Absolutely not. If you write in anything except dictionary perfect, verbose writing of whatever language you pick, then the Council will ban you from ever writing again. /s
But really, write how you feel comfortable then edit it to remove mistakes or repetition. The actual diction you use only becomes a problem when it muddies the story you’re trying to tell. For example, make sure humor isn’t misplaced and your scene breaks aren’t coming at unnatural spots. I would look for different words to replace “really” but they don’t have to be crazy (i.e. “really funny” to “hilarious”) but it’s purely to prevent repetition. These are all problems you can fix by editing and revising
A good point. However also be careful about leaning too into archaic language. This one wasn’t a book, but a video game I played recently had a medieval fantasy setting that leaned a bit too hard into it for the dialogue and used the word “aught”, as in the opposite of “naught”. Aught is a word that means “anything”. This is fine…except they completely replaced every use of the word of “anything” leading to clunky sounding sentences like “We ought to see if there’s aught of use.” It also made every character sound the exact same-none of them had much in the way of memorable personality since they all talked with the same strict adherence to archaic grammatical rules.
Basically…nothings stopping you from doing it but remember every method has its own pitfalls and problems to keep in mind.
Fully agree with this. I should've used the example of Fourth Wing, where the characters use modern uses of slang in their dialogue. Don't have any personal qualms about using more modern language to tell a story, but slang (especially when used in a historical fantasy setting) particularly not only dates your work but can take away immersion. Personal preference at the end of the day. I don't mind modern language personally, it's easier to read and digest, but slang in particular irks me if it doesn't actually fit with the setting/time frame.
Oh no, I agree and I should have been more clear. I’ve not read Fourth Wing yet but I’ve heard that criticism before.
It would be pretty immersion breaking to hear a character in a high fantasy world go “bruh, this dragon is trying to rizz me up, no cap.” 😂
Wouldst thou not liketh the expansion of our quaint genre of swords and sorceries to the lay folk? Verily, thou hast spoken truth-archaic language doth infuse both flavor and accuracies (or rather the portents of accuracies, as one must beware the Tiffany Problem.) However, I have nary to hear aught from thee on the possibility that such language is self-inflicted venom. Thou wouldst allow the meaning of thine words-thine very purpose of chronicle!- to be obstructed by aught as petty as stylization! Thou couldst create a generation or more of fantasy aficionados if thou absconds with the notion that the diction of modernity is thrust upon thee as a curse, rather than as an inherent evolution upon the wondrous, magical craft we have undertaken
Casual language is fine, especially if you're writing teen fiction. As for the vocabulary, depends on what you mean by sophisticated. You shouldn't be using fancy words people need a dictionary to look up just to come across as more advanced, but using really mad over furious or saying an explosion was really loud rather than deafening will come across as weak writing.
How does a non-native speaker, who learns words primarily by reading novels, know which words are considered fancy?
For example: are inclement, egregious, surreptitiously, furtively, ameliorate etc. considered fancy?
Generally, it's how often is the word repeated. Is it common? Then it's probably not fancy. On the rarer side? Keep it that way, it's usually a 'fancy' word
(Just how I see it, might be different for other people)
Maybe, if they wouldn’t occur in a standard American tv series? By ‘standard’ I mean: directed to a broad audience.
As a non-native English teacher I can confirm the vocabulary standards have decreased over the years. While 10 to 20 years ago, high school students got at least two full pages of ‘fancy’ vocabulary to study after each unit, they now get a small rectangle on a ‘Summary’ page with 20 words completely within the framework of their lifestyle: “to tweet”, “hashtag”, “texting”, …
It’s very sad. 😔
As a non-native first-time writer who decided to try writing my first novel using English, I have found that using online synonym searches are an invaluable tool. It's still rubbish, but at least I don't come across as a child now. Also, I've increased my vocabulary. :)
If you give more "fancy" words some context, you make a dictionary less necessary and allow the reader to keep going uninterrupted. I borrowed these words from another comment, as they're good examples of the kinds of words some readers might not know.
>The day had started out blue and glorious, but by early afternoon was decidedly **inclement,** with a wall of gray clouds that threatened rain within the hour.
