Obscure Expletives - What do you use? - Writers Forum

Zyphial · 05-13-2008, 05:00 PM

I guess this is something of an odd question, but I've run out of diverse expletives. As I'm still very much a novice, I find myself constantly rereading my work trying to find minuscule oversights and I've recently noticed one. In my present story, a lot of my characters are put in very hard situations and tend to express their frustration with expletives throughout their dialogue. Unfortunately I only know the one's I'd use, or the few additional one's my friends use, but that is not a very long list, nor does it make sense for a large number of characters to recycle these same phrases.

So what, when faced with frustrating or infuriating situations, do you often find yourself saying in reality?

As a note, though I don't completely omit profanity, I tend away from it. I have yet to use the f-bomb in any of it's contexts and am trying to avoid it rather like the plague. Unfortunately and perhaps ironically, that shaves off quite a number of popular expressions.

Vee · 05-14-2008, 04:59 AM

Fictional expletives work just as well. As long as at some point they're given a context of why they're an expletive.

Sam Winchester · 05-14-2008, 05:08 AM

The thing about expletives is that they're used way too much. They lose their effect after overuse, so I'd suggest using them rarely, if at all. Show the character's reaction through prose. Have him throw something through a window in frustration. Have him hold in a scream, or something like that. Change it up so he's not saying "f**k" every time something bad happens, otherwise people might see him as one dimensional.

Sam.

seigfried007 · 05-14-2008, 05:17 AM

I'll ditto Sam. I have a short military character with Small Man's Complex and he has the foulest mouth I've ever written. Every time I reread bits where I've used him as a POV, I edit more of his nastiness out. It get gratuitious fast.

Do you know people who get ticked off but don't curse? My mom uses 'dammit' but my dad never cursed around me even when he was mad--he'd go into the garage and bang around on htings, get red in the face and throw something where no one could see him do it, take it out on the cat/dog, grumble and mope around awhile.

05-14-2008, 05:22 AM

When stubbing one's toe on the shower cubical, the words "soapy-tit wank", if shrieked loud enough, are proven to both express the agony and frustration of the injury and buy you enough time for the pain to pass its peak. This triad of words is especially powerful when parroted back at you by a blue-eyed toddler in the arms of one's mother-in-law.
BB

buyjupiter03 · 05-14-2008, 05:44 AM

My mum ran a babysitting business and I was always trying to run my foot into the wall. Since you don't exactly want to yelp "sh*t" "goddamn" or "f***" in front of a bunch of toddlers, I came up with "fruitloops" after awhile. I still say it when in front of my grandparents and/or other situations where I can't say curse words. "Curses" works really well too. *grin*

Mike C · 05-14-2008, 06:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zyphial

...I've run out of diverse expletives.

People don't carry the swearing thesaurus around with them. If you're searching for some variety, you're using too much. Less is more.

Zyphial · 05-14-2008, 01:32 PM

Thank you for all the input, it's actually been very helpful. I should point out, however, that this isn't for a single character but for the whole cast. I thought it was a little frustrating and unnatural for characters to, whenever faced with particularly frustrating matters, say the same thing. I can use means other than dialogue in some places as was suggested, so it's not so bad as I originally thought, but when it comes to actual speech I'm still falling short. Usually my characters all seem to resort to some variation of "damn it" because it's one of the only profanities that captures the sentiment without being so far over the top.

As a note, while I actually have a character who can use euphemisms like "aww fruitloops" even in the worst situations, most of my characters are overly serious (sometimes to the point that it's a flaw) or in very serious situations. Comic relief was never something I was prone to including.

I was trying to get at, what do people say in other regions/nations?

Sam Winchester · 05-14-2008, 01:50 PM

I think "fuck" is a word known in every English-speaking language in the world, and by a few foreign ones as well. Being Irish, when I'm mad I say things like "ah for f**k's sake!" or "ah bol**cks!" Or, my favourite, "ya humpy b**tard!" My dad says things like "the poxy c**t!" And things like that.

Sam.

smilinghelps · 05-14-2008, 02:07 PM

For "clean" dirty words, between my family and some of my friend's with kids (all from different regions of the US, btw) Here are a few:

Sugar
Darn
Fudge
Dagnabit
Shucky Darn
Tiddlywinks
Criminy
Doh
Drat
Heck
WTF(actually the letters are said)
What the...?

A clicking sound made with your tongue can be done in frustration too.

Hope that helps

PageOfCups · 05-14-2008, 03:24 PM

Shine a light is one my cookery teacher learnt from one of the guys I used to work with in that class back in secondary school. Though I tend bugger or fuck a duck myself. Not to mention bollocks or bloody hell.

LionofPerth · 05-15-2008, 08:02 AM

Well, for my current main Sci fi piece, I virtually wrote a whole vocabulary, including some insults.

I agree with the point about keeping it down, but some of the time, the F-bomb, or equivalent, like say, frak, is needed.

As for what some shows have done, track down Farscape, some of the following have to be insults, or exceedingly.
Hezmanah
Dren
Frell
Frellnik
Mivonks (well, almost, I think, context wise, penis from memory)

Damn, can't think of anymore.

Well, back to my point, there are plenty of interesting ways to say the same thing. Personally, I tend to only use the F-bomb when it's really bad and I really mean it, most of the the time 'sod it', 'sodding piece of crap/other word' tends to be the worst of my language.

I guess, I use the rule if they have no other words, then use it, but if you can say, and keep that strength of meaning, avoid it. Anyway, each person is difference, just at the difference in the way we type our posts, each one of us uses the language differently, what constitutes a 'fucked' situation for me is different to all of you, so I can't see why you can't pass this along to the characters.

buyjupiter03 · 05-15-2008, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PageOfCups

....or fuck a duck myself.

Once people got done laughing when I said that one I got into boatloads of trouble. Probably shouldn't have been saying it at school though. Heh. I use bloody a lot cuz on this side of the pond you do not get in trouble for saying it. Luckily for me.

Welshman · 05-15-2008, 09:29 AM

Part of the work I am currently writing has a number of Welsh characters in it, consequently I have relied heavily on this useful site for certain swear words.

http://www.clwbmalucachu.co.uk/text_docs/swearing.txt

As well as adding to my writing it has given me a whole range of expletives to use every time I burn myself or stub my toe!

D

lin · 05-15-2008, 10:52 AM

Patrick McManus (one of my favorite humor writers) had a hilarious thing in one of his columns. He mentioned that a hunting buddy always calls people by "those anatomical nicknames rough he-men often use".

The rest of the piece, the buddy always calls people "Armpit" or "Elbow" or "Kneecap".