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If you read my most recent post (and I know for a fact that you all hang on my every syllable, so of course you've read it), you know that I'm all a-flutter with a new idea I'm working on for a story or series of stories involving a Fairy Tale Private Eye (FTPI).
It's flowing (like buttah!) and I keep running into a problem. I kind of want these to be in the spirit of fairy tales. But noir detectives have a certain . . . patois.
They use words like 'toots' and 'dame.' Tend to leave off nouns and pronouns. Talk in fragments. Be terse.
I got all that covered. :)
What I need, though, are some words I can use for curse words. Not 'By the Black Beard of Baldur, I abjure thee!' curses, but 'stubbed-my-toe' curses. The kind of words a person says when they get up at 3 AM to use the bathroom and jam their toe into the table that clearly wasn't there when the lights were on, or when you step in something the cat coughed up en route to said bathroom at said hour.
Something . . . fairy-tale-y.
I'm having trouble with that, for some reason. I have the voice of the character (it's basically Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade) down, but . . . I need some believable curse words for him to use.
'Rats' doesn't cut it. And 'crap' seems too . . . this world. I used 'wolf bait' in this bit:
I'm not sure I like 'wolf bait,' but it's good enough for now.
I'm not purposefully aiming these stories at a YA audience, but I am trying for the 'film noir' feel, and I don't believe they cursed much in those, either.
I'm asking for suggestions. Hit me!
It's flowing (like buttah!) and I keep running into a problem. I kind of want these to be in the spirit of fairy tales. But noir detectives have a certain . . . patois.
They use words like 'toots' and 'dame.' Tend to leave off nouns and pronouns. Talk in fragments. Be terse.
I got all that covered. :)
What I need, though, are some words I can use for curse words. Not 'By the Black Beard of Baldur, I abjure thee!' curses, but 'stubbed-my-toe' curses. The kind of words a person says when they get up at 3 AM to use the bathroom and jam their toe into the table that clearly wasn't there when the lights were on, or when you step in something the cat coughed up en route to said bathroom at said hour.
Something . . . fairy-tale-y.
I'm having trouble with that, for some reason. I have the voice of the character (it's basically Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade) down, but . . . I need some believable curse words for him to use.
'Rats' doesn't cut it. And 'crap' seems too . . . this world. I used 'wolf bait' in this bit:
I'm the last guy in Fairy you wanna pull that load of wolf bait on.You can probably guess which curse word it replaces.
I'm not sure I like 'wolf bait,' but it's good enough for now.
I'm not purposefully aiming these stories at a YA audience, but I am trying for the 'film noir' feel, and I don't believe they cursed much in those, either.
I'm asking for suggestions. Hit me!
