Is your YA set as a period piece or flashback as memory? Backstory?
Being mindful of the language you use will help define the story.
Slang and word phrasing has changed in my last forty years. I know this from talking with my university-age daughter. And that description is also misleading as any age can be university. Generally, though, we think someone in their twenties.
Cool. Groovy. Chill, mostly paired with a certain streaming service. All new meanings. Heck, even my explanation of university age is “old fashioned.”
Watch those words or your story may take a different turn.
Not only does no one hang up anymore – they text but not in full words. Even the “tweet” I knew is now, what? Xxing? That sounds X-rated.
Virtual is the reality. Driverless cars still can’t fly. And while some have us going backwards in personal freedoms others are risking their lives to teach us there’s more ways of being than we ever realized.
I give you a little space – those who need it – acceptance of what we don’t understand can be scary – you still have to do it.
And this post took a turn I didn’t expect. Then again, isn’t that what language should do?
Teach us new meanings. Allow us to learn more than we did yesterday.
Grow like language.