Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Creative Cursing


With all this NaNo madness going on, I had an epiphany today. My previous projects were all Young Adult, but I’ve had these ideas for an Adult Romance novel living in my head for so long that I decided to go ahead and put them to good use. It was a crazy, last-minute decision, but I’m doing it. And it’s working! I’m so excited I can’t stop thinking about it.

Anyway, that’s just as intro for the real reason behind this post.  Creative cursing. I completely suck at that, apparently.

In YA there’s not much use (usually) for curse words, but given the age and… natural inclinations of my new MCs, there’s endless room for creative cursing that I just can’t get my head around
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I remember after finishing Kim Harrison’s The Hollows series that every so often, I found myself yelling: “Taking it to the turn” or “Tink’s undergarments!” at random.  It was particularly hilarious because no one in my day to day life actually speaks English. And there I was, using Jenks’ funny expletives in English. People confirmed then their suspicions that I was crazy. And I just smiled condescendingly at them, muttering a prayer that someday, I find someone who‘d understand my predicaments. (I’m still waiting for my prayers to be heard, by the way.)

And then, after finishing Kiersten White’s Paranormalcy, my household thrived in the epoch of the “Bleep” cursing. This was, again, funny. But now people kind of got the gist of what I meant.

I had another example, but I forgot. It happens to me all the time. I’ll get back at you on it.

Anyway, the idea remains. It hardly is an unexplored territory, but it’s kind of difficult for me. And I want my future readers to get stuck in their heads funny curse words as much as the next writer.

What about you? Does creative cursing come easily to you? 

1 comment:

  1. I usually just go with the four letter variety. But I do appreciate those who come up with creative cursing. It's nice to be able to have something to say in public. =)

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