Twitter question from @A_Marra:
Curious. What's ur feelings when reading a script with real heavy ghetto slang? Does that make u stop reading a script?
You mean stuff like this?
"Aw, man. Tru 'dat. Nigga' be trippin! Tha' muthafucka is craza!"
Done here and there just to give an urban flavor is fine, but when something like this dominates every last line of dialogue?
It annoys the hell out of me. But let's not stop at ghetto slang. I once read a script set in Scotland where the writer felt the need to phonetically write the accent into every character's dialogue. The same goes for excessive Southern accents - especially when set in Civil War era stories.
Don't overdo it on the dialects, folks. If you write that the character has a heavy accent, it's not necessary to make sure every last syllable you write contains the accent. Remember that you're writing this to be read and you don't want to make that harder by cluttering up the page with what looks like guttural sounds unless you say them outloud.