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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/31379
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I think this is a good technique, [I've recommended it myself elsewhere here](https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/30257/are-there-words-too-provocative-for-use-in-the-current-fiction-market/30311#30311), but it needs to align with how people really create and use words. Curse words and oaths are generally used for shock value. Euphemisms are used to clean up or soften curses. And slang is used to establish an in-group (that understands the slang) and an out-group (that doesn't).

**If a word doesn't _sound_ shocking to the reader, it won't function as a curse word.**"Fark" works because it sounds like a rude curse word we all know. "Mudblood" works, because it sounds pretty transparently insulting. Even words that are taboo solely because they are holy have a shock value --it's the inappropriately blasphemous use of them that makes it into a curse. On the other hand, perfectly real, but archaic curse words like "Zounds!" just sound laughable to the modern reader, because the derivation of them isn't obvious. Similarly, "author of life" and "beautiful idol" aren't shocking. They sound like respectful euphemisms, not curses. And when you take it one step further away from the source (like turning "God's wounds" into "zounds"), it's no wonder you lose your audience. It might work better if you introduced them first as reverential expressions --that way the audience could feel the shock value when they are abused.

It is true that real-world slang (for instance, Cockney rhyming slang) is often elaborate and playful. I could see complex circumlocutions like yours believably being part of some subculture's private slang (including their cursewords). But if you're going to deploy it like that, be aware that it inevitably positions your audience as a member of the "out-group" --that is, the people who are intended to be baffled and annoyed by the slang. You have to remember that your characters' experiences live only inside your readers' heads, and only to the extent you succeed in placing them there. **Just having worked out an elaborate backstory for a word, or telling us something is impactful to the character doesn't mean it will come alive for the reader.** We (the audience) need to be able to feel it too.

Original score: 14