light'a da sun. Da trees done long petrified, the earf been turnt barren, da air stay laced with a chill that's colda than a mug. Aks yourself, what coulda caused such a thing to take place, aks yourself this, because this is da same question that all those who done survived these horrid circumstances done aksed theyself.

Deep below da surface is The Hollows, a collection of enormous manmade tunnels networking in da bowels of the earf. This is where human civilization has survived, even flourished, as best any civilization coulda under such circumstances. But what will come next is fitna do what da sun's mysterious absence ain't done, bring the era of man to a close.

Excerpt from "The Hollows," a rip roaring science fantasy epic that takes our hero, Solquarius, from the slums of the subterranean lands of Ebonica to the stars.
 
Last edited:

Similar Threads

News Alley

General Alley

Top Bottom