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Violanthe · Webmaster Joined: 24 Jul 2003 Posts: 5903

When your fiction takes place in a non-Earth setting, do you use established swear words, or make up your own?
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Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 805 Location: UK

I don't swear much, so rarely face this problem.

But, when I did need an expletive for a character's sighting of three hostile battlecruisers' emergence into barely defended system, yuku bleeped his understated, "Oh, s***t !!"

C'est la guerre...

Dave · Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 6:19 pm

Swear words are just words. They can be used to express emotion just as much as any other word.

You could just as easily ask, "When a story takes place in a non-Earth setting, do you use established eartly words, or do you make up your own peculiar form of alienish that none of your readers will understand when they read your novel?"

Richard H. Fay · Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 10:48 am

I've encountered at least one editor that strongly suggests making up your own swear words for your sci-fi or fantasy story. This particular publication prefers material without strong language. And since it's not alone in these preferences, making up swear words unique to your worlds and culture may at times be a necessity.

If you're writing a novel, and you feel that your publisher has no problem with strong language, then go ahead and use recognizable swear words. However, when you are writing for publications with certain standards regarding foul language, you may have to be a bit creative.
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Mervi · Warlord Joined: 29 Aug 2006 Posts: 1119 Location: Finland

Swear words reflect on what the culture considers taboo and forbidden as a polite topic. If the fantasy/SF culture has different values from ours, it should come up in swearing as well.

Dave · Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 8:36 pm

Both good points. If you're writing FOR somebody, you have restraints on your writing.

A lot of comics make alien swear words that sound very similar to English swear words... tbh, that seems a little childish to me. It's like what 8-year-olds would do in front of a teacher. It's obvious to anybody above 8 or 10 what they mean, yet the writers aren't ALLOWED to say it. It undermines the comic as a work of art sometimes imo, because it makes it less realistic.

In fairness, my opinion is defined by artistic prinicple rather than practicality. I would compromise my opnion for the right publication.

Violanthe · Webmaster Joined: 24 Jul 2003 Posts: 5903

I find that made up swear words ring a little false to me most of the time, like when people say "Oh fudge"

Especially when they are used often (ahem, Battlestar Galactica)
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Gordon Long · **Swear Words** Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 7:33 pm

Of course I make up my own swear words!

Fantasy writers have a unique advantage over writers over other genres. If writers wish to give a realistic impression of how a character speaks, they try to use words that character would use. However, because of the needs of editors and audiences, mentioned by several people already, we can't do that in realistic fiction.

However, in fantasy, you can create a horrible word, which, through the reactions of the other characters is obviously obscene, and have the character use it over and over, because it doesn't offend anyone in the reading audience (or their mothers)!

Of course, if you use obscene language just to shock your readers this doesn't apply, but that is usually a juvenile trick anyway, so I have no sympathy.