Resource Fanfic Writer's Desk: Your Place for Writing Discussion, Questions, and Advice

Well we have my stolen terms from the Fanon Thread​

Expletives, curses and insults​

Chongo-longo = expletive​

Haar'chak = [Mando'a] expletive​

Slimesucker = Derogatory term.​

Slikith = “dweller in the dirt"​

Space ape = slang for a lascivious male.​

Space it = An exclamation.​

​

and there is also:​

Chaos take you!​

Kiss a Sith!​

Xendor lover​

Take to the Black and don't come back!​

Son of a mynock!​

Sith spawns!​

Mandolorian!​

​

and: Star Wars: A Mouth Like An Intergalactic Princess—Cussing in a Galaxy Far, Far Away​

http://abelgpena.blogspot.se/2014/01/star-wars-mouth-like-intergalactic.html​

 

Thanks. I have a pair of insults now, after taking the suggestions above and combining them with some terms found on the Wook's "list of phrases and slang", but I'll look through that and see if I can find anything better. There's always room for improvement.

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Acquisition_Division

 

Well, the term "watch" has appeared in Heir to the Empire and at least one NJO book, so you could stick with that if you want. Otherwise, I'd say chronomaker works for me.

 

Well, assuming that chronometers in the GFFA are analogous to wristwatches, then I can only suggest that perhaps they are manufactured in the same way that digital and even "analog" watches are here on Planet Earth—in a factory, probably by robots (I doubt that even the best Rolex is hand-made anymore). But then, I guess it depends on the type of chrono.

Aside from the waffling, I'm just as stumped as you are, sorry.

 

"Chronomaker" would work for that EU feel.

 

I was planning to use clock: ex. wristclock.

 

Heh, I now find myself imaging Yanibar's architecture to look like Dragon Ball's

 

Just out of curiosity, but what do you lot think of authors who use in-universe languages in dialogue without providing a translation? Is it a turn-off, or would it just spur you on to look up a translation on Wookieepedia or some other website?

For the record: I'm nearing the end of the tenth chapter in my current fanfic, and I've used a handful of Huttese sayings that I've lifted verbatim from the Wook's article. While it is possible to include a translation, it would make the text a bit unwieldy. There is also the option of not actually using the words, but the point is to help disguise the identity of a character—specifically, one who knows Huttese but normally speaks in Basic.

 

Can anybody point me in the direction of a good map of Naboo? Ideally, I would like to see how far apart are the larger cities and if there are any more rivers.

 

Personally I like when you have characters use non basic words when they speak but whole sentences could be a bit trickier. If you do that so do I recommend that you italic the whole sentence to show that it is not basic so the reader don't just think it is supposed to be a heavy accent and spend to much time trying to read it.

 

Goodwood Depends. If an author introduces phrases throughout the story (eg. shabla di'kute) and the meaning is clear, I don't mind them being used again without explanation. A setting in which the tone/meaning gets is easy to deduce help and tags showing the intention/reaction of the speakers.

This would be acceptable to me. I'd assume I got the important information from the context. A translation at the end would be nice, though, just to make sure. (It can wait/ Long memory, short fuse)


When I write Mando'a or Cheunh in my story, I usually provide translations at the end of the update. Except in that one case where I didn't want people to know what was said because it was embarrassing as hell (for me as the actual author of those lines.) I think only a few people asked for the translation but then the scene was showing frustration with having to learn an language fast and the other character was speaking German. (Also no translations.)

I think the readers' mileage may vary on how much foreign lingo they are happy with because it helps the immersion and how much is too much. Do what you think right and hope for comments.

 

Thanks for the advice, folks. I think I've got an idea going...

 

Try these:





They're based on the Star Wars Galaxies game, so that's as official as it gets until somebody higher up the chain makes a real map. They're not the greatest, but they give an idea how far apart the big cities are and show the weirdest looking river system ever, which I guess can be explained by Naboo's bizarro geology.

 

Do you know what scale it is in?

 

Thank you. For some reason, I saw the second one, but it was a weird crop and there was no Theed on it.

I don't think a better map would solve all that much at this point. For example, official info on Endor claims there is only 8% of water, yet the little globe released in 1998 shows at least one ocean.

 

I never played the game, but the SWG wiki says the coordinate system is in meters, so I think that would make each grid tile on the first map a square kilometer. Wookieepedia doesn't say what the total surface area of Naboo is, but it's pretty close to the diameter of Earth. So if you take that at face value...you're looking at an incredibly tiny area of Naboo. In fact, probably exactly this area:

Yup. I think a lot of this stuff was just designed for whatever they needed at the time, without a lot of thought going into consistency. Of course, now with so many sources of information stored online, it's much easier to realize that the inconsistencies exist.

That's why I don't go too crazy trying to color inside their lines. If I'm not sure about something, instead of boxing myself in by picking and choosing from contradicting info, I just avoid being too specific and let the reader fill in any blanks themselves. A little sleight of hand is a must when it comes to a universe this size (even more so with the inevitable clash between EU and the "new canon"...). Endor's a great example. The official word might be that Endor has only 8% water (that seems absurdly low to me, but hey, the GFFA is filled with one-biome planets), yet in ROTJ we can see some pretty honkin' big bodies of water. Maybe they're not technically oceans, but they're at least inland seas, and for the purposes of the story I can make it work without ever confirming or denying the 8% number.

 

Near as I can tell from my days as a Wookieepedian, SWG was always a ginormous grab bag of contradictions borne of incompetence, laziness, or both.

 

TRUTH!

 

So, SWG was like a precursor to The Clone Wars

*RUNS AWAY MADLY*

 

fixed

 

For roleplaying, at least, as game staff, I asked a Mandalorian player to do English translations for his characters' dialogue, as I felt it disruptive to have to visit Wookieepedia about eighteen times in one post.

One of my English teachers taught that a writer should explain unfamiliar acronyms, the first time that a reader is going to encounter it, and I think that should apply to foreign / alien phrases and terms too.
But oft-repeated words, like the Mando'a buir (father, parent) and shabla (low level expletive), I think after a while, you can drop the translations

 

Actually, you broke it even more. SWG came out at around the same time as the original KotOR.

 

Okay, I could just use the phrase "flip out" (to mean that someone is fed up and/or about to explode with anger) but I don't know if there's a way to Star Wars-ify that a little? Or if I should? Like maybe I should just leave it as "So and So is going to lose it."