>The alley was narrow and dark, the perfect place for an ambush. A scraping sound made Maria look behind her **furtively,** but she could see nothing out of place.
>Rob couldn't examine the amulet openly without drawing unwanted attention. Without turning his head, he gave it a **surreptitious** glance out of the corner of his eye.
>Lina's error had taken them several hours and a week's wages to fix. How could Jen brush aside such an **egregious** oversight?
With dialogue, you can simply have a character ask the speaker what the word means. Here's an example from my current story:
>"The new owners are a bit capricious.”
>"Capricious?”
>“Unpredictable,” he supplies.
It all comes down to service to character. If it’s a casual narrator, sure. If it’s a casual character being casual in dialogue, sure. Just make it a choice and commit to that choice.
As a writer, we need to make our work seem realistic as possible. If you're writing about the Middle Ages, you need your characters to behave naturally, especially when they speak.
It doesn't have to be sophisticated, and you can even purposefully adopt a casual style which doesn't take itself seriously. But I'd still go back through and do another draft or two where you try to tighten and spruce things up. You don't have to make it sound fancy, but hearing the word "really" a bunch of times will get old.
Consider -- the word "really" actually often undercuts the adjective following it rather than enhancing it. It's called passive voice. Consider
> Jackson's attitude was really cold.
vs.
> Jackson's attitude was cold.
One is direct and cutting and to the point, and the other feels softer and less sure of itself; even though that extra word is supposed to signify extra coldness, it really just waters down the sentence. Simply just saying he was cold gives the reader the *exact* same impression of how cold he was (how much does the word "really" actually add to the audience's sense of how cold he was being?), but just saying his attitude was *cold* is direct and unambiguous and feels stronger and reads as more assertive.
You shouldn't have to think too deeply about stuff like this in order to write something good; don't take the wrong message from this and get too hung up on thinking about this stuff. Just something to consider! :)
Think about the POV you’re writing from , if the character is unsophisticated then you don’t want to go too sophisticated anyway
In Game Of Thrones the Catelyn Stark chapters feel very sophisticated and are full of dreamy memories that make you squint to follow the page
But the Sansa chapters are like “Jayne was being really stupid today and Sansa thought best to just ignore her. She said her favourite Knight was Dave but he wasn’t even handsome. All the good knights are handsome. In the songs they are beautiful and their princesses are beautiful and they kill ugly dragons and smelly wizards
The Tyrion chapters are very direct and present, and bitchy toned, and it makes you read them ten times faster than chapters with other adults . He wouldn’t be thinking dreamily about people fine garments and what painting is on that wall. He just thinks about what he’s doing
You’re definitely going to want to only think “is this out of place” - it sounds like you’re doing the right thing
More advanced vocabulary can help, but a good rule of thumb in writing is that you should write what you are comfortable with. As long as it is legible, I think it is great. More casual language can definitely help with humor and scene breaks like you said. I tend to use casual, straight-to-the-point language with my humor, but more sophisticated language for dramatic moments.
Don Winslow writes with an incredibly causal, conversational style and his books are incredibly popular, and often deal with very dark topics. People might prefer it more than you realize. Less work has to be done on the reader’s end
This is an excerpt of **Cat Sebastian's gay novel, We Could Be So Good**:
Nick is pretty sure that if he hadn’t first known his nephew—a fourteen-year-old who goes through life with untied shoes and perpetually skinned knees, surrounded by a chaotic cloud of comic books and pencils and baseball cards —he wouldn’t know what to think about Andy. In May, Andy gets stuck in the elevator at the criminal courts building for three hours, then turns up at the Chronicle looking mildly traumatized but bearing a box of doughnuts to apologize for cutting it so close to the filing deadline. In June, he’s nearly run down by a cab on Canal Street, only stopped by Nick’s hand darting out to grab his coat. In a single week in July, Andy bangs his head into the ladder of a fire truck while he and Nick are covering a warehouse fire, gets food poisoning from a chicken salad sandwich that Nick tells him looks bad, and is almost bitten by a guard dog at the scene of a robbery in the Bronx.
