The Fancy Deep

Monday, June 13, 2011

Slanging Hash!


One element that adds a lot to a character’s voice is the slang they use.

The MC in The Fancy Deep comes from a part-Japanese mother and an Irish Dad. Using Japanese and Irish slang, I created her own series of words that include mashed-up expletives, personal pronouns and adjectives. She’s also a gem-cutter & jeweler, so I use some of the jargon from her trade as part of the “Aysia-speak.”

While working on the novel, I listened carefully to my friends and family, even myself, to try and discover some unique slang in my real world.

Here are some of the frequent “isms” of friends & family and some of my own:

  1. “What in America?” (This is mine)
  2. “Awesomesauce” (Elana Johnson)
  3. “Frawesomesauce” (Ditto)
  4. “Sheena Easton!” (Instead of the “Sh—“ word.) (Mine again).
  5. “Gotta jet” (Some guy in the cubicle next to my office says this every few minutes. Yet he never does . . . jet, I mean.)
  6. “Burgess Meredith!” (Expletive by John Cusick from my lit agency – love this one)
  7. “Preciate cha’” (Utahns the world over).
  8. “Shushi” (Mikko, our CTO says “sushi” with a Finnish accent. As a result, our entire office calls it “shushi” now).
  9. “Ping me” (All the programmers I work with). : )
What are some of your “isms?” Share!

8 comments:

Malia said...

"what the heck in the world!"
Kaia

Hannah L. Clark said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hannah L. Clark said...

All my jargon or "Hannah-isms" have to do with rhyming. For instance, I will say "Awesome Possum" or "Cool McGool" etc... (Pretty corney, yes, but they're mine). I also have a tender place in my heart for the enthusiastic
"WHAT?!" from the hit sitcom Psych. I'm proud to have passed that one on to Sam.

Megan Billings said...

"Oh my hello kitty!"
"You hurt my feelgoods."
"That is so twisted!"
"You look cutish today."
"That is craptastic!"

I'm a teen. I have a lot of slang :D

Kristen Knight said...

I heart ALL these! I might just steal some for characters in my books. Let me know if you are cool with that - Oh and send me MORE!

Carol Kilgore said...

I know a few Ping Me's :)

Thanks for following my blog.

J.R. Johansson said...

Hmm... some of mine are:

"Holy Freak!"
"What the holy?"
"Crazy good."
"Peeps..." (yeah, I'm not proud of it)
and
"Sweet!"

Fun post!

Kristen Knight said...

Thank JR for the great slang! Be proud, girl! Thanks for following my blog. Looking forward to getting to know you better. : )