: Writing slurred speech One of my characters gets drunk and accidentally kills another. He has a couple of lines where he needs to sound obnoxiously, falling-down drunk. Is there a good way to accomplish this? What sounds

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I have read books where authors deliberately misspelled words to try to describe the character's speaking. However, I personally think that this makes it difficult to read and awkward.

Instead of focusing on how the character mispronounces words, think about the rate at which the person speaks. That's something easier to get across.

Example:

"Wha... What am... I..." He stumbled across the floor and flopped onto a chair. "What am..." He closed his eyes as if the words were just too difficult to force out of his own mouth. Finally, mustering together all of his strength, he finally managed to croak out, "I... doing here?"

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In most of the books that i have read, which include a drunken character at some point, the person's speech mostly follows these points-

Words which have two or more than two consonants continuously
are written as if only one letter is pronounced. Eg: screeched may
be written like- skrichd , skichd etc. Sentence usage: the .. car..
car skrichd .. to . halt.
As shown the above sentence, the speech may also involve wrong
grammar, or can even miss articles and similar important parts of
speech which a regular conscious man has to include in his speech
for etiquette. Grammatical errors may include sudden changes in
tense of the sentence. Sentence usage: i . . Was to go.. to going .
the mark--market .
Words , the pronunciation of which involves the tongue's side
touching the teeth, or the tongue touching the roof of the mouth are
commonly confused by a drunken man. Basically the 'rh' or 'gh' type
sounds. You should pronounce each word yourself and try to pronounce
it as if your tongue can't properly contact these above surfaces.
You can also include sudden change of topic, mid speech for a more
humorous approach to things!.