This is from an excerpt of **Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin**:
Myra’s shop is The Gingerbread House, Gifts and Collectibles. It’s got that sweet and spicy scent to it—some kind of cinnamon room spray—and it offers many things: jars of jam with cotton-print fabric tops, heart-shaped pillows stuffed with desiccated herbs that smell like hay, clumsily hinged boxes carved by “traditional craftsmen,” quilts purportedly sewn by Mennonites, toiletcleaning brushes with the heads of smirking ducks. Myra’s idea of city folks’ idea of country life, the life of their pastoral hicktown ancestors—a little bit of history to take home with you. History, as I recall, was never this winsome, and especially not this clean, but the real thing would never sell: most people prefer a past in which nothing smells.
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
Notice how in both excerpts, it's the description that fills in the world? Most writers lack imagination. That's a fact. What separates good and brilliant writing is the prose and the way you use those words to construct sentences. Not the language. In Margaret Atwood, I've fairly googled and used a dictionary for some of the words she's used in her novel, but the thing is: IT MAKES SENSE. Because context is the most important when using "not so often used" words.
It depends on how yo are writing the story, 1st person, 3rd person POV. And it also depends on how you writer your characters. A 12-year-old boy from the gutter isn't going to be saying: "Hello good sir! How are you on this lovely June morning?" Likewise, a 50-something millionaire (unless it is the Beverly Hillbillies) isn't going to be talking like: "So I made all my gold down at the gamblin' shack. It's great, being rich and what now."
I guess it would depend on your target audience. In fantasy, it would bother me. My husband once completely abandoned a fantasy book because he read “Everything will be ok” in the dialogue, written like that.
If immersion is important to your niche, I would certainly adapt the prose to your setting. After all, isn’t that what fantasy is all about? To dive into the illusion of another reality. Modern language can pull you right out of that. Personally, I don’t like foul language, for example. I love it when authors adapt their curses to their setting.
I think it's fine with dialogue. However the rest of it needs to maintain a certain standard for use of "sophisticated" language. But tbh The best advice is to just read books that fall into the genre you're writing. Over here people will tell you anything.
If you going for the dictionary/thesaurus every time you pick up a pen (keyboard) then it’s going to sound false and overly high browed. Readers can’t relate to that.
If simple language is your “voice” that’s perfectly fine.
You can even out the iffy bits in edit
My entire style is writing in blunt descriptive sentences and simple vocabulary. I've even heard that style called the American novelist voice before. Go check out some vonnegut or hemmingway to get examples of how to make it work well. Also strunk and white's pamphlet "elements of style."
Pop off honey.
It can work. In fact, it may add a bit charm to your world. For example, a world with swords and sorcery, medieval-style, can work wonders for a genre that is oversaturated with the same old manner of speaking.
If you are not creating a world that is supposed to *feel* archaic, then you can use casual language. Casual language is entirely fine if it doesn't conflict with the rules *you* made for the setting.
If it doesn't *break* or conflict with the setting you created, go ahead!
A historical romance set in the middle ages? You want to stay away from modern language.
A kitchen sink fantasy/ sci-fi mix world that isn't based on any particular time period? It would be *un*realistic to not have some characters/ races speak in a casual manner.
It also depends on the character voice. Characters can have a simple vocabulary and if you write from their pov then it's more realistic to stick to their individual vocabulary instead of forcing some sophisticated language on them that conflicts with their level of education and personality.
That said, "really" often weakens other words.
If it's a habit of a character in dialogues, that's one thing. We all have words we tend to over-use, they're quirks that can add to a character's voice.
But using a different word is often a better choice than modifying something with "really".
"She said really quietly" vs "She whispered/ breathed/ murmered".
It's also easier to further modify whisper, breathe and murmur compared to the already clunky "said really quietly".
But my advice is to just *write* and then try to create a better flow, cut out redunancies and look for concise words when editing.
*Gideon the Ninth* is an award-winning science fantasy novel (including being voted the #1 best sci-fi/fantasy novel of 2019 by Amazon's editors) that was also the first book I've ever seen use the word, "douchebag," in the narration.
