Swearing in books

[Theed]

Hello, first post here at the forums, though I am a long time reader.

I was curious to know people's position on swearing in books. Personally, I think it's acceptable and I don't mind it at all, if it seems real. I don't like it when those words are used just to use them, it doesn't seem natural. But, in my opinion, if the character would say it, then I don't have a problem with it at all.

I have swearing in the novel that I'm writing. It's there for one reason: because the characters themselves would say it. And it's not in abundance, either. But it is there.


Your thoughts?

 

[The Ace]

The fact is that people swear under stress, you're never going to change that. Swearing in spoken dialogue is quite normal, if the situation demands it, it may not be big, it may not be clever but it can be funny and it's certainly accurate.

Gratuitous swearing for mere shock value seldom offends these days but it does make the writer look stupid and the reader feel patronised.

 

[j d worthington]

Simply -- use it as you would anything else: as it fits the story, characters, milieu, and style. If you're writing something with a Victorian or Edwardian "feel" to it, you'd severely limit it. If you're writing something where you're trying to be naturalistic with your characters in a mediaeval, Renaissance, or Restoration setting... there'd probably be a considerable amount of vulgarity. Something set in modern times -- definitely... especially if your characters are largely in the younger set, not so much so (perhaps) if they're older, more highly educated and have a wider vocabulary, etc.

But essentially... there's nothing inherently wrong with use of any words in fiction, as long as the words fit; and if they don't -- even the most parlor-room polite words shouldn't be there in the first place....

 

[that old guy]

Something set in modern times -- definitely... especially if your characters are largely in the younger set, not so much so (perhaps) if they're older, more highly educated and have a wider vocabulary, etc.

Not just the younger set...I know that at least one novelist, I think Norman Mailer, writing about World War II was reduced to using "fug" to get published. He felt it was such an integral part of a soldier's vocabulary that he had to get it in there somehow.

 

[Erin99]

As strange as this is gonna sound coming from a mid-twenties person, I don't swear and never have. I'm not actually sure why (maybe I'm loopy), but I just don't. I've nowt (sorry, I think that's my Yorkshire coming through. Lol!) against others swearing -- it's part of everyday life -- and in my books a couple of my characters swear. I think, as others have said, it's a matter of what personality your character has. You wouldn't, for example, write a foul-mouthed yet naively innocent sacrificial virgin (Hmmm... actually....). So I think it depends on what context it's in. I say don't worry about it. If swearing feels natural to your character/s then go with it; the characters always show you whom they are at heart, regardless of how you plan them.

 

[Joel007]

Consider your target audience...

 

[Allegra]

If swearing can bring out the character then let him or her swear. In The Lies of Locke Lamora, the setting is something like Venice in medieval time. The Gentlemen Bastards (and practically everyone) swear like the hollywood bad guys but somehow it doesn't sound so ludicrous may be because of the comic style. However if overloaded with swearing words it can be a real eyesore.

 

[Pyan]

Crom! What's wrong with a little bad language, by Krono's emerald-filled gizzard!?

I think that, unless you're writing for an exclusively adult audience, it's better to avoid the strong four-letter words - but the advantage of this genre is, of course, that you can make your own swear-words up, and readers can mentally imbue them with whatever strength they like.

Am I frelling right? I pleebing am!!

 

[Theed]

Consider your target audience...

Indeed, I think that you can take that into consideration. I guess it depends, though. Personally, my writing isn't aimed at any specific age group, but it ended up swaying more towards adult.

I echo those thoughts that if the character would say it, then he says it. It looks like junk if it's thrown in there purely for shock value, or just thrown in just because. But, like J.D said, any word will look like junk if it's not used right.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

You don't want to bore your readers, even when boredom would be realistic, and there comes a time when repetition of the same expletive simply becomes tedious.

In my own case, as a reader, I find that characters who swear a lot just to show that they're tough and cool make my eyes glaze over before very long. Do I really want to read the same reference to maternal fornication fourteen times on the same page? I think not. (Not unless I'm twelve years old and I find the word itself, regardless of its context, hilariously funny.)

Not to mention the fact that once a moment of genuinely high emotion comes along it's not going to have much dramatic impact if the character simply repeats the same word he or she has been saying, in every sort of situation, for the last hundred pages. If, "oh, f---k" means "well, ok," and "I forgot to set my VCR," how can it also mean "this is the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life"?

My advice would be to use it sparingly, so that each time you do use it, it has the desired impact ... whatever that impact might be.

 

[Anthony G Williams]

I use to swear a lot as a youngster (but not around adults, of course ) but it was unacceptable in all of my work environments so I grew out of it.

I haven't used swearing in any of my fiction so far, because it hasn't been much called for - and when it has, I have just said "...he swore viciously", which is just as effective in conveying the sentiment, IMO.

 

[Pantheon]

i would say, like others who have posted, swearing is completely normal in todays slang-ridden world. Be careful of over swearing unless your main character has tourettes. Make sure if you have a character that swears a lot, that they are placed in the right moments. Stress, Pain, Anger, Sadness, Tiredness and for the use in various songs, e.g Rap XD. Just remember to put them in the right place or the reader will just think you're swearing for the sake of swearing. Also you can't swear if your book is for children, but i'm sure you already knew that.

