Timewaster's Guide Archive

Tolkien did not make any language from scratch. He studied old Saxon as well as several Scandinavian languages. The different dialects of Elvish and Dwarvish were basked on certain languages.

I would suggest studying the sentence structure of a language that you like or want to imitate.

For my odd languages I cheat and just use Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Fits my stories.

There is also The Art of War by Sun Tzu. It is not specifically about individual fighting, but about war tactics. It is good for getting into the Asian military mindset.

There is a fascinating article in Wikipedia about 'minced oaths' that examines them in both actual English speaking as well as in a variety of literary and film sources. Saying 'f-bomb' is a form of minced oath in that it attempts to soften the impact of a profanity while still convaying the origianl meaning.

My favorite two minced oaths are 'zounds!', short for 'God's wounds!' and 'gadzooks!', short for 'God's hooks!' (the nails he was crizified with). 150 years ago these would have been mighty strong words, but now sound quaint!

'Bloody' is a sluring of 'by Our Lady', meaning the Virgin Mary.

Two of my favorite Gorram TV shows are mentioned in the article for their minced oaths: Battlestar Galactica (both original and reimagined) and Firefly.

And Mr. Jordan is mentioned for all of you WoT folk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minced_oath

For my own writing I don't specifically avoid foul language. However, I'm very particular as to which characters swear and their choice of profanity. I have a main character that has never sworn. But his girlfriend will swear like a sailor! And I've been experimenting with some of the characters using the un-minced phrases like 'God's wounds.'

And I can totally see why you wouldn't want your book to be associated with that flaming pile of garbage...

...that makes obscene amounts of money. Yeah, I wouldn't want my name on those paychecks either...

Will Rogers said the easiest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

I only give free advice (or at least in the public domain).

So you actually went out and got a life outside of TWG? I didn't think that was allowed...

I do have a colorful life. Perhaps too colorful sometimes. But at least the drama is good drama.

Well, since we're all fessing up to being slackadaisical lately, I'll admit I haven't been keeping up on any of the reading either. I've been saving all the submissions, so perhaps one day when I have oodles of time I can get caught up.

I feel like a bad friend.

My only excuses (yes, there are several) are as follows:

1) I've been working a lot of overtime in the hope of having enough of a downpayment for a mortgage. I would like to move no later than the end of April.
2) I'm working on a very large mural for a local museum celebrating Lincoln's 200th B-Day.
3) I've been working on the website for the local SCA group's event. I'll post the link once it is viewable.
4) I am preparing for Train-A-Palooza III , in which I have a sleepover weekend with my eldest two nephews and set up my old (extensive) train set.
5) I may have acquired a girlfriend. The note of uncertainty is only because of a 4000 distance and the difference of several time zones. Other than that, things are just peachy!

This also means I haven't submitted the second act of Spectre of Death. But I will hold off until I have at least some chance to read at least some of everyone elses' work.