Swear Words

IllustriousKnight · Mar 19, 2011

Hey guys.

I want to use swear words in my story, though not your traditional "F-Words" and such, But I suppose words that would be seen as taboo in your stories universe.

Off the top of my head, in the Wheel of Time series, a frequent 'swear word' used is "Burn you!" and maybe even "Light!". Now even though these words in themselves aren't apparently negative, the way the characters react to them make them such.

I haven't been able to come up with anything decent, so thought id come here for help. Do you guys use swearing in your story? If so do you make them up or use the ones already in our vocabulary? Or do you think it a pointless endeavour?

Cheers for your replies in advance
IllustriousKnight

Mr Flibble · Mar 19, 2011

Do you guys use swearing in your story?

Fuck yes -though it'll depend on the story/market and characters,

Do you guys use swearing in your story? If so do you make them up or use the ones already in our vocabulary?

Bit of both - some real ones so things are familiar - esp things that would be common between peoples, like um multiplying and pooping - and some connected to the world that helps add depth to worldbuilding(cos, like a different world would still have Da Swears only they'd be different. Adds texture)

Sydneyd · Mar 19, 2011

I like made up swear words in stories where it makes sense. In the Maze Runner series, the author (I forget who sorry) uses made up swear words, it really works in that series because the characters could 'swear' often, but it wasn't so in your face as already established swear words would have been.

Torgo · Mar 19, 2011

IllustriousKnight said:
Hey guys.

I want to use swear words in my story, though not your traditional "F-Words" and such, But I suppose words that would be seen as taboo in your stories universe.

Off the top of my head, in the Wheel of Time series, a frequent 'swear word' used is "Burn you!" and maybe even "Light!". Now even though these words in themselves aren't apparently negative, the way the characters react to them make them such.

I haven't been able to come up with anything decent, so thought id come here for help. Do you guys use swearing in your story? If so do you make them up or use the ones already in our vocabulary? Or do you think it a pointless endeavour?

Cheers for your replies in advance
IllustriousKnight

I know of no really successful attempt, ever, to make up a fictional swear word. Maybe 'frak' in BSG, but then that's just a slight riff on 'fuck'. Most often, they sound really rubbish.

I think most of the appropriate sounds in the language have already been occupied by our good old Anglo-Saxon arsenal of cussing, and I think making something up is probably a mistake. (You may remember Larry Niven's woeful 'tanj'.)

If you're writing SF/F it's possible that your characters aren't 'really' speaking English, and so the assumption is that the reader is reading something that's been translated. I think it's fine to assume that when a character says 'Shit!', 'shit' is the best translation of what they actually said in Elvish or Martian.

Mr Flibble · Mar 19, 2011

I know of no really successful attempt, ever, to make up a fictional swear word.

Smeg?

When I said 'made up' I meant not alternatives to our big swears as such, like frak, I meant swears that are integral to the world and how it works/what's important (So instead of For God's sake, my character's might invoke the goddess of death and mercy by saying Kyr's mercy or similar)

Sydneyd · Mar 19, 2011

IdiotsRUs said:
Smeg?

When I said 'made up' I meant not alternatives to our big swears as such, like frak, I meant swears that are integral to the world and how it works/what's important (So instead of For God's sake, my character's might invoke the goddess of death and mercy by saying Kyr's mercy or similar)

Also I keep thinking of Mudblood, from harry potter. Perfect example of a made up swear word.

Torgo · Mar 19, 2011

IdiotsRUs said:
Smeg?

When I said 'made up' I meant not alternatives to our big swears as such, like frak, I meant swears that are integral to the world and how it works/what's important (So instead of For God's sake, my character's might invoke the goddess of death and mercy by saying Kyr's mercy or similar)

Meh, smeg. I guess. Fair enough!

I agree on the rest: what I would call oaths are slightly different than what I was intially talking about, I guess. I think the impact of our four-letter friends are combinations of their sound and their meanings. Saying 'For Krom's sake!' when your jeweled idol is stolen is kind of independent of the sound of the word and more about the cultural norms, as you suggest.

Deleted member 42 · Mar 19, 2011

IdiotsRUs said:
Smeg?

