Do any of your characters swear? If so how often do they swear if at all?

[Naruzeldamaster]

Because of how cautious my parents are about the content I consume, I have to be extremely cautious of when and how I allow my characters swear. Which can be hard, even though I realize my characters aren't 'me' my parents are the 'what you write is a representation of your views' type and like I get it? But they often go way too far with their concerns.

For example, if one of my characters presents themselves as a 'potty mouth' I write them that way, BUT with the caveat that I personally control the situations they swear in. Even when in some scene drafts in my head they might swear up a storm, I trim it back until I feel 'comfortable' writing it. After all the character presented themselves as a drunken Scotsman vocabulary, gotta do it justice but at the same time I got principals.

One instance that I wrote a little while ago, was a leader of a group of bandits. In her 'sane' state, she swore a little bit, but after obtaining a cursed sword it amplified her negative personality traits, thus she swore more often and got a lot more bold/ruthless. Her reaction to having a limb cut off with dragon fire, instead of wailing like she was possessed was a simple 'fuck, double fuck, fuckity fuck fuck' which...personally an appropriate reaction to having a limb cut off and the wound cauterized in the process with extremely hot dragon fire. Her right hand minion covers her ears jokingly and goes 'Boss I realize you're in insane pain right now, but seriously, language much?' kind of hinting that this outburst was not normal even for her boss.

Also Regardless of what I'm writing, or what age rating (even M) I go out of my way to avoid using the swears that reference human beings (for example, the C word) because personally that's a step too far for me, even if I believe swears are a tool.

 

[pmmg]

I dont tend to use these sentence enhancers, and avoid them.

In the course of creating my story world, I have made up some swears the characters use, and sparingly used any word of this nature. Any word I did use, would be one that could show up on an episode of MASH.

While I do not think the characters never curse, its just not in my writing style.

To go further, I dont really care to see them when I am reading. It is one of the things that turns me off so to Steven King.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I dont tend to use these sentence enhancers, and avoid them.

In the course of creating my story world, I have made up some swears the characters use, and sparingly used any word of this nature. Any word I did use, would be one that could show up on an episode of MASH.

While I do not think the characters never curse, its just not in my writing style.

To go further, I dont really care to see them when I am reading. It is one of the things that turns me off so to Steven King.

I try to let my characters swear a little bit, when it seems to make sense, but you'll rarely find a chapter in my stories with more than ten instances swears, most of the time you won't find more than five; and even then most of the time it's the occasional 'shit' or 'damn' nothing like, foul foul. (other than the one instance of F bombing in the entire story, which again, she just got her arm sliced off with dragon fire. Her brain to mouth filter was kind of off due to the pain.) And this is with the characters who present themselves as potty mouths.

Like I said, if my characters 'want' to swear I let them, but I turn the swearing level down until I feel comfortable with it.

 

[minta]

Honestly so thoughtful. To swear is a character choice in your mind, not a shock value thing for you, and the fact that you seem to have set some personal boundaries is totally fair. This type of intentionality also speaks for control over tone, no censorship or sign of weakness whatsoever.

 

[Insolent Lad]

In that I use little profanity in my own life, I tend to feel awkward and a bit authentic putting it into the mouths of my characters. I feel it is safer simply to avoid using it much, but, yes, occasionally someone does have to let something rip. Usually something pretty mild.

 

[Karlin]

I have 4 or 5 four letter words in what I am editing now. Only used at emotionally charged points. Otherwise, it's just silly.

I'm reminded of a quote attributed to MArk Twain:

“Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”​

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Honestly so thoughtful. To swear is a character choice in your mind, not a shock value thing for you, and the fact that you seem to have set some personal boundaries is totally fair. This type of intentionality also speaks for control over tone, no censorship or sign of weakness whatsoever.

