Making up swear words?

Shinryu · Apr 27, 2009

So I was writing my novel, and everything was going smoothly until I needed the MC to swear. The problem is, I don't want to use normal curses. (This is a fantasy novel, after all...)

I was wondering if the same problem had happened to anyone here, and how they solved it. All the ones I come up with sound absolutely ridiculous.

jerry phoenix · Apr 27, 2009

write down some well known anglosaxon expletives and mix them up. try some from french or german or any language you fancy and mix them up. or you could just use your imagination and come up with something that sounds rude.

isnt FRAK brilliant.

archerjoe · Apr 27, 2009

There was a movie with made up swearing. It had old-time mobsters cursing badly. ~~I can't remember~~ the name of it is Johnny Dangerously

Farging bastages!

James D. Macdonald · Apr 27, 2009

The problem with made-up (particularly fantasy) swearing is that it usually sounds silly.

The best way to show [expletive deleted] if you don't want to use the [expletive] words is by getting the rhythm in the dialog right, and by getting the emotions in the speaker and the listeners right.

BlueLucario · Apr 27, 2009

You can just use normal words as curse words in your story world.

For example, george can be a curse word. Or cat. Or Fork

WHAT THE FORK IS WRONG WITH YOU??? SHUT THE FORK UP! FORK YOU!

I don't give a fork.

Nakhlasmoke · Apr 27, 2009

My personal feeling is that made-up swearwords mostly just feel lame.

NeuroFizz · Apr 27, 2009

I'll agree with Uncle Jim--it's advice to take to the bank with regards to dialogue in general. I'll also add that this (cussing versus non-cussing) can be used as a powerful writing tool. But it requires that you have some forward vision of your story. If a person goes throught the story using dang instead of damn and heck instead of hell every time he/she is presented with a sticky situation, you have a valuable tool in your toolbox. If you have thus established this person as a non-cusser, you can really ramp up a tense scene of extreme stress/anger for that character by having him/her come out with a string or real curse words, including the F-bomb. That will show the other characters in the scene (and really show the reader) just how extreme this situation is for this character. And it will require little or no additional explanation of the degree of stress/anger.

Exir · Apr 27, 2009

BlueLucario said:
For example, george can be a curse word. Or cat. Or Fork

LOL!

Clair Dickson · Apr 27, 2009

You call grass grass, sky sky, and so on. You likely have people say 'hello' and 'goodbye'. Far as I'm concerned, you can use damn or hell (or other curse words) the same way. Why reinvent the wheel? And usually, made ups swear words just sound silly, or, worse, like the author chickened out because mom might ground them for using bad words!

I hate made up swear words. And I hate when fantasy stories can't call something by the same word when everything is clearly English. My two cents.

Manix · Apr 27, 2009

They can always swear in the name of their deity (since it's fantasy) or in the name of [famous hero]'s [body part] Use your imagination

I had fun doing this in my work.

Timoun · Apr 27, 2009

Author Larry Niven wrote many great sci-fi and fantasy books without using a lot of conventional English swear words and avoiding the F-word altogether, and managed (I think, anyway) to make the swearing sound real.

Eric San Juan · Apr 27, 2009

Fictional swear words almost never have any impact and almost always read as silly. The only one that springs to mind that actually works is "frak," and that's only because the actors busted their ass to sell it. And even THEN it took a while for it to really click. Not a fan of it at all. Usually takes me out of a story.

willietheshakes · Apr 27, 2009

Clair Dickson said:
You call grass grass, sky sky, and so on. You likely have people say 'hello' and 'goodbye'. Far as I'm concerned, you can use damn or hell (or other curse words) the same way. Why reinvent the wheel? And usually, made ups swear words just sound silly, or, worse, like the author chickened out because mom might ground them for using bad words!

I hate made up swear words. And I hate when fantasy stories can't call something by the same word when everything is clearly English. My two cents.

I agree with you in principle BUT, to my mind at least, care must be taken, ESPECIALLY with the two examples you give -- damn and hell. I mean, "fuck" and "shit" are fine, because they're rooted in the body and physical actions and, unless your characters aren't human, they have a footing in that sphere (IE, everybody shits, so an expletive based on that is a natural).

"Damn" and "hell" however rooted in a deep, ingrained (at a cultural level) Judeo-Christian cosmology and consciousness -- "hell" as an expletive doesn't work unless there's a physical hell (theoretically) which is being referenced. With fantasy writing, so much depends on the world building -- what if that society doesn't have a monotheistic belief system? What if their belief system doesn't include a hell? Use of "hell" and "damn" and the like when they are not an outgrowth of the cosmology run the risk of pulling the reader out of the story...

Manix · Apr 27, 2009

willietheshakes said:
I agree with you in principle BUT, to my mind at least, care must be taken, ESPECIALLY with the two examples you give -- damn and hell. I mean, "fuck" and "shit" are fine, because they're rooted in the body and physical actions and, unless your characters aren't human, they have a footing in that sphere (IE, everybody shits, so an expletive based on that is a natural).

"Damn" and "hell" however rooted in a deep, ingrained (at a cultural level) Judeo-Christian cosmology and consciousness -- "hell" as an expletive doesn't work unless there's a physical hell (theoretically) which is being referenced. With fantasy writing, so much depends on the world building -- what if that society doesn't have a monotheistic belief system? What if their belief system doesn't include a hell? Use of "hell" and "damn" and the like when they are not an outgrowth of the cosmology run the risk of pulling the reader out of the story...

This is why I chose to use made up swear words in my fantasy novel. The "traditional" concepts of what would constitute a swear word didn't make sense in their world. Their concept of religion was a bit...um...unusual.

