Swearing in Fiction

[Cathbad]

Personally, I don't swear all that much. I do try to use swear words as they are used 'naturally' when I write.


(Nap time - just had to edit 5 errors in that last sentence!!)

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Personally, I don't swear all that much. I do try to use swear words as they are used 'naturally' when I write.


(Nap time - just had to edit 5 errors in that last sentence!!)

This is natural usage. In Belfast.

 

[Mouse]

I swear a lot in real life but it's conversational swearing (mostly) and I don't realise I'm doing it half the time. My fiance (and work mates at where I used to work!) pointed it out to me - I have noticed that since being with me, he now swears a hell of a lot more.

As for in fiction, I have a very sweary (but he does inventive swears) character in Otherworld (was published by Torquere) but I did edit a fair few c-words out of it as I was a bit concerned about what reviews might say. I had a character in my current WIP swearing but I edited it all out because it didn't actually suit her character.

If a character is a sweary kinda character then let them swear. If they're not, don't write them. Simple.

 

[tinkerdan]

This seems to be very common:

I swear a lot in real life but it's conversational swearing (mostly) and I don't realise I'm doing it half the time. My fiance (and work mates at where I used to work!) pointed it out to me - I have noticed that since being with me, he now swears a hell of a lot more.

:: While dating and in the first years of marriage I don't recall my wife swearing at all.
Now she's worse than that proverbial drunken sailor[at certain times]. (She reads a lot of romance novels across a wide spread of age and maturity levels, so I think it may have been that my influence was mostly helpful in loosing up her restraint.)

There are occasions where my characters do swear. Sadly I have to admit I use myself as the model for when things get bad enough for the sh*te to hit the fan.

I recall one of my favorite authors books began with the line:
'Fuckity f*ck f*ck f*ck.'

Sadly, a recent update of that book has it changed to.
WTF

 

[HU_Nathan7]

I had a English professor put it well they swearing can be a lazy way of communication instead of pushing your vocabulary to communicate that same feeling without swear words.

That being said I swear ALL the time

 

[tinkerdan]

Although I fundamentally agree with this--I have to qualify that that is when it occurs a lot and seems like almost every page.

I had a English professor put it well they swearing can be a lazy way of communication instead of pushing your vocabulary to communicate that same feeling without swear words.

:Strategic words once or twice in the novel take a lot of thought and reflection and self doubt and examination and hard sweat from the author before they come close to deciding it is the right choice. And sometimes they decide it wasn't and put something lazy in there to replace it.
Not a lazy way out for some of us.

 

[Cathbad]

In a review (just done) of my current Halloween piece, 12,000 words in and not a single cuss word!

But like said, I try to make it natural, and considering these characters, I don't think cussing would be expected of them.

However, we'll see how they react to a real dose of fear, soon...

 

[-K2-]

In a review (just done) of my current Halloween piece, 12,000 words in and not a single cuss word!
But like said, I try to make it natural, and considering these characters, I don't think cussing would be expected of them.
However, we'll see how they react to a real dose of fear, soon...

Well, if it's about these folks, I hope you used 'blockhead' once or twice

Naturally, Peppermint Patty will need a few non-standard characters (#@&^%(##@*), but she's a modern gal

K2

 

[Alex The G and T]

Obviously, if every sentence has a "swear"; it's lazy.

I possess a daily, working vocabulary which is far above average. In my daily speech, or online postings, I choose my words carefully to express the most meaning and nuance needed to express what I'm trying to say.

I regard "swears" as just another tool in the box. The english language has a wealth of adjectives and adverbs with which to emphasize a point; but sometimes an oath is the most perfect word for the occasion.

The whole concept of arbitrarily banning certain words is repugnant to me.

I resent that certain words are reflexively removed from a well rounded vocabulary.

I resent when an audience uses false umbrage at said usage to feign horror; as a tool to disregard, and derail the rest of the message. (Notably, my ex wife, who never used to care about an occasional oath.)

I view the random labeling of certain words as "naughty" as an absurd practice; arbitrary and ridiculous. Dammit.

 

[Cathbad]

If I were to write an honest depiction of a day in my life as a teenager, it would be FILLED with swear words!

