This is going to be a short chapter because there isn't all that much to say about text talk.
One of my biggest writing pet peeves is when people decide that they're going to trade "you" for "u" or "cool" for "kewl" or whatever idiotic spellings and acronyms they think sound kewl. Well, guess what? It only makes you look illiterate. And I don't say that to be disrespectful; I say it because it is true. My default action whenever I see a book that has writing like that, no matter how few times, I immediately stop reading because I just assume the writer doesn't know what they're doing or how to write a story.
It is no different than spelling errors. They make you look inexperienced and are just plain annoying to read. So don't write in text talk, not even in dialogue. You can abbreviate in dialogue and drop g's and whatever else you want to do, but just don't talk like you are texting.
There is an exception, however. You can talk like you are texting if your character really is texting. Except you should keep the texting in your story to a minimum. It doesn't have the same emotion or meaning behind it as dialogue does and too much gets tedious and makes your story seem lacking in narration. The worst is when people decide to have a fight over text.
I cringe every time.
Having a character not even respond to a text speaks a whole louder than: bish, i h8 u go screw urself
It's almost comical, actually.
Anyway, moving on. Try not to lay out your exact texts. Instead, you can just sum up what the other person is saying.
Example: My fingers flew across the keys, telling Sonya to meet me at our spot. She didn't reply right away, but I knew it wouldn't be long. Sonya was always on her phone. Sure enough, it showed me she was typing and a minute later I received my reply. She'd be there.
My next point to you if your character is texting is that you should try to leave out as many acronyms as possible except to make it seem realistic. If you do include acronyms, make sure they are something everyone will know, like "brb" and "ttyl" or "lol". Not everyone knows what "afaik" means. (As far as I know.)
So that concludes my rant. Hopefully you took this to heart and I won't be seeing any more text talk mistakes for a long while.
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Your Guide to Writing the Perfect Story
Non-FictionAs the title states, this is your tutorial, created by me, to writing a story to the very best of your abilities. By carefully reading through the following pages, you can enhance your skills and clear your path to becoming the great author that yo...