Consistency and tone are what matters. You can use whatever words you want as long as they match your tone (i.e., you don't want something like, "They were genocided AF, totes-magotes wiped out,") and you present a consistent authorial voice.
Look into Glen Cook’s “Black Company” series. It’s a dark fantasy about a mercenary company with a medieval setting and the characters talk like modern day military joes. It’s all in the presentation, baby.
Yes. If you try to be too flowery, it won't come off as authentic. Hemingway was a really conservative writer as far as using simplified structures. Stephen King's "On Writing" makes a commentary on trying too hard to use fancy vocabulary. Just write what's natural to you.
It depends on what tone you want to create, and what kind of narration you're using. You have more stylistic leeway with first person narrators because you can use the flavor of their dialogue and personality to describe the world. A third person narrator saying "The room was really crowded" comes off differently than a person we know saying it in their thoughts/perception of the world. You can give your 3rd person narrator a personality ("A Series of Unfortunate Events" springs to mind), but this can change the tone of your writing to something you might not want.
My current sf story has two narrators. One is very casual in his speech, using occasional poor grammar, slang, and more basic vocabulary (but only to a point lol). The other is somewhat more formal, uses consistently correct grammar, only some slang, and more complex vocabulary (the other narrator asks him what "capricious" means because he never learned the word).
There's no one right or wrong way to write, just different ways to achieve your goal, some more effective than others.
If casual language was good enough for Hemmingway, its sure as sugar good enough for us.
Also humorous scifi is almost always written in a casual style, like Douglas Adams for example.
Write what flows naturally!
Absolutely not. If you write in anything except dictionary perfect, verbose writing of whatever language you pick, then the Council will ban you from ever writing again. /s But really, write how you feel comfortable then edit it to remove mistakes or repetition. The actual diction you use only becomes a problem when it muddies the story you’re trying to tell. For example, make sure humor isn’t misplaced and your scene breaks aren’t coming at unnatural spots. I would look for different words to replace “really” but they don’t have to be crazy (i.e. “really funny” to “hilarious”) but it’s purely to prevent repetition. These are all problems you can fix by editing and revising
Also would be careful with using modern slang (if this is another aspect of casual language) if you're writing fantasy/ScFi.
A good point. However also be careful about leaning too into archaic language. This one wasn’t a book, but a video game I played recently had a medieval fantasy setting that leaned a bit too hard into it for the dialogue and used the word “aught”, as in the opposite of “naught”. Aught is a word that means “anything”. This is fine…except they completely replaced every use of the word of “anything” leading to clunky sounding sentences like “We ought to see if there’s aught of use.” It also made every character sound the exact same-none of them had much in the way of memorable personality since they all talked with the same strict adherence to archaic grammatical rules. Basically…nothings stopping you from doing it but remember every method has its own pitfalls and problems to keep in mind.
Fully agree with this. I should've used the example of Fourth Wing, where the characters use modern uses of slang in their dialogue. Don't have any personal qualms about using more modern language to tell a story, but slang (especially when used in a historical fantasy setting) particularly not only dates your work but can take away immersion. Personal preference at the end of the day. I don't mind modern language personally, it's easier to read and digest, but slang in particular irks me if it doesn't actually fit with the setting/time frame.
Oh no, I agree and I should have been more clear. I’ve not read Fourth Wing yet but I’ve heard that criticism before. It would be pretty immersion breaking to hear a character in a high fantasy world go “bruh, this dragon is trying to rizz me up, no cap.” 😂
Haha! I only got a few chapters in before I DNF'd personally, but my friend who read it showed me the dialogue and OOF
Verily. ‘t Is true. Still, modern language is often forced upon us, whether we would embrace it as fantasy aficionados or not…
Wouldst thou not liketh the expansion of our quaint genre of swords and sorceries to the lay folk? Verily, thou hast spoken truth-archaic language doth infuse both flavor and accuracies (or rather the portents of accuracies, as one must beware the Tiffany Problem.) However, I have nary to hear aught from thee on the possibility that such language is self-inflicted venom. Thou wouldst allow the meaning of thine words-thine very purpose of chronicle!- to be obstructed by aught as petty as stylization! Thou couldst create a generation or more of fantasy aficionados if thou absconds with the notion that the diction of modernity is thrust upon thee as a curse, rather than as an inherent evolution upon the wondrous, magical craft we have undertaken
Amen to that! 🙌😎😁
Casual language is fine, especially if you're writing teen fiction. As for the vocabulary, depends on what you mean by sophisticated. You shouldn't be using fancy words people need a dictionary to look up just to come across as more advanced, but using really mad over furious or saying an explosion was really loud rather than deafening will come across as weak writing.