ChristineR · Apr 27, 2009

When you say "swear," do you mean literally swearing, or do you mean cursing, or obscenity?

Swearing is something like "By the holy hammer of Lucretia, I swear that I will see your corpse rot on the hot sands of Meltovia!"

Cursing is "I invoke the wrath of Lord Melvin upon you and your inbred family!"

Obscenity is four letter words referring to biological functions best kept private. If you mean you want obscenity, you can always just refer to the biological functions in a colorful way. "Whore's privates!" "Foul farts!"

Mine do sound pretty funny though, so maybe you can tone them down.

Cyia · Apr 27, 2009

BlueLucario said:
You can just use normal words as curse words in your story world.

For example, george can be a curse word. Or cat. Or Fork

WHAT THE FORK IS WRONG WITH YOU??? SHUT THE FORK UP! FORK YOU!

I don't give a fork.

Oh... smurf off.

Slightly off topic, there's an older children's book whose title I always thought would make a great curse word for a wizard in kid-fantasy. Not sure if it's a well known title, but I could always see a wizard getting frustrated and coming out with "Hailstones and Halibut bones".

Maybe it's because the words sound *almost* like H^ll -- kind of like a kid who's not allowed to say bullsh^t saying "poodle doodle". To a four year old, it feels like they've gotten away with something, but to the adults it's more a matter of laughing too hard to punish them.

You have to make sure that the words make sense in context and not just to you. As someone said, Frak works great. Nerf-herder... not so much.

James D. Macdonald · Apr 27, 2009

Just please don't have polytheists swearing "by the gods." Polytheists generally swear by one or another particular god (e.g. "by Aphrodite").

I did once manage to get the equivalent of "Holy shit!" into a Comics Code comic book, by having a Roman soldier look over the wall, spot advancing barbarian hordes, and say, "Holy Cloacina!"

SarahMacManus · Apr 27, 2009

Shinryu said:
So I was writing my novel, and everything was going smoothly until I needed the MC to swear. The problem is, I don't want to use normal curses. (This is a fantasy novel, after all...)

I was wondering if the same problem had happened to anyone here, and how they solved it. All the ones I come up with sound absolutely ridiculous.

Anne McCaffrey did it in her dragon series. She used expletives involving something in her world that was considered distasteful and bad, that doesn't exist in our world.

Whatever words you use would have to make sense in that world, and not be random made up words.

Cyia · Apr 27, 2009

Sacre poop?

DeadlyAccurate · Apr 27, 2009

Eric San Juan said:
Fictional swear words almost never have any impact and almost always read as silly. The only one that springs to mind that actually works is "frak," and that's only because the actors busted their ass to sell it. And even THEN it took a while for it to really click. Not a fan of it at all. Usually takes me out of a story.

I never liked frak, and I absolutely hated motherfrakker. But in Firefly, I absolutely loved gorram. That was an expletive I could take a gorram liking to.

RJK · Apr 27, 2009

The very best made up swear words came from the movie, A Christmas Story. Darren McGavin's character was a true artist in profanity, as the narrator said. There was not one true word in all of his dialog.
And yes, Uncle Jim, it was funny,

Clair Dickson · Apr 27, 2009

willietheshakes said:
I agree with you in principle BUT, to my mind at least, care must be taken, ESPECIALLY with the two examples you give -- damn and hell. I mean, "fuck" and "shit" are fine, because they're rooted in the body and physical actions and, unless your characters aren't human, they have a footing in that sphere (IE, everybody shits, so an expletive based on that is a natural).

"Damn" and "hell" however rooted in a deep, ingrained (at a cultural level) Judeo-Christian cosmology and consciousness -- "hell" as an expletive doesn't work unless there's a physical hell (theoretically) which is being referenced. With fantasy writing, so much depends on the world building -- what if that society doesn't have a monotheistic belief system? What if their belief system doesn't include a hell? Use of "hell" and "damn" and the like when they are not an outgrowth of the cosmology run the risk of pulling the reader out of the story...

And Goodbye is a derivative of god-be-with-you, which I guess in a fantasy without gods can't be used?

Hey, if you think that the reader is going to nitpick the etymology of the words, then don't use them. I just put in my two cents. I wouldn't think much of using damn, hell, or even Jeez (A derivative/ corruption of Jesus.) or many other curses or even words that I'm sure most people don't even think about being Judeo-Christian.

Made up curses usually pull me out of the story-- unless they are very carefully done based on the world. Usually, sadly, it's just a stand-in (such as fragging for f*cking which I just hate.)

BlueLucario · Apr 27, 2009

You know, in Harry Potter. The name "Voldemort" was a swear word. So that makes Harry a potty mouth.

Cyia · Apr 27, 2009

Actually, damnation isn't just a religious concept, it's a variation on condemnation - a legal concept. "damn" could be perfectly permissible in fantasy so long as there is a legal justice system with the right to condemn a guilty man to a horrible fate.

Rushie · Apr 27, 2009

Clair Dickson said:
Made up curses usually pull me out of the story-- unless they are very carefully done based on the world. Usually, sadly, it's just a stand-in (such as fragging for f*cking which I just hate.)

ME TOO!

Making up swear words?

Bad With Names

Almost expert!

Your Genial Uncle

Blood Elves FTW

yes

The grad students did it

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking

A dark core to every cloud

Mutatis mutandis

Death will be anticlimactic

Boxy But Safe

Gentleman. Scholar. Bastard.

Mutatis mutandis

What happened?

Rewriting My Destiny

Your Genial Uncle

Rewriting My Destiny

Absolutely Fazed

Sheriff Bullwinkle the Poet says:

A dark core to every cloud

Blood Elves FTW

Rewriting My Destiny