Toward or towards?

[Julie Worth]

I’m a Southerner writing a book about Southerners. I ran my WIP by an editor who told me to delete the s from towards. I did it, but it sounds wrong. Toward might be American (vs. the UK towards), yet I see other Southern writers using it, and I wonder if it might be a regional thing.

[storygirl]

From what I've been told, leave the 's' off the end. I know we say it as 'towards' a lot, but that's not how we're supposed to write it, unless it is dialogue, then you have more leeway.

[Carmy]

I think it would be okay to use 'towards' in dialogue but it might be better to use 'toward' in narrative, unless it's a first-person story.

[reph]

We had a thread about "toward/s" not long ago. Summary: generally, "towards" is preferred in the U.K., "toward" in the U.S. For other parts of the sun-never-sets territory, I have no idea.