profanity in writing

[sashamerideth]

I am not the kind of person that swears a lot publicly, but I know people that do. I have read some stuff on other forums with so much profanity that I couldn't see the story, and said so.

I have heard it said that we should use profanity rarely when writing, even when writing foul mouthed characters, so readers know their character without getting bogged down by the swearing.

How do you approach it? I know my characters swear less than I do, and only with extreme emotions.

 

[Map the Dragon]

If you have a character who you think might be a bit more profane than others, invent profanity.

Keep in mind that much of what we consider to be foul language has some basis in religion or has some sort of other cultural context based in the real world.

So, invent your own words. I've seen a lot of the fantasy greats do this to great effect.

 

[TWErvin2]

It depends on your preference and intended audience.

As Map the Dragon said, in a fantasy world you can invent profanity.

You can indicate profanity used without actually having the words uttered.

I think you'll find that if you do use profanity, less is more effective.

I avoid the use of profanity, but that's just me.

 

[Jenna St. Hilaire]

My own aphorism: An occasional use of profanity may grab attention, but curse-littered speech feels like a verbal fistfight. Which is much like what TWErvin2 just said.

In my own high fantasy, I've thus far managed to get around the creation of profanity entirely by narrative distance: "He muttered an expletive..." or "A curse word broke the silence..." Due to the comparative innocence of the main character's voice, this has seemed to work. Not sure that technique will hold up indefinitely, though.

 

[sashamerideth]

I already have a few race related epithets that I use, and can avoid most traditional swearing, might just keep a few so they are shocking when used.

 

[Map the Dragon]

Although a word of christian-biblical ties, "Damn" was the only 'cuss' word that made it into my novel...I think. I'm pretty sure my publisher and editor would have questioned it otherwise, but who knows. We did have that discussion, but it was brief. Otherwise, I stuck with inventions that would be specific to my world or cultures therein.

 

[BeigePalladin]

if people swear, I have them swear. I'm still carefull, however, to make sure what they're saying is still clear, so I do avoid whole rants of nothing but swearing, as rants on general aren't all to good to read

also, it looses the full 'fist-fight effect if you vary the words you use

 

[CicadaGrrl]

Me, I swear a lot. I hang with people who swear a lot. It's often quite affectionate. Some of my characters, similarly, swear a lot. This is no prob in high fantasy as it is easy to create swear words that link directly to the cultures. However, I do more urban. Until I hit my final draft there, I let them swear as much as feels natural for them. Last pass, I tone down, but keep it. He tossed off, f*** you becomes he tossed off sc*** you. Often, I have my characters break off. "Son of a--" or "Mother--"

I do not use "he cursed under his breath." and the type. It lacks specificity. I hate to be anything but specific.

 

[Map the Dragon]

If you're writing urban-fiction or anything where you include people from the Earth (modern Earth), then I think you have to maintain reliable and accurate realism.

 

[Dante Sawyer]

I agree with much of what Map and TWErvin2 said. Coming up with your own form of cursing, and using it sparingly when you do are, at least to me, good ideas. I, however, do find that cursing can add passion to your writing.

I doubt many of you listen to Eminem, so bear with me. Although I find most rap hard to stomach, I do enjoy Eminem. Now I listen to the explicit, unedited version of his songs and, if you do not know, he swears quite a bit. Some may be offended by that, and I understand that. Still if you ever hear one of his “clean” songs, I personally feel that you lose his voice. The song loses its touch and its passion.

Now do I condone the amount of profanity he uses? No, not necessarily. But my point is people shouldn’t avoid profanity just because it’s profanity. If it adds to the passage then I feel it should be used without a second thought. Don’t just curse for the sake of cursing, but don’t not curse just for the sake of avoiding it.

 

[Ravana]

There is an earlier thread on the same topic; you might dig it up for some additional responses.

 

[Chinaren]

I think it depends upon your characters, setting and style myself. In some of my writings there's all but no swearing whilst others have it all over the place.

 

[CicadaGrrl]

I like Eminem. He is an amazing artist and I have to give him mad props and listen to him even though I don't agree with a lot of what he says. Not the swearing. The homophobic and misogynistic tendancies.

 

[sashamerideth]

Cicada, I can't bear to listen to him, not my type of music and both his homophobia and misogynist expressions get me, as I am a target of both.

I am using now some mild real-world swearing, and inventing new racial slurs and curses based on my world. It's taking time and I don't want to sound silly.

 

[Dante Sawyer]

Cicada,
I agree with what you're saying about homophobic and misogynistic lyrics and such. I'm not someone who believes in that stuff either, but I appreciate that you can get past that and still enjoy the music.

sashamerideth,
When I brought up Eminem earlier in this thread, I didn't mean it support the things he sings about. I only meant it to say that it's his style and his voice to swear. My point being, don't not swear if that's how you naturally write. People will be able to tell you're holding back, and, at least for me, that detracts from the overall work.

 

[legacyblade]

I agree with the general consensus here, make your character say what your character would say. Not everyone swears a lot, but not everyone is like me having only sworn about a grand total of 5-9 times in their life (and I'm 20). It depends on the character's personality and upbringing.

However, if you (or your target audience) would be uncomfortable with swearing, you can just have "he cursed", "he swore", etc. I wrote a YA Urban Fantasy story where one of the characters swore rather often. I usually used this, though in the most emotionally intense part of the book, I actually wrote out his swearing (something along the lines of "Shut your da** mouth, you bast***"). My alpha readers were all shocked that I actually wrote swearing in my book (again, I don't swear), but they agreed it really strengthened the scene to do it that way. "saving up" your swear words let's you emphasize them so much more when they're used.

Though if you're in a fantasy world, just don't use real swear words (except maybe bast*** and/or bi**h, as I think illegitimate children and dogs would be frowned upon in most cultures). It doesn't make any sense. When I'm reading a story set in another world and someone says "christ", it takes me out of the story and I start wondering how the heck they have the exact same religious based curse in a world without Christianity.

Though tons of swearing, real or made up, distracts from the work. Even if it is realistic for some characters to swear their mouth off all the time, it bothers a lot of people and is ultimately unnecessary. People say "um" and "uh" every couple words in real life, but we don't need to write these into our dialog. Make sense?