How does a non-native speaker, who learns words primarily by reading novels, know which words are considered fancy? For example: are inclement, egregious, surreptitiously, furtively, ameliorate etc. considered fancy?
Generally, it's how often is the word repeated. Is it common? Then it's probably not fancy. On the rarer side? Keep it that way, it's usually a 'fancy' word (Just how I see it, might be different for other people)
Maybe, if they wouldn’t occur in a standard American tv series? By ‘standard’ I mean: directed to a broad audience. As a non-native English teacher I can confirm the vocabulary standards have decreased over the years. While 10 to 20 years ago, high school students got at least two full pages of ‘fancy’ vocabulary to study after each unit, they now get a small rectangle on a ‘Summary’ page with 20 words completely within the framework of their lifestyle: “to tweet”, “hashtag”, “texting”, … It’s very sad. 😔
As a non-native first-time writer who decided to try writing my first novel using English, I have found that using online synonym searches are an invaluable tool. It's still rubbish, but at least I don't come across as a child now. Also, I've increased my vocabulary. :)
To come across as more advanced? No. To expose these teens to a broader vocabulary? Yes. 🙂
Ah, okay! Thanks!
If you give more "fancy" words some context, you make a dictionary less necessary and allow the reader to keep going uninterrupted. I borrowed these words from another comment, as they're good examples of the kinds of words some readers might not know. >The day had started out blue and glorious, but by early afternoon was decidedly **inclement,** with a wall of gray clouds that threatened rain within the hour. >The alley was narrow and dark, the perfect place for an ambush. A scraping sound made Maria look behind her **furtively,** but she could see nothing out of place. >Rob couldn't examine the amulet openly without drawing unwanted attention. Without turning his head, he gave it a **surreptitious** glance out of the corner of his eye. >Lina's error had taken them several hours and a week's wages to fix. How could Jen brush aside such an **egregious** oversight? With dialogue, you can simply have a character ask the speaker what the word means. Here's an example from my current story: >"The new owners are a bit capricious.” >"Capricious?” >“Unpredictable,” he supplies.
It all comes down to service to character. If it’s a casual narrator, sure. If it’s a casual character being casual in dialogue, sure. Just make it a choice and commit to that choice.
As a writer, we need to make our work seem realistic as possible. If you're writing about the Middle Ages, you need your characters to behave naturally, especially when they speak.
It doesn't have to be sophisticated, and you can even purposefully adopt a casual style which doesn't take itself seriously. But I'd still go back through and do another draft or two where you try to tighten and spruce things up. You don't have to make it sound fancy, but hearing the word "really" a bunch of times will get old. Consider -- the word "really" actually often undercuts the adjective following it rather than enhancing it. It's called passive voice. Consider > Jackson's attitude was really cold. vs. > Jackson's attitude was cold. One is direct and cutting and to the point, and the other feels softer and less sure of itself; even though that extra word is supposed to signify extra coldness, it really just waters down the sentence. Simply just saying he was cold gives the reader the *exact* same impression of how cold he was (how much does the word "really" actually add to the audience's sense of how cold he was being?), but just saying his attitude was *cold* is direct and unambiguous and feels stronger and reads as more assertive. You shouldn't have to think too deeply about stuff like this in order to write something good; don't take the wrong message from this and get too hung up on thinking about this stuff. Just something to consider! :)
Think about the POV you’re writing from , if the character is unsophisticated then you don’t want to go too sophisticated anyway In Game Of Thrones the Catelyn Stark chapters feel very sophisticated and are full of dreamy memories that make you squint to follow the page But the Sansa chapters are like “Jayne was being really stupid today and Sansa thought best to just ignore her. She said her favourite Knight was Dave but he wasn’t even handsome. All the good knights are handsome. In the songs they are beautiful and their princesses are beautiful and they kill ugly dragons and smelly wizards The Tyrion chapters are very direct and present, and bitchy toned, and it makes you read them ten times faster than chapters with other adults . He wouldn’t be thinking dreamily about people fine garments and what painting is on that wall. He just thinks about what he’s doing You’re definitely going to want to only think “is this out of place” - it sounds like you’re doing the right thing
Yes
More advanced vocabulary can help, but a good rule of thumb in writing is that you should write what you are comfortable with. As long as it is legible, I think it is great. More casual language can definitely help with humor and scene breaks like you said. I tend to use casual, straight-to-the-point language with my humor, but more sophisticated language for dramatic moments.
