I'm gonna go look for a pain killer...

[ximeria]

This is an add-on to the previous post on using methaphors/word plays and such that aren't necessarily of American or Brit origin. <<-- That was the ultra-short version XD

I've put it under cut, it's a little lengthy, I rant and rave, and yeah, please bear with me, I've got a head ache I have no idea where came from.



I had more than a few people commenting on that it was important to not throw the reader by using for example Brit terms in an American set TV show when writing fanfic. Well, yeah. I never said I did that, now did I? Occasionally it will happen, though it'll mostly be the other way, because most of the terms I'm used to using are American. And thank God, I don't write Harry Potter fanfic *sniggers*

Those of you who know me, know that about 98% of my work is humour based, not drama and/or angst. Right? Cool, so to mix things up a little, I occasionally fool around with the language, in the guise of metaphors, similies, idioms, sayings. Whatever you want to call them. What I meant in the previous post was, that sometimes I'll take a DANISH saying and convert it directly into English by merely translating the sentence, instead of looking for an English saying that covers the same.

Examples (English saying first if I can come up with it, then Danish saying directly translated.):

1.
Need is the mother of invention = Need teaches a naked woman to spin (on a spinning wheel, making yarn/thread)
Granted, that I would never put in a fic ROFL

2.
Worry is often the cause of illness (it's the closest I can think of) = Don't paint the Devil on the wall
Don't worry about something until it actually happens. Could be 'we'll cross that bridge when we get there'.
Yeah, that one I've used. For a firefly fic, where the language is already a mish-match of several others.

3.
I've got no English saying for this LOL = You have to listen to a lot before the ears fall off.
I could see more than one of the characters I write make use of this one. Seriously. I'll consider it funny, and everyone else will just wonder if I've got a hole in my bag of marbles. *g*

4.
No English for this one either - yeah, I'm getting lazy = From drunkards and children you'll hear the truth

5.
Once burned, twice shy = Burned child fears fire/is shy of the fire, if you want to dictate the exact translation
Guess that one is easy enough to get.

So yeah, I have fun fooling around with terms. Not just 'sayings' as such. I had fun throwing ideas back and forth with nicci_mac when I was looking for a term for being queer that 1. Ray Kowalski would use 2. that wasn't your standard, run of the mill term. I asked for something that was bent. She supplied me with a willow in a windtunnel. Which in turn cracked me up, so much I had to make use of the term.

Agreed, some characters make me do it more than others. I couldn't see Fraser making use of some twisted saying, he's a little too proper, language wise for that. Ray? Totally. He mangles the language already, it's just fun using that in a story. Of course, as always, you have to control it. If it gets out of hand, it stops being quaint, and becomes annoying instead.

In stargate, I could probably get away with Daniel using some pretty odd sayings, but Jack? Not really. It would feel off, and I wouldn't end up doing it.

Firefly? As I mentioned above, it's already a mixture of English and Cantonese, there's no reason why there wouldn't be other settlements out there where of some other origin, language wise. Even if Europe was completely destroyed, there are many people from over here, who live in the States.

Actually, twistedchick, said it right. The worst thing to do when writing, what will throw her off, and I'm with her on that, is bad grammar and incorrect spelling will completely derail the reading. Accidentally, no, I haven't had anyone checking this entry for booboos ;P

Now look what you made me do. I went on a rant instead of writing requests! *slinks off to check who's next on the list - right after I've hunted down the pain killers*