I had one friend who only used the f-word as an adjective - yeah, no other adjectives existed for him. Another used the s-word about each tenth word. My dad's favorite phrase was G-D, and my oldest sister swore like a marine (not the Gomer Pyle variety, but a real Marine). Me and my other sister didn't swear much - it was just everyone else around us.

Even my mom used the s-word far too often, and most my other friends swore about average for teens. I heard teachers swear, and coaches, of course, did it a lot.

I think my teen years would have been rated 'R' just for the time I spent in school!

 

[The Bluestocking]

If I were to write an honest depiction of a day in my life as a teenager, it would be FILLED with swear words!

I had one friend who only used the f-word as an adjective - yeah, no other adjectives existed for him. Another used the s-word about each tenth word. My dad's favorite phrase was G-D, and my oldest sister swore like a marine (not the Gomer Pyle variety, but a real Marine). Me and my other sister didn't swear much - it was just everyone else around us.

Even my mom used the s-word far too often, and most my other friends swore about average for teens. I heard teachers swear, and coaches, of course, did it a lot.

I think my teen years would have been rated 'R' just for the time I spent in school!

My family was the polar opposite. My sister got her mouth washed out with soap by my rather prim mother when she was caught saying the F word.

Nobody swore in the house while we were growing up. Even my dad modified "bloody *******" to "stupid basket" when swearing at drivers that sideswiped him while he was driving us kids around.

I had to get to university and out of my parents' earshot before I could swear properly. My mother - who believes that women and girls should never swear "because it's not lady-like" - finally had to bow to the inevitable once we were of age and no longer hers to order around.

Even then, she was more tolerant of my brother chucking the F-bomb around than her daughters. I had to give her a rude wake-up call about the sexist double standards she holds for her kids according to gender.

 

[LukeLee]

I knew someone who was very much like @Extollager and indeed, those posts could be written by him. I have heard many arguments trying to extol not swearing and generally I see them as confirmation bias or ad hominem. Saying that swearing is lazy or shows a lack of vocabulary is a pathetic argument and blatantly inaccurate. I swear more than most but I use it in my writing when it is part of the natural language. Some books have no swearing, some have a great deal. Trying to force a personal opinion because of a religious belief or prudishness to browbeat other writers into the same view is churlish to me.
Write whatever language you’re comfortable with and comes naturally to your character. Anything else and you are not being true to yourself or your character.

 

[Lew Rockwell Fan]

Yeah well your a dribbling harlequin I say(Wouldn't that be a Harlem Globetrotter?).

Tsk, tsk. That's "you're." Because if I can't be a grammar Nazi in a forum of readers and writers, where can I be? Besides, the admins won't let me cuss. Bunch of contumacious kitties.

 

[Vince W]

Tsk, tsk. That's "you're." Because if I can't be a grammar Nazi in a forum of readers and writers, where can I be? Besides, the admins won't let me cuss. Bunch of contumacious kitties.

View attachment 56023

 

[tinkerdan]

Yes and thank you your er you're a champ

Tsk, tsk. That's "you're." Because if I can't be a grammar Nazi in a forum of readers and writers, where can I be? Besides, the admins won't let me cuss. Bunch of contumacious kitties.

Bit late to the party though, I prefer to get these corrections in the first 30 min so I can fix it...not much use so late in the day.
Writers in the forum; They're their own enemies in there.

 

[Max Egorov]

Oddly enough I’ve managed to avoid any major swearing beyond ‘sh*t’ in my work. Somehow despite writing stuff that’s occasionally graphically violent and on more than a few occasions sexually explicit (but never at the same time) I find swearing unnecessary. I don’t have anything against I just seem to find ways to avoid it.

 

[Cathbad]

Oddly enough I’ve managed to avoid any major swearing beyond ‘sh*t’ in my work. Somehow despite writing stuff that’s occasionally graphically violent and on more than a few occasions sexually explicit (but never at the same time) I find swearing unnecessary. I don’t have anything against I just seem to find ways to avoid it.

I neither go out of my way to avoid cuss words, nor to add them in. I'd say there is a small amount of cussing in my writings. Perhaps, unconsciously, that reflects my own usage.