Quote:
Originally Posted by VydorScope
I have heard plenty of non-religious ones, but that would not fit in this dialogue. I am also trying to avoid anything that sounds like a cope-out. I.e. "Fudge!" or something silly like that.
Maybe , "By Zeus' rich and creamy fudge!" could work? LOL!
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What about something utterly made-up and unrelated to what we're used to? I mean, like "By Bogwan's Hairy Ass!" or some equally slightly skewed cursage? (Cursage: cursing with flowers in the shape of a bow). We've seen from myriad shows and books that while people say they want something new, they really want something familiar, or at least something that they can instantly identify and relate to, like "by Jove's Seven Hells," or whatever. If you make it too obscure, readers will scratch their heads trying to figure out what you're talking about; some folks find scatological references (the s**t word, the eFF word, etc.) to be "profane," even though that's not the meaning of the word...and yes, we've seen a trend toward "replacement words" like Frakking and whatever it is they tried on
Defiance. {sigh}.
Personally, I say take the tried and true and just twist them a bit. "Zeus' rich and creamy fudge" doesn't really do it for me, but something similar could. A lot also depends on what you need in the rhythm of the dialogue--do you need something that will flow with sentences around it, like "frakking," or do you need standalone cursing? (E.g, Bogwan's Hairy Balls)? I think just using oddball things like "By Haltor's callouses!" can work, depending upon the context (say..meaning, oh, crap, what a lot of labor to do X!) or the Bogwan's Hairy Balls for, say, seeing a young woman with an old geezer who's her husband.
It sounds like fun, truly, making these up. I say, sit around with 4-5 of your closest friends one night, hoist a few and see what you can derive. Total hoot.
Hitch