How should I make Teens talk in my Novel without being too Over stereotypical?

David Volpov: How should I make Teens talk in my Novel without being too Over stereotypical?
I am writing a novel for teens in their mid and late teen years. What subjects should they talk about? How should they talk about those subjects? How should girls talk differently from guys? I need advice from teens mainly. And I don’t want to be too over stereotypical in my writing.
By the way, no one say sex or cars. I got that.

Answers and Views:

Answer by lol
Well this may be a stereotype for teens among guys but sex is a really common topic, and its true me and my friends are always talking about girls,bad ass stuff, andhaving fun

Girls i think have problems talking to guys because usually guys are idiots.

Hmm but guys are usually the ones that have a harder time talking to females

Answer by dreamheart
well, me and my friends almost never talk about anything series, we’re always joking around and stuff, and yes sometimes we are very perverted some of the time.

Answer by 0_o
Watch and stalk some people, and see what they talk about.

Answer by Emma
Well, it really depends on the friendship. If the friendship is really open and friendly, they probably never really talk all that seriously and sometimes joke about perverted things. (Guys probably joke more heavily about sex than girls, though. It’s always awkward for my female friends and I to joke about things like a dude’s private parts, and “spoo”, and stuff… But my brother jokes about it all the time, casually.)

If the relationship is less open and more formal, the conversation is probably pretty flat/has a lot of small talk, and sometimes a bit aloof. Also, it depends on how mature and immature the teenager is. If you determine that, it’s easier to imagine what they’d say joke about, and stuff. If they’re immature, just imagine a naive adult, who doesn’t have any worldly experience and sometimes can be irrational. Or arrogant. Then there’s some that really are mature, and act sorta like old people. (Ha ha, I’m sorry, couldn’t find another comparison.)

Good luck!
-Emma.

Answer by Missy
Honestly, it depends on the characters. Believe it or not, teens vary quite a bit. Take me for example. I’m seventeen years old. I’ve never had sex, never took drugs, never drank, or done anything like that. You don’t hear about that in the news, though. You only hear about the teens that DO that stuff.

Just because they’re teenagers, doesn’t mean they talk stupid, either. There’s actually plenty intellectual teens. I mean, how do you think they get into Harvard, Yale, etc? Therefore, I wouldn’t make all your characters sound stupid. That would be stereotyping. Again, it depends on your characters, the plot, etc… I know nothing about your story, so I can’t really tell you how the characters would act.

My main character is twenty-four. I don’t ask for help, when writing his character. I know how his character acts. I don’t think others would know how to write him. Just like every human being you’ve met is different, so should every character you write.

I hope I helped! 🙂

Answer by Always Right
I’ve recently read a very interesting comparison between Homo Sapiens and Homo Fictus (fictional characters). I’ll post an excerpt.

“Fictional characters—homo fictus—are not, however, identical
to flesh-and-blood human beings—homo sapiens. One reason
for this is that readers wish to read about the exceptional
rather than the mundane. Readers demand that homo fictus be
more handsome or ugly, ruthless or noble, vengeful or forgiving,
brave or cowardly, and so on, than real people are. Homo fictus
has hotter passions and colder anger; he travels more, fights more,
loves more, changes more, has more sex. Lots more sex. Homo
fictus has more of everything. Even if he is plain, dull, and
boring, he’ll be more extraordinary in his plainness, dullness,
and boringness than his real-life counterparts.”

Now on to my answer. Teenagers are, by and large, utterly, tremendously BORING. This is why I’ve posted the above fragment– for you to realize that intelligent people don’t want to read about ordinary teenagers. Sure, overplaying their maturity is not advisable, but making them bland idiots that have nothing to talk about except (the opposite) sex and lowly gossip is a no-no. Make it interesting.

Answer by nellhammy101
you could base it on how you and your friends interact, because that would be lifelike.