Yeah, about 90% of my characters swear as little as I do (and even then I mean like, the occasional shit, hell (like 'hell if I know') or damn) for the other 10% that present themselves as potty mouths I sit them down and say 'look, I love you but we needa talk' and somehow when I start to write them they swear a lot less often, and typically only when it would be most impactful. The example I posted above with the character reacting to you know, her arm being sliced off, and the insides of her body feeling like they're on fire due to the dragon flames, is probably the most foul thing I've written, and it's likely going to be the only instance of using that word in the entire story.(though I'm sure that character swears as much as she wants "off camera" lol On camera though? She behaves as well as I allow her to.) Once I finish the story I'm working on I'll probably comb through it and remove the ones that don't feel needed until I'm happy too. But for the rough draft I use them when they make the most sense

 

[Insolent Lad]

In that I use little profanity in my own life, I tend to feel awkward and a bit authentic putting it into the mouths of my characters. I feel it is safer simply to avoid using it much, but, yes, occasionally someone does have to let something rip. Usually something pretty mild.

Duh, that's INauthentic.

 

[Orc Knight]

Yes, And as much as the situation calls for it.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Duh, that's INauthentic.

I try to be authentic to the character while I'm writing the story, when I go back for the re-read I tend to remove the swears that seem like excess.
I feel much more comfy writing my characters as they appear in my mind, rather than putting them in a box. Though I do make them wash their mouth out if they get too raunchy for me. Sometimes that does mean more swears than I'd normally write in the rough draft, but others, they swear very little if at all.

 

[Ned Marcus]

Personally, I don't have my characters swear. It was a conscious decision. I don't think swearing is always bad; I just prefer to work without it—as most writers through the ages have done. The type of swearing that almost always makes me stop reading a book is when it's in the first few lines. In this case, I just assume the writer is just trying to be cool or controversial and lacks any ability.

 

[Zilver]

Sounds incredibly claustrophobic, having my parents formulate opinions in any way shape or form about what I express in art...

My parents don't read what I write. And if they ever do & they don't like what they read, sucks to be them I guess.

My characters swear - a lot - cause they're teenagers in the midst of a rebellion.

 

[SamazonE]

There are some other no-nos. Most crimes. Bathrooms. Excessive suffering. Boring mundane bits. Metal and Hip-Hop?

To be honest, swearing is too impactful for me, it draws you into every day life. It is even less successful in our fantasy genre. That is the reason I would avoid it. However I do respect swearing recreationally, I think it is appropriate like some titles: Mr, Sir, Mom.

There are some cases where animals swearing makes sense, a snake might slither but they can also hiss. Mice move very fast in awkward situations. An owl might have an epiphany.

Trained animals would use swearing less and obedience more and their owners would be less inclined to discipline. I have gathered.

 

[Mad Swede]

My characters do swear but I don't use swear words in my writing, by which I mean that a character will "mutter swear words under her breath". The reason for this is partly that I don't see a need to use actual swear words and partly because swear words don't translate very well to other languages. Swearing and its acceptability is related to both language and culture, so the way people swear in somewhere like the US will not be same as they way people swear in Sweden. So writing something like "she swore under her breath" conveys the swearing whilst at the same time being translateable and non-offensive.

 

[Gurkhal]

My characters do swear but I don't use swear words in my writing, by which I mean that a character will "mutter swear words under her breath". The reason for this is partly that I don't see a need to use actual swear words and partly because swear words don't translate very well to other languages. Swearing and its acceptability is related to both language and culture, so the way people swear in somewhere like the US will not be same as they way people swear in Sweden. So writing something like "she swore under her breath" conveys the swearing whilst at the same time being translateable and non-offensive.

I'm in the same boat here.

No need to actual swearing but a note that a character is using bad language gets it across just as well or possibly even better.

 

[Karlin]

Swearing and its acceptability is related to both language and culture, so the way people swear in somewhere like the US will not be same as they way people swear in Sweden.

This reminds me of when I was in basic training many yeas ago. The entire unit, about 40 men, was lined up in threes, and the commander was pissed off about something (or at least pretended to be). So he threw out a curse that is commonly used around here. A curse that is from a foreign language. But one of the soldiers came from there (I think it was Romania), and took the cussing literally, and walked away, which is a huge No No.

The commander was shocked, but he asked waround, and teh next day apologized for using a word that he didn't really understand