Making up words

[Population17]

It is okay or frowned upon to alter, or make up, words? I've read some scripts where the writter seemed to do just that. Or is it just that SOME WRITERS can get away with it.

Examples:

SALLY
Sorry I didn't hear the phone ring. I was ipod-ing.

-OR- in the action lines....

The shriveled mutt looked at him; one eye gouged out years ago, the other faded and cataracted.

Would that be considered "stylistic". Mostly I've seen/written it turning nouns into verbs.

any thoughts? thanks,
brad

[RGF]

Re: Making up words

I wouldn't do it in action lines....that's too much. But in dialogue, if your character would use a word like that...then write it that way.

I make up words all the time in real life, and speaking manner is just another tool to give your character realistic qualities.

[Population17]

Re: Making up words

I make up words all the time in real life, and speaking manner is just another tool to give your character realistic qualities.

Yea, that's pretty much my take on it as well. I just wasn't sure what the opinion was as far as using it in the action lines.

thanks RGF
brad

[Allniter]

Re: Making up words

I don't see any problem with making up a word every once in awhile, as long as the reader knows exactly what you're talking about. Cataracted might be a little distracting, tho.

[Population17]

Re: Making up words

Cataracted might be a little distracting, tho.

Oh, I know... that one just came out as I was typing it..

[Fortean]

Making Up Words

...the writter seemed to do....

... shriveled mutt....

Apart from its use in dialog as slang, jargon or a mispronunciation, making up new words suggests that the writer has a limited vocabulary, cannot spell, and doesn't understand grammar.

The example with "faded and cataracted" is awkward. I'd rewrite it, thus: "The scrawny mutt's one eye, clouded with a cataract, sought him out; its other eye, lost long ago, could not."

[Allniter]

Re: Making Up Words

Apart from its use in dialog as slang, jargon or a mispronunciation, making up new words suggests that the writer has a limited vocabulary, cannot spell, and doesn't understand grammar.

Gene Roddenberry would be turning over in his grave ... if he had one.

[Fortean]

Making Up Words

Gene Roddenberry would be turning over in his grave ... if he had one.

Lucky for him, Charles Hoy Fort already invented the word "teleportation," so that the Enterprise crews didn't have to use space suits and shuttle craft for all of those short trips.

"For the most part, widespread pop-culture awareness of the teleportation concept began with the numerous Star Trek television and theatrical movie series (beginning in 1964 with the original TV series pilot episode, The Cage) that was originally spawned by television writer-producer Gene Roddenberry, primarily as a money-saving measure to avoid the requirement for footage of the starship's crew flying shuttles in every episode." ~ "Teleportation - In Science Fiction"

[Popcorntreect]

Re: Making Up Words

If made up words weren't allowed then Diablo Cody wouldn't have an Oscar.

[hscope]

Re: Making up words

Sometimes an invented word is better than the 'legitimate' alternative. After all, that's how words came into existance in the first place.

As long as they don't stop the reader in his/her tracks, I think it's perfectly OK.

And who knows, you may find the word in a dictionary one day.

[ComicBent]

Re: Making up words

I-Pod-ing is not exactly in the same class as cataracted.

The former is all right, but *cataracted* is terrible.

[roscoegino]

Re: Making up words

Ompusimbabis.

[Population17]

Re: Making up words

The former is all right, but *cataracted* is terrible.

Yea it is. It's just the first thing that popped in my head when I was typing.

Any odd, or interesting, vernaculars that you guys use regularly?


thanks,
brad