How Do You Feel About Writing Curse Words In Your Fiction?

This issue has been addressed a number of times now.
Almost too many.
I think that in dialogue, It fits where it fits. But you might want to take a closer look at your character if every bit of dialogue has to have curse words. Maybe take them aside and feed them a bar of soap.

It's like this for me.
I went to one Eddie Murphy movie that started out with almost every character using curse words.
After about ten minutes of that I walked out--took my losses and went to the video store and bought something that would clean and rinse that from my head.

But that's just me.
 
tinkerdan said:
This issue has been addressed a number of times now.
Almost too many.
I think that in dialogue, It fits where it fits. But you might want to take a closer look at your character if every bit of dialogue has to have curse words. Maybe take them aside and feed them a bar of soap.

It's like this for me.
I went to one Eddie Murphy movie that started out with almost every character using curse words.
After about ten minutes of that I walked out--took my losses and went to the video store and bought something that would clean and rinse that from my head.

But that's just me.
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I did something similar, went to a Billy Connolly live show, and while not as expletive ridden as Eddie Murphy, he vocabulary was rife with them. And yet, I didn't notice any. They are just how he speaks, it's part of him and nowhere does he use them in a truly offensive manner... well not on stage anyway. For 2.5 hours I was captivated by his tales and laughed so hard my throat was raw and my face ached for days after.
“You’ll also notice that there’s an awful lot of swearing in the pages that follow. I don’t apologise for that. It’s not ‘bad language’, it’s ordinary language. I don’t understand the snobbishness about swearing. I grew up swearing. Everybody around me swore. It’s part of our culture. It can be poetic, it can be violent, and it can be very funny. It’s the rhythm of how we speak, and the colour of how we communicate – at least when we’re being honest and open and raw. So, if you’re likely to be offended by the swearing, you may as well f*ck off now.”
― Billy Connolly, Tall Tales and Wee Stories
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While I agree it has no place in child or youngish adult books (although again, by the time I was 13 I knew all the swear words I still use now in my 50s). In adult fiction, I don't have a problem with it. It is how many folk speak.

I don't have a filthy mouth, just that sometimes, in certain circumstances, they are just perfect.

That's not to say writers should fall head over their heels with adding every expletive they can find or make up. As others say, it all depends on the situation. Stick someone in a dangerous, life threatening situation and I'm certain they wouldn't come out with "Oh dear!". Stick someone down for a nice dinner and they wouldn't come out with "Pass the f@#king salt... please!".

paranoid marvin said:
I like Shakespearen curses such as fie! or hedgehog!
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I used a bit of Shakespeare in a 300 earlier on in the year. Checked the Mods first, of course.
 
May I recommend people to search out the 10 minute edit (included on DVDs) of the film In Bruges which has all the dialogue APART from the swearing cut out. 10 minutes of non stop: "f+ck c+nting w+nk p+ss f+cker w+nk f+ck you, sh+t f+ck sh+t f+ck you f+cking sh*t f+ck m+therf+cker"

It is insanely funny.
 
paranoid marvin said:
If memory serves Cornwell's 'Sharpe' series and CS Forester's 'Hornblower' series featured little swearing (Harper's usual phrase was "God save Ireland"). I'm pretty sure that during the Napoleonic wars, both soldiers' and sailors' language would have been highly colourful.
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What I like about O'Brian is that the swearing is class-appropriate. Most dialog is either between Aubrey and Maturin or in their presence, so there's not much vulgarity. But when there are common sailors, some explicit stuff slips through. It feels exactly right.

This is in contrast with much fantasy fiction that basically uses modern diction regardless of era, culture, or social standing. I'm not offended by the swearing, but I think less of the story.
 
JunkMonkey said:
May I recommend people to search out the 10 minute edit (included on DVDs) of the film In Bruges which has all the dialogue APART from the swearing cut out. 10 minutes of non stop: "f+ck c+nting w+nk p+ss f+cker w+nk f+ck you, sh+t f+ck sh+t f+ck you f+cking sh*t f+ck m+therf+cker"

It is insanely funny.
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I love that movie. Despite the swearing, despite the profession of the main characters, that movie has real heart.
 
Absolutely fine. Each story gets what's appropriate for it. As Stephen King and apparently Alfred Bester said, "The book is the boss".
 
No problem at all with swearing in fiction or in real life. It's most effective when it's used sparingly, though. If used in front of every noun whether it applies or not, it has no meaning and just becomes jarring. I've seen (heard!) this happen both from fictional and real characters.

Curiously, in a reverse effect, I still use the word Frak quite often in place of its Anglo-Saxon equivalent.
I picked it up from the original BSG, and also from a fairly primitive computer game about a caveman, who's name was Frak, which came out about the same time. (I had both that game, and a very slightly more sophisticated game called Cylon Attack on a BBC B computer at the time.)
 
Hi,

And does no one consider the author in this discussion? Because I just wrote a detective and had a female MC and man did she swear! And wow did I love writing her losing control of her potty mouth!!!

Cheers, Greg.
 
Haha, I'm a teacher, I think I've become anaesthetised to hearing swearing. :D

Funnily enough I was just pondering a similar thought. In my current book, the action is set in present day with an 11k story set in 1178, too. The MCs in the present day drink and smoke Mary J so there is a lot of cussing from one of them, whereas the other one blasphemes instead. In the 1178 there is no swearing apart from "sh*t and God's bones/teeth" kind of thing.

But that's for a story set in Britain.

Fantasy and SF are different. Tanj it!

I don't mind made up words like frak, frell, karabast or dank farrik. I did frown at the use of sh*t in Andor - it seemed too earthbound, and there's precedence for other swears in the SW universe (dank farrick and karabast).

If it's authentic to your characters and will not alienate your pitched audience, then it's just another tool of the trade.
 
Phyrebrat said:
I don't mind made up words like frak, frell, karabast or dank farrik. I did frown at the use of sh*t in Andor - it seemed too earthbound, and there's precedence for other swears in the SW universe (dank farrick and karabast).
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Nerf herder.
 
Only in dialogue or inner monologs. (I write first person.) I find that it makes a character feel like it may be a real person. Others don't swear so I like to vary it up a bit.
 
Isaac Azimov pulled it off well by using exclamations like "By Space"

The Battlestar Galactica reboot (2004-2009) made up "Frak" for ready use.
That become popular in the oil industry with executives announcing plans to "go Frak Ohio" among other places -- and everyone knew what they meant.
 
I'd rather avoid using strong curse words. Use some in the right moments and they can bring up the momentum, but use them frequently and they get old very soon. And too many people use it as a lazy way to differentiate male voice vs female voice.
 
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