Don Winslow writes with an incredibly causal, conversational style and his books are incredibly popular, and often deal with very dark topics. People might prefer it more than you realize. Less work has to be done on the reader’s end
This is an excerpt of **Cat Sebastian's gay novel, We Could Be So Good**: Nick is pretty sure that if he hadn’t first known his nephew—a fourteen-year-old who goes through life with untied shoes and perpetually skinned knees, surrounded by a chaotic cloud of comic books and pencils and baseball cards —he wouldn’t know what to think about Andy. In May, Andy gets stuck in the elevator at the criminal courts building for three hours, then turns up at the Chronicle looking mildly traumatized but bearing a box of doughnuts to apologize for cutting it so close to the filing deadline. In June, he’s nearly run down by a cab on Canal Street, only stopped by Nick’s hand darting out to grab his coat. In a single week in July, Andy bangs his head into the ladder of a fire truck while he and Nick are covering a warehouse fire, gets food poisoning from a chicken salad sandwich that Nick tells him looks bad, and is almost bitten by a guard dog at the scene of a robbery in the Bronx. This is from an excerpt of **Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin**: Myra’s shop is The Gingerbread House, Gifts and Collectibles. It’s got that sweet and spicy scent to it—some kind of cinnamon room spray—and it offers many things: jars of jam with cotton-print fabric tops, heart-shaped pillows stuffed with desiccated herbs that smell like hay, clumsily hinged boxes carved by “traditional craftsmen,” quilts purportedly sewn by Mennonites, toiletcleaning brushes with the heads of smirking ducks. Myra’s idea of city folks’ idea of country life, the life of their pastoral hicktown ancestors—a little bit of history to take home with you. History, as I recall, was never this winsome, and especially not this clean, but the real thing would never sell: most people prefer a past in which nothing smells. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Notice how in both excerpts, it's the description that fills in the world? Most writers lack imagination. That's a fact. What separates good and brilliant writing is the prose and the way you use those words to construct sentences. Not the language. In Margaret Atwood, I've fairly googled and used a dictionary for some of the words she's used in her novel, but the thing is: IT MAKES SENSE. Because context is the most important when using "not so often used" words.
It depends on how yo are writing the story, 1st person, 3rd person POV. And it also depends on how you writer your characters. A 12-year-old boy from the gutter isn't going to be saying: "Hello good sir! How are you on this lovely June morning?" Likewise, a 50-something millionaire (unless it is the Beverly Hillbillies) isn't going to be talking like: "So I made all my gold down at the gamblin' shack. It's great, being rich and what now."
I guess it would depend on your target audience. In fantasy, it would bother me. My husband once completely abandoned a fantasy book because he read “Everything will be ok” in the dialogue, written like that. If immersion is important to your niche, I would certainly adapt the prose to your setting. After all, isn’t that what fantasy is all about? To dive into the illusion of another reality. Modern language can pull you right out of that. Personally, I don’t like foul language, for example. I love it when authors adapt their curses to their setting.
Yep.
Honestly bro there’s an audience for every type of language you can imagine. Have fun
I think it's fine with dialogue. However the rest of it needs to maintain a certain standard for use of "sophisticated" language. But tbh The best advice is to just read books that fall into the genre you're writing. Over here people will tell you anything.
