Friday, August 24, 2012

Help Me Clean Up My Potty Mouth - and WIN!

Ralphie, from A Christmas Story. At least it wasn't Lifeboy.
Today we discuss an important topic: Curse words, dirty words, bad words.

I recently received comments from my freelance editor on a manuscript written for young adults (ages 12 and up). I don't use the F-word much in the manuscript, but there were quite a few instances of the word "ass," and more than a few shits, damns and derivations thereof.

In my mind, for some of my characters, their voice comes through speaking that way. For example Fanny, one of the main characters in the Emily Adams series, one of her favorite words is ass (or asshat, asshole - you get the picture). It just rolls off Fanny's tongue. It's hard for me to "hear" Fanny speaking any other way. Not all of my characters speak that way. Jake Stevens for example (also from Emily's House), rarely curses. But for a character like Fanny, it just won't do to have her say something like "darn" or "shucks."

But the editor made a good point to me. She advised me that some parents have problems with the use of foul language in books their kids read (the younger the child, the more problem it will be perceived to be). And parents have been known to pitch a fit at a librarian for shelving books in the middle-grade of teen section that have curse words in them.

I believed the editor, but I decided to put the question to the Facebook community. I got more response to this question than any thing else I've ever posted. It proves there are strong feelings. And not surprisingly, parents (and teachers and some librarians) are pretty vehement that the F-word does NOT belong in books written for kids, EVER. (Of course, most stated the belief that their child(ren) don't use such language - *cough*.) Perhaps we'll address the issue of elitism and parent denial in another post.

The strong response I got on the Facebook page made me realize that if I want my books to have the widest possible audience (and I do), then I need to be aware of how parents will respond to cursing in books.

But what do I do about my potty mouth characters? Fanny can't say "aw shucks," or call someone a poopy pants.

I decided to embrace this challenge. I'm on a quest to build a library of non-swearword urban slang. It's time to get creative.

Here's where you come in. I want to hear your most creative slang words to replace curse words. Here are a few examples to get you going, words that I think can work well to replace asshole:

Clump nugget 

Butt munch 

Cretin

How about tart monkey? Ever heard of that? I thought it sounded naughty, though not sure what it really means?!

Do you have clever stand ins for curse words? I want to hear them!

And if the sheer joy of sharing your most original language creations with me isn't enough of an incentive to post a comment, let's sweeten the deal. 

Time for a contest! 

It's the "Help Me Clean up My Potty Mouth!" contest. 

Have fun, you little tart monkeys. Go get your creative caps on, you dill weeds, and send me some blasted words.


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11 comments:

  1. To find a veritable garden of nasty, all you have to do is speed read through my "Darlings of Orange County". Of course, you know that! The Darlings, being an experiment completely anathema to my Victorian tendencies, brought me a bottomless well of contemporary, dirty slang. "Panty hamster" being my fave.

    For day-to-day curse words though, nobody beats the Elizabethans:

    Spleeny, plume-plucked huggermugger
    Puking, knotty-pated pumpion
    Ale-soused moldwarp
    Canker blossm'd quim
    Fat-kidneyed whoreson
    Clay-brained slotpole

    ... and so on. I suggest a bit of "Black Adder" Season 2 in your daily Netflix diet for some healthy sousing of Shakespearean insults.

    I spent a number of years at Faire, Renaissance as well as pirate; so the vile tongue pretty easily wags, especially after a bit o' rum :D By the way, want to really insult a gent? Simple usage of Sirrah or Fellow will get you deep-pottled. (Sirrah is a motherly term, used for disciplining or a good talking-to; Fellow, might as well call a family court judge Dude.)

    Pog Ma Thoin!

    JennyPop ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OMG, these are funny. "Plume-plucked huggermugger" - love it! I'm putting this in a file for if I ever write an Elizabethan novel :-)

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  2. I found this one to be funny, and appropriate to replace the "shit" word is "monkey funk" or as my mom used to say "monkey butt" as well
    to replace "Bullshit" use "Bulltwinkle"
    and my fav that I have heard lots when growing up is
    "mother fudge" or "mother fudger" instead of Mother F***** etc
    Like a girl could say "that mother fudger stole my boyfriend!"
    and another way to say "shit" is "shootbuckets"
    things like that. Hope this helps.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's the sprit Michelle! I like bulltwinkle quite a bit - never heard that one before. These are great, thanks for your help!

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  3. Dump chunker
    Snaggle crack
    Knuckle sucker
    Tardwad
    ASH-hole
    Shite biter
    Dink dunker

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hope these help..lol

      Tweet me-@mistuhfrodo

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    2. LOL, I love these! Especially dump chunker and tardwad. Thanks so much!

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  4. OK, I went straight to the middle schoolers and asked. yes, asshat is used frequently and THEY believe it to be an acceptable substitute for assh$#@. The word crap appears to be bandied around quite a bit and my favorite "frickin" in place of the f word was once thought by my children to be an actual swear word. I also hear the madagascar penguins versions of "hoover damn" and shit- take mushrooms used to make these words sound like acceptable variations. I think some of the milder words, damn etc are probably ok, it is the f word and the shit (-ake mushrooms) that are most problematic (IMHO)!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kimber, thank you, that really helps. I love "hoover dam." People who write scripts for kids' T.V. & movies get creative. Like Mr. Crabs in Spongebob saying "What the barnacle!" Thanks for stopping by and giving me your thoughts on this

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  5. I love your blog, I look forward to seeing more from you. Do you run any other sites? thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad you enjoy the blog Obat. I blog here only :-)

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