Drunk speak in writing?
Hey, so lame. I have to practice this serenade for a check in with my guitar prof but, alas, it is confusing and it would be a tad obvious that I put off practicing until three or four days before the lesson if I email him right now to clarify. Bummer.
In my defense, I did have a lot of shit due this week.
Mostly I'm waiting for my roommate to wake up to see if we're still doing strawberry daiquiris tonight and if she'll give me a ride to the liquor store because we need light rum and it's my turn to buy, but I don't want to ride the bus with liquor. Riding the bus with a bottle in a brown paper bag is not classy, no it is not. Also I want a ride to the grocery store so I can buy beef broth for wonton soup without having to walk home carrying it. That shit's heavy after a couple of blocks.
BUT this leads to a question, about drunk speak in writing. Specifically the way drunks are (always? sometimes?) represented as slurring their words. I don't drink often (before I turned 21 I didn't drink at all except when roommate's boyfriend made vodka juliuses because those were delicious) and my friends usually don't drink with the intention of getting plastered, so I've only been around one person who I knew was extremely drunk at the time (the rest of us were being classy drunks; also it was cold and getting up to refill martini glasses constantly got pretty old pretty quick). BUT he didn't slur his words at all. Or if he did I was also (somewhat) drunk and didn't notice? So I bow to those with more drinking experience: do drunks actually slur their words and my friend was the exception? It's kind of an important point to the scene I'm writing that the character is drunk, but I'm torn about how best to represent this because slurred speech is disingenuous to my experience and it's a pain in the ass trying to make it through the scene with him getting distracted every few lines. I can't think of any stories offhand where a character is drunk and I liked the way it was written.
Also I possibly spent most of the time I was sweeping and mopping the back at work asking my boss questions about mixed drinks and insisting that I really don't drink that much, honest! I should possibly stop doing that. Although she was answering my questions (she even Googled the answer to one of them!) so I'm pretty sure it didn't actually bug her?
In my defense, I did have a lot of shit due this week.
Mostly I'm waiting for my roommate to wake up to see if we're still doing strawberry daiquiris tonight and if she'll give me a ride to the liquor store because we need light rum and it's my turn to buy, but I don't want to ride the bus with liquor. Riding the bus with a bottle in a brown paper bag is not classy, no it is not. Also I want a ride to the grocery store so I can buy beef broth for wonton soup without having to walk home carrying it. That shit's heavy after a couple of blocks.
BUT this leads to a question, about drunk speak in writing. Specifically the way drunks are (always? sometimes?) represented as slurring their words. I don't drink often (before I turned 21 I didn't drink at all except when roommate's boyfriend made vodka juliuses because those were delicious) and my friends usually don't drink with the intention of getting plastered, so I've only been around one person who I knew was extremely drunk at the time (the rest of us were being classy drunks; also it was cold and getting up to refill martini glasses constantly got pretty old pretty quick). BUT he didn't slur his words at all. Or if he did I was also (somewhat) drunk and didn't notice? So I bow to those with more drinking experience: do drunks actually slur their words and my friend was the exception? It's kind of an important point to the scene I'm writing that the character is drunk, but I'm torn about how best to represent this because slurred speech is disingenuous to my experience and it's a pain in the ass trying to make it through the scene with him getting distracted every few lines. I can't think of any stories offhand where a character is drunk and I liked the way it was written.
Also I possibly spent most of the time I was sweeping and mopping the back at work asking my boss questions about mixed drinks and insisting that I really don't drink that much, honest! I should possibly stop doing that. Although she was answering my questions (she even Googled the answer to one of them!) so I'm pretty sure it didn't actually bug her?