Not sure if this is the right section or not. The main subject of my book is an armed uprising against a totalitarian government, but I'm at a complete and total loss when it comes to what to call these people. (Although the government would obviously be inclined to call them "terrorists") Despite being to most accurate term I can think of, the word "resistance" is unbelievably cliché to the farthest of extremes (if I had a dime for every time I've heard it, I could almost fund a resistance!). "Rebel" isn't much better - Star Wars beat that one to death. "Revolutionary" is a rather clunky and cumbersome word, not to mention almost solely associated with the American Revolution. "Freedom Fighter"? Aside from being another clunky term, it also sounds cheesy, and is typically used in a joking manner anyway. I'm lost. As far as I know, those are the only words that exist for such a concept, and none of them are particularly good choices. Does anyone have any better ideas?
You have many options. The first being to simply name your resistance...give the group an actual name/banner to rally under. --could also use an ABBR. to avoid some clunkiness.--Think something like the IRA (Irish Republican Army) Insurgents, Infidels, Militants, Underground movement etc. could work, though such words have some negative connotations. Could go with some play on "anti-blank" i.e. like anti-fascist, anti-totalitarian etc. There's the "Free Blank" i.e. Free Tibet, Free Papau etc.
The Army of the People Who Will Liberate the Land from Oppressive People. Yes, That Means You. (or TAPWWLLOPYTMY. ) But seriously, Sid has a good idea. Give them a name. I would imagine a resistance group would want to give themselves a name (and a flag) to rally around and recruit potential like-minded people. They'd want a specific word to name themselves as a giant "F*** YOU" to the people they're resisting. It shows that they're confident enough in their cause, their inevitable victory that they'll give themselves their own, different, identity. It sends a clear message of, "We are strong. We are separate from you. We will win. People will know just who gloriously kicked your ass." They'd also might want a name that will instill fear into the hearts of would-be loyalists to the government. "The Resistance" likely wouldn't be as epically fearsome as "The Dreaded Dawn" or something.
Insurrectionist Anarchist Insurgent Rebel/insurgent faction Subversives Activists Radical Malcontent Revisionist Provocateur Getting out your Thesaurus is fun!!!
I'm a bit befuddled about this. "Army" and "soldier" and, for that matter, "shoe" or "hat", are also frequently-used words, but we use them because they are the standard word for the concept. "Resistance" is, to me, the standard word for the concept; I'm not sure how it's any more cliched than, for example, "army".
I suppose it depends on perspective. I agree with you that it seems to be more like a basic term - but the flipside of that is that it's not quite as common as "shoe", "hat", or even "army" for that matter, and tends to be used more in fiction than in real life. So I can understand why some people might think it a tad bit unoriginal. I knew they'd need a name at some point, but you guys kinda enforced the urgency of that need. They DO need a name, and the sooner the better. Thanks Sid and Link, your replies have definitely helped to spur my thinking along that route! Ooooh... "Revisionist" sounds nice. I like it. I think I'll use that! The government in my book is a global one, and so I'll undoubtedly have multiple factions across the globe which I will have to give different names to, but I think I at least have a place to start. My story begins in New York City, and that will be where the first resistance faction will rise from. I think I'll call them the Free Revisionist Army of New York (FRANY) ...and as the revolution gains momentum, its participants could come to be known as "frannies" (or shortened to "frans"), owing to the phonetic pronunciation of the acronym. What do you guys think of that?
...and now I'm laughing hysterically because Rebecca Black's "Friday" just popped into my head while re-reading my last post: "Gotta catch the bus - I see my fraaaaaans" xD
