The Do's and Don'ts of Writing a Story

HOW TO: Curses

Spitting - this is the most powerful form of cursing, it takes a lot of effort to work up enough saliva to spit on something while not taking a terrible amount of time so a lot of intent can be worked into one little action. Obviously spitting on someone would be the most direct form of cursing them, but that's quite an inflammatory move. if you don't feel like potentially getting into a fight you can always spit on something of the persons, preferably something they'll make direct contact with like a door handle, a car door, or in their food/drink ( as gross as this may sound). This also works with other bodily fluids such as blood, urine or menstrual fluid (though menstrual fluid can have interesting results and should be used carefully).

The evil eye - This was traditionally cats out of jealousy or envy and was thought to cause bad luck and injury to the recipient. It's quite easy to branch from there and use the same principles to meet your own ends. Giving someone the evil eye is a method of cursing that can take a bit of practice. Essentially, you're directing as much ill intent into a quick-ish glare as you can, it's pretty difficult to miss your target as long as you don't have a wandering gaze. Once you get a and of it, I'd advise you to be careful, it can be quite easy to give someone the evil eye without fully meaning to. 

Smoke - blowing a cigarette or cigar smoke over someone is typically considered quite rude and can rightfully double as a curse. Aside from being potentially unpleasant if they're adverse to smoke you are literally exhaling burning plant matter that has been allowed to mingle with toxins that your body uses respiration to expel. the smell will linger on them for hours, potentially causing other's to avoid them and most likely causing them general discomfort with the way they smell/feel until they can rid themselves of the odour. 

This should go without saying but smoking terrible for your health. I would advise against picking up a smoking habit simply for the purpose of cursing. It's important to mention here that there are lot of people who can have very serious reactions to smoke. Asthma and allergies to smoke are quite common so this has potential to physically harm people. Please be careful.

Verbal curses - quick verbal curses are easy and effective. I'm not going to go into a terrible lot of detail on this one as it's largely self-explanatory but there are a lot of excellent and very creative ideas to be had.

Written curses - Some of these curses can fall under the same general category as verbal curses. Simply writing an ill intent on a slip of paper and stashing it near/on your target can lend excellent results. there are other forms of curses hat can be written though. Small curse sigils doodled innocuously on stick notes, dirty care windows, walls etc. work well, especially if the sigil us ready made for use in such instances. Writing one or two vindictive words can be enough to effectively curse as well.

If you happen to know the targets name (or even just first name), there are a lot of available methods of cursing. the most obvious method is to write their name on a slip of paper and burn it. If you're feeling more creative you could write it on the bottom of your foot so that everywhere you walk, you're stepping on them. Writing their name in an undesirable location (i.e. dumpster, toilet seat, car tire etc.) can have a similar result. If you use one of these methods you need to be very clear in your mind about the person you want it to affect. If you're curing Sam the evil barista you don't want to accidentally include Sam your brother's girlfriend in the mix (or maybe you do, what do I know).