In my personal opinion swearing should be infrequent enough so the reader knows it is to accentuate an emotion or scene within a book, and should not be used in every paragraph. Setting swearing periods within your novel can help with build-ups to resolutions, to help the story flow in a wave like pattern, i.e the small series of cause and effect sidestories that everyone has in a book.

Hope this helped

 

[Culhwch]

Crom! What's wrong with a little bad language, by Krono's emerald-filled gizzard!?

I think that, unless you're writing for an exclusively adult audience, it's better to avoid the strong four-letter words - but the advantage of this genre is, of course, that you can make your own swear-words up, and readers can mentally imbue them with whatever strength they like.

Am I frelling right? I pleebing am!!

But that can quickly become laughable, which may or may not be helpful. Not that I'm saying yours are laughable, Py...

 

[Green]

I'd agree with that. Made up swear words sometimes work, but often they're best left to the realms of YA and the like. I'd prefer no swear words to made-up ones (which is not to say I don't like made-up phrases. Steven Erikson's "Hood's balls" and "Fener's teat" being examples that spring to mind).

 

[Lith]

I was always under the impression that to properly swear in books you had to have them put their hand on a Bible and repeat the magic words....

But then, books don't have hands, do they? Oh, dear.


I really feel that in most books, and certainly most fantasy books, cussing should be kept to a minimum. It just feels so wrong in a fantasy setting (especially the substitute swearword variety)- it breaks the spell or something. It's basically slang, which should also be kept out of books. Kids these days say "like" as much as the F-word, but you don't see anyone worrying about the artistic value like adds to the author's work, do you?

 

[Moraven]

depends on two things: your characters, and the image (of yourself) that you want to project. If the characters would swear (and i write a lot of military scifi and military fantasy, so the oppurtunities come up frequently) then they should. However, I do try to limit it. This is so that if people like, say, my little brother want to read my work, i can let them. I don't cut it all, becuase that wouldn't be true to real life, but i don't swear constatnly or very harshly so as not to get that image as a write.

 

[Theed]

I was always under the impression that to properly swear in books you had to have them put their hand on a Bible and repeat the magic words....

But then, books don't have hands, do they? Oh, dear.


I really feel that in most books, and certainly most fantasy books, cussing should be kept to a minimum. It just feels so wrong in a fantasy setting (especially the substitute swearword variety)- it breaks the spell or something. It's basically slang, which should also be kept out of books. Kids these days say "like" as much as the F-word, but you don't see anyone worrying about the artistic value like adds to the author's work, do you?

The word cussing and swearing are interchangable.


Swearing

1. To make a solemn declaration, invoking a deity or a sacred person or thing, in confirmation of and witness to the honesty or truth of such a declaration.
2. To make a solemn promise; vow.
3. To use profane oaths; curse.
4. Law To give evidence or testimony under oath.

Keeping like out of dialogue is the same as keeping the umm, uhh, and what not out. You don't write dialogue exactly as you would speak, otherwise it'd be stiff and uninteresting. Not only that, but swearing has been around for a very long time, and has been a part of language people speak much moreso than putting 'like' in between every three words. Not only would I be trying to bring out realism from the era that I'm writing in, but I'd also want to bring out the character's personality. Not everyone went around in the year 1100 with a perfectly clean mouth, and while I do not intend to replicate that exactly, I do believe it gives more of the feel of that day in age. Again, it depends on what you write and what you're aiming for.

 

[j d worthington]

You don't want to bore your readers, even when boredom would be realistic, and there comes a time when repetition of the same expletive simply becomes tedious.

In my own case, as a reader, I find that characters who swear a lot just to show that they're tough and cool make my eyes glaze over before very long. Do I really want to read the same reference to maternal fornication fourteen times on the same page? I think not. (Not unless I'm twelve years old and I find the word itself, regardless of its context, hilariously funny.)

Not to mention the fact that once a moment of genuinely high emotion comes along it's not going to have much dramatic impact if the character simply repeats the same word he or she has been saying, in every sort of situation, for the last hundred pages. If, "oh, f---k" means "well, ok," and "I forgot to set my VCR," how can it also mean "this is the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life"?

My advice would be to use it sparingly, so that each time you do use it, it has the desired impact ... whatever that impact might be.

Thanks, Teresa; that makes a point I should have included but failed to. Anything when done repetitively can become boring, so be careful of that as well. This is something that was a problem with much of older sf -- especially those stories which were serialized -- a sort of internal recap or rehash of things that had gone before. Those that were written as synopses could be excised, but there were quite a few stories where it was done as part of the actual story, and so when published together, it became redundant and put a bad cramp in the flow as well.

Even China Mieville did a bit of overuse of profanity in one or two places, where the words simply became a bit annoying ... wasted verbiage. So, while there's nothing wrong with using any words, you want them all to count and have the full impact intended for that work, and should therefore keep that in mind.

Keeping like out of dialogue is the same as keeping the umm, uhh, and what not out. You don't write dialogue exactly as you would speak, otherwise it'd be stiff and uninteresting.

Not so much stiff, as disorganized, rambling. The way most people speak wanders all over the map, really, and when read on a page, it can be very confusing, rather than stiff or formal.

 

[Theed]

Stiff probably wasn't the right word, but yes, it makes for, in my opinion, a very uninteresting dialogue. Like you said, it would just ramble on and on.

 

[j d worthington]

... it would just ramble on and on.

Uh-oh.... having a Python moment here.....