Oct. 4th, 2016 12:36 am
@ fellow Jewish writers, help?
via http://ift.tt/2cONTAj:
milogould:
what do you do when you’re writing characters saying phrases like “omg”, “gdi", “ugh, G-d”? since my writing is for a comic, sometimes i can get away with using acronyms - but usually it looks awkward/doesn’t read properly.
i know that in discussion, some argue that digital writing isn’t permanent so it’s okay, but not everyone feels that way (i don’t write it out, not even in texts). and even then - if/when i print my comic it’ll become a permanent/physical form.
Jewish writers - what are your feelings on this? even if you don’t have a solution, i’d love to hear your thoughts/experiences!
most of these are things I do when typing, uh, my own dialogue, by which I mean, when I’m saying stuff online:
using another similar expression/minced oath like “oh my word”, “oh my lord”, “oh dear”, “oh gosh” although this obviously like. affects characterization, e.g. it can make the character seem kind of “gee willikers, mister” precious. replacing the name with a swearword in appropriate contexts, e.g. “did you hear about the new [media]” “oh my fuck, DID I EVER”(again, this affects characterization, though, uh, probably differently) having characters swear to Jesus/Christ instead (this is something I do fairly frequently in real life, I think a lot of other non-Christians do too, idk how much people will interpret this as These Characters Are Def Christian tho?
just making noise where I would say something that has the name in it, like, “ghhhhh”
something I’ve seen other people propose is replacing the letter O with an emoji or other non-phonetic character(s)
something I thought of just now is, just putting a blank space there? G d. idk if this is something other people do.
I think it’s also very possible to just… use the dashed form. like, if (conforming to this religious convention) is your conviction, that’s a decision you can make as an author, and maybe it’ll be surprising to people but like. hopefully their reaction is “oh the author is Jewish so they do this, huh? ok well cool” and then adapting to that.

milogould:
what do you do when you’re writing characters saying phrases like “omg”, “gdi", “ugh, G-d”? since my writing is for a comic, sometimes i can get away with using acronyms - but usually it looks awkward/doesn’t read properly.
i know that in discussion, some argue that digital writing isn’t permanent so it’s okay, but not everyone feels that way (i don’t write it out, not even in texts). and even then - if/when i print my comic it’ll become a permanent/physical form.
Jewish writers - what are your feelings on this? even if you don’t have a solution, i’d love to hear your thoughts/experiences!
most of these are things I do when typing, uh, my own dialogue, by which I mean, when I’m saying stuff online:
using another similar expression/minced oath like “oh my word”, “oh my lord”, “oh dear”, “oh gosh” although this obviously like. affects characterization, e.g. it can make the character seem kind of “gee willikers, mister” precious. replacing the name with a swearword in appropriate contexts, e.g. “did you hear about the new [media]” “oh my fuck, DID I EVER”(again, this affects characterization, though, uh, probably differently) having characters swear to Jesus/Christ instead (this is something I do fairly frequently in real life, I think a lot of other non-Christians do too, idk how much people will interpret this as These Characters Are Def Christian tho?
just making noise where I would say something that has the name in it, like, “ghhhhh”
something I’ve seen other people propose is replacing the letter O with an emoji or other non-phonetic character(s)
something I thought of just now is, just putting a blank space there? G d. idk if this is something other people do.
I think it’s also very possible to just… use the dashed form. like, if (conforming to this religious convention) is your conviction, that’s a decision you can make as an author, and maybe it’ll be surprising to people but like. hopefully their reaction is “oh the author is Jewish so they do this, huh? ok well cool” and then adapting to that.

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