That's an example of syncope, and it's derived from a real word.

A.V. Hollingshead · Mar 19, 2011

I shy away from using fantasy slang of any sort. (Thank Zeus!, etc.) It is hard to do well enough that it doesn't seem a bit like a gimmick, or perhaps more... silly. It just sounds really stupid more often than not. It doesn't work for my story to have anything detracting like that. I also don't tend to use conlangs beyond naming my characters, so I probably won't be making up straight equivalents for our big bad words.

My characters do, however, curse like sailors.

Misa Buckley · Mar 19, 2011

What the frell is frak?

I think created swearwords can either work really well or else bomb. Smeg is brilliant, and probably in fairly frequent use by those of a certain age (I still say smeg, lol).

It should, imo, be a common word in your world, possibly related to the given religion (this is why "Light" work well in the WoT 'verse). Cursing the deity or devil-figure, or after-life realm would be relate-able to most readers.

agent.grey · Mar 19, 2011

Medievalist said:
That's an example of syncope, and it's derived from a real word.

Despite many years as a Red Dwarf fan, I never knew that.

The AW forums are indeed a bottomless well of knowledge

Mr Flibble · Mar 19, 2011

Medievalist said:
That's an example of syncope, and it's derived from a real word.

If you mean smegma (not sure if you do or not, and I'm hazy on what a syncope is, but from my limited understanding I can't see where it applies to smeg in any way. Could you elucidate?*) that's been denied by the authors quite extensively. Not 100% I believe them bit that's a different matter

It sounds good as a swear though. Short and pithy. Smegging hell! is a phrase (among others) heard quite often in situations where anything stronger won't do.

* I tried googling smeg syncope and this post came top...

Mara · Mar 19, 2011

I understand why people make up swear words, and I think it works for most readers, but I personally prefer to avoid it unless there's a specific reason. For example, in Wheel of Time, I'd keep "Light" as opposed to translating it as "God," since they don't believe in a god. If there's a group distinction that exists in the setting but not in the real world (like Muggles in Harry Potter), I'd definitely make up new slurs if needed.

But when words have an obvious, exact meaning and are mostly just used to get around television censors, like "gorram" and "frak," it usually gets on my nerves. I'm not saying it's right that it annoys me, but that no matter how hard I try, I can't get my mind to the point where I don't cringe a little and wish they'd just say real words.

Torgo · Mar 19, 2011

IdiotsRUs said:
If you mean smegma (not sure if you do or not, and I'm hazy on what a syncope is, but from my limited understanding I can't see where it applies to smeg in any way. Could you elucidate?) that's been denied by the authors quite extensively. Not 100% I believe them bit that's a different matter

It sounds good as a swear though. Short and pithy. Smegging hell! is a phrase (among others) heard quite often in situations where anything stronger won't do.

It did require some sweary genius to transmute 'smegma' into 'smeg' and have it work as well as it did. It's a real team player too - works in any situation where you'd otherwise use 'shit' or 'fuck'.

Mr Flibble · Mar 19, 2011

Mara said:
I understand why people make up swear words, and I think it works for most readers, but I personally prefer to avoid it unless there's a specific reason. For example, in Wheel of Time, I'd keep "Light" as opposed to translating it as "God," since they don't believe in a god. If there's a group distinction that exists in the setting but not in the real world (like Muggles in Harry Potter), I'd definitely make up new slurs if needed.

But when words have an obvious, exact meaning and are mostly just used to get around television censors, like "gorram" and "frak," it usually gets on my nerves. I'm not saying it's right that it annoys me, but that no matter how hard I try, I can't get my mind to the point where I don't cringe a little and wish they'd just say real words.

Precisely - if a swear won't fit your culture then you need to find a new one that does. But assuming your people procreate in a messy hilarious way and defecate too, fuck or shit will work. Bloody hell won't probably because of how it came to be.

It's a real team player too - works in any situation where you'd otherwise use 'shit' or 'fuck'.

It was also the name of one of my cats, along with Lister (we found him in a box and he likes curry). I have a little thing signed by the 'real' Lister made out to them lol.