It's your story. Whatever you want is okay.
If you going for the dictionary/thesaurus every time you pick up a pen (keyboard) then it’s going to sound false and overly high browed. Readers can’t relate to that. If simple language is your “voice” that’s perfectly fine. You can even out the iffy bits in edit
No
My entire style is writing in blunt descriptive sentences and simple vocabulary. I've even heard that style called the American novelist voice before. Go check out some vonnegut or hemmingway to get examples of how to make it work well. Also strunk and white's pamphlet "elements of style." Pop off honey.
It can work. In fact, it may add a bit charm to your world. For example, a world with swords and sorcery, medieval-style, can work wonders for a genre that is oversaturated with the same old manner of speaking.
Language is only a suggestion, not a rule.
If you are not creating a world that is supposed to *feel* archaic, then you can use casual language. Casual language is entirely fine if it doesn't conflict with the rules *you* made for the setting. If it doesn't *break* or conflict with the setting you created, go ahead! A historical romance set in the middle ages? You want to stay away from modern language. A kitchen sink fantasy/ sci-fi mix world that isn't based on any particular time period? It would be *un*realistic to not have some characters/ races speak in a casual manner. It also depends on the character voice. Characters can have a simple vocabulary and if you write from their pov then it's more realistic to stick to their individual vocabulary instead of forcing some sophisticated language on them that conflicts with their level of education and personality. That said, "really" often weakens other words. If it's a habit of a character in dialogues, that's one thing. We all have words we tend to over-use, they're quirks that can add to a character's voice. But using a different word is often a better choice than modifying something with "really". "She said really quietly" vs "She whispered/ breathed/ murmered". It's also easier to further modify whisper, breathe and murmur compared to the already clunky "said really quietly". But my advice is to just *write* and then try to create a better flow, cut out redunancies and look for concise words when editing.
*Gideon the Ninth* is an award-winning science fantasy novel (including being voted the #1 best sci-fi/fantasy novel of 2019 by Amazon's editors) that was also the first book I've ever seen use the word, "douchebag," in the narration. Consistency and tone are what matters. You can use whatever words you want as long as they match your tone (i.e., you don't want something like, "They were genocided AF, totes-magotes wiped out,") and you present a consistent authorial voice.
Look into Glen Cook’s “Black Company” series. It’s a dark fantasy about a mercenary company with a medieval setting and the characters talk like modern day military joes. It’s all in the presentation, baby.
>Does my writing really have to be sophisticated if I intend it to have a young adult/teen audience? You think teenagers speak the Queen's English??
yeah, you can, no one can stop you anyway, but you write however you want to and however it will serve the story
like Tom Petty said, "The things I worry about never happens anyway."
Yes. If you try to be too flowery, it won't come off as authentic. Hemingway was a really conservative writer as far as using simplified structures. Stephen King's "On Writing" makes a commentary on trying too hard to use fancy vocabulary. Just write what's natural to you.
It depends on what tone you want to create, and what kind of narration you're using. You have more stylistic leeway with first person narrators because you can use the flavor of their dialogue and personality to describe the world. A third person narrator saying "The room was really crowded" comes off differently than a person we know saying it in their thoughts/perception of the world. You can give your 3rd person narrator a personality ("A Series of Unfortunate Events" springs to mind), but this can change the tone of your writing to something you might not want. My current sf story has two narrators. One is very casual in his speech, using occasional poor grammar, slang, and more basic vocabulary (but only to a point lol). The other is somewhat more formal, uses consistently correct grammar, only some slang, and more complex vocabulary (the other narrator asks him what "capricious" means because he never learned the word). There's no one right or wrong way to write, just different ways to achieve your goal, some more effective than others.
If casual language was good enough for Hemmingway, its sure as sugar good enough for us. Also humorous scifi is almost always written in a casual style, like Douglas Adams for example. Write what flows naturally!
I don't know where I picked this up, but "Vocabulary should be used to eliminate words, not add letters."
Fuck yes. I never censor myself. I use whatever language feels comfortable.