Sarah Madara · Mar 19, 2011

IdiotsRUs said:
If you mean smegma (not sure if you do or not, and I'm hazy on what a syncope is, but from my limited understanding I can't see where it applies to smeg in any way. Could you elucidate?*) that's been denied by the authors quite extensively. Not 100% I believe them bit that's a different matter.

I don't know if smegma was what the post referred to or not, but it sure is what came to my mind. I wonder if the authors could ever say for certain that it wasn't related to that word, even if they didn't intend it? That's one of the tough things about making up words - coming up with combinations of sounds that have an impact but don't already sound like something else. I'm sure it's not impossible, but it is difficult.

seun · Mar 20, 2011

Smeg's a great word but despite what they say, I don't believe Grant and Naylor weren't simply shortening smegma.

Nick Blaze · Mar 20, 2011

While I do agree swear words depend on the character, I never have MCs that use them. IRL, I don't swear and I usually model MCs after me a little bit. But that brute in the corner with the ax and the blood over his body? Or that poor soldier dying at the feet of a cruel torturer? They may certainly swear.

I love the idea of made-up or period swears. If they fit the novel and/or time period, I love the concept.

muravyets · Mar 20, 2011

There was another recent thread about this. To repeat myself from that, I don't like made-up swears like "gorram" and "frak" because, to my ear, they are obviously just cute little end-runs around TV censors. I approve of "smeg" because, regardless of what the writers claim, it does sound like "smegma" which gives it a reference and thus a little legitimacy for why people would say it. Plus it renders an entire brand of household appliances amusing.

But to repeat myself from that thread some more, I do believe that if you're writing in English, you should write in English (or whatever language you are using). I prefer to tailor my fictional world swears to the culture not to the fictional languages. Thus, my vaguely 18th-century-style fantasy characters weave tapestries of obscenity and deprecation with a variety of earthy put-downs, all of which are rendered in English, whether they make any sense in real-Earth or not.

ConChron · Mar 20, 2011

IllustriousKnight said:
Do you guys use swearing in your story? If so do you make them up or use the ones already in our vocabulary?

A teacher once told me that writing swearwords is a way of showing what you lack in creativity as a writer. I don't think it's 100% true but the words hang over me whenever I write. As a result I rarely use swearwords.

When I do use them I see them as curses based on religion/ideology/life philosophy and create the curse based on that. The things considered "bad", "evil" or "taboo" by the fictional culture forms the base of the curse.

serabeara · Mar 20, 2011

Guess I'm not that creative then :evil

I use all kinds of cussing in my story. And I don't make any words up, why bother when I have so many good ones to choose from already?

Nick Blaze · Mar 20, 2011

serabeara said:
Guess I'm not that creative then

I use all kinds of cussing in my story. And I don't make any words up, why bother when I have so many good ones to choose from already?

If you have a hundred weapons to choose from, why not one thousand? Sounds a lot more fun and hectic to me!

Mr Flibble · Mar 20, 2011

ConChron said:
A teacher once told me that writing swearwords is a way of showing what you lack in creativity as a writer.

I'm afraid I shall have to call bollocks on that one.

I've linked to this before, but it's worth it again. Considering his credentials, I hardly think he can be called uncreative, whatever you think about him personally.

If you have swearing in your novel it will put some people off. If you have people in your novel who it would seem unlikely for them not to swear (hard bitten mercenary for ex) and yet the worst they say is 'Golly gosh that sword appears to have severed my arm', you will put other people off. It's not a matter of creativity - it's a matter of tone, of verisimilitude and intent (both in what you're tying to do with your text, and the intended audience).

Sophia · Mar 20, 2011

Examples of swear words that worked perfectly for me were "Maker's breath!" and "Andraste's blood!" used in Dragon Age: Origins. They were based on the main religion in the setting, and the various physical references added to "Maker" or "Andraste" would give the swear its nuances of flavour and power. Different characters would have their own variations, too. They fitted the very physical and religious setting, and, to me, sounded completely natural.

You could perhaps look at the broad ways of describing your setting, and create words that echo those things.

IllustriousKnight · Mar 20, 2011

So much quality advice in your posts guys! a lot of various view points which is always good. Someone tell why I hadn't joined this site sooner? haha

Swear Words

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