To Swear or Not to Swear…that is the question.
I think this is really a big thing for (especially) young writer’s. Most parents don’t let their children use swear words at all, so when they finally are able to (in private, with friends, after turning 18…that kind of thing) there often becomes a struggle between a want to use them and a need not to. This especially comes out in writing. Curse words can quickly make or break a piece. This article is from Writer’s Digest by Morgan Hunt and does a good job of explaining how to decide whether or not to use swear words..
Remember the George Carlin bit about seven words you can never say on TV? Well, never say never. Those words–and their second cousins–crop up routinely on cable stations, as well as on the silver screen, on CDs and in modern novels.
I’m not convinced the proliferation of obscenities and profanity in our culture is a plus. As a parent, I cringe at our culture’s tin-ear tolerance for obscenities, but Puritanical censorship isn’t the answer; swearwords express things humans want to say. To me, they’re to writing what rain is to the land: you need them occasionally to make your created world bloom with color. But too much can be dreary or destructive. To navigate between prude and crude in my own writing, I ask myself these three questions when I hit a roadblock:
1. DOES IT WORK FOR THE READER? My mystery series is intended as an intelligent woman’s beach read; my target readers are college-educated female Boomers. Intuition told me this demographic would tolerate occasional swearwords but would shun their constant or intense use. Research confirmed my take on my audience’s tolerance of bleep-ables.
With my readers in mind, I decided my amateur sleuth would swirl azure tints into her verbal palette but would rarely paint the world blue. In Fool on the Hill, I questioned whether to have her quote a particular Humphrey Bogart quip without censoring his use of the f-word. I chose to allow it because it told the reader something specific about her character, which brings me to the next question.
2. DOES IT WORK FOR THE CHARACTER? Are swearwords essential to help the character squirm, grow or revel on paper? Are they not only an acceptable choice, but the best choice for a character and circumstance?
“When rewriting, I do scrutinize a character’s word choices to make sure the language rings true to the situation and evokes the character’s personality and mood,” says bestselling novelist Lolly Winston. “If a character’s swearing a lot, she may seem more harsh or bitter than I’ve intended. For example, I found myself toning down Elinor’s language in Happiness Sold Separately, because I wanted her to be acerbic and funny, not bitter or hostile.”
Writers sometimes kindle scenes of eroticism with swearwords. But books like Mary Gordon’s Spending and Gabriel Garc’a M‡rquez’ Love in the Time of Cholera grill characters to perfection with few obscene flames, even in the most lascivious moments. Inspired by such writers, I allow my protagonist to unleash her libido sans Anglo Saxon bluntness.
The sometimes currish murder suspects in my mysteries present a greater challenge. We live in the real world; those who disrespect human life enough to kill aren’t going to balk at a word rhyming with duck.
Certainly swearwords have been used by some of the greats to portray unsavory characters. In Tom Wolfe’s I Am Charlotte Simmons, there are the f-word conversations of frat boys and campus jocks. Its repetition simulates a dialect, which Wolfe calls “f*** patois.” His use of swearwords is intentional; it lays bare the rebellion and arrogance of the privileged students who choose such coarse idiom.
But moral rot doesn’t compel verbal raunch. Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lecter doesn’t say, “I ate his liver with some f*****g beans.” If Lecter spoke that way, we could perceive him as crude or inarticulate. Though Harris puts verbal venom in the mouths of other characters, the f-word he gives Lecter is “fava.” We’re forced to accept Lecter as a man of education and refinement, making his malignance all the more chilling.
If your readers will accept obscenities and your character could conceivably say them, your last determinant may be one of conscience.
3. DOES IT ABRIDGE MY INTEGRITY? My spiritual beliefs influence my willingness to use swearwords. So does my concept of what it means to use my talent worthily. Some words I simply won’t use. But I’ll use most of the words on Carlin’s notorious list when they fit the character and situation.
Writing requires fine-tuning; paying due attention. A writer knows when words–obscene or otherwise–just plain work. Alan Russell, author of The Fat Innkeeper, which won the Critics’ Choice Award and The Lefty (for humor in a mystery), agrees.
“In that book, when my protagonist encounters a beached whale at the oceanfront hotel where he works, he exclaims, ÔCall me f*****g Ishmael!’ I never second-guessed myself on that because it seemed absolutely right to me.” If it’s appropriate for your reader, and if the character and situation call for it, go ahead and swear.
October 30th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
I agree exactly with the author of the quote. There are certain words that I will neither say nor write under any circumstance. But there are others that I see as just another word. It’s just another expression of something; something that might not be as well said if ’sanitized’. There’s definitely a difference between word choice and vulgarity for the sake of vulgarity.
I remember listening to an author speak when I was younger and one of the questions a fellow student asked was why the author chose to include vulgarity in the characters’ speech. The dialogue, mind you, not the rest of the story. And the author went on to explain that if the character was a Civil War soldier, he was unlikely to shake his fist at someone and yell “You annoying little brat; I’m telling your mother about this!” at an opponent. Rather, he would be more likely to yell “You b——!”
Word choice tells something about the character. Whether or not it’s polite.
October 30th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Didn’t read the whole thing, do be honest. XD I feel lazy right now.
I only curse when it fits the character. For me, it is a form of characterization… It clues in that the character is base, not polite enough to use other words. It also depends when they use them, and how they use them, and it can draw strong distinctions between those who do, and those who don’t.
October 30th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Amelia’s right, it all depends on the setting, especially in modern-day times. If an author decided to place a story in victorian times, or earlier, I highly doubt that profanity would be used, but anywhere after that, would probably have some usage.
However, (and there always seems to be one with these sorts of topics) there is such a thing as over-use. The odd swear word is all right, and even using them most of the time, but when there is a swear word in every sentance that the charactor says, it just isn’t realistic. Even the gangs on the street don’t use profanity to accentuate everything they say.
I’m really interested what people think about the use of swear words in fantasy though. that would be a good discussion line.
October 31st, 2007 at 12:07 am
“but when there is a swear word in every sentance that the charactor says, it just isn’t realistic.”
Actually, I don’t think that’s true at all. I know at least one of my friends at school who does at least once every sentance, and a lot of them who say it nearly all the time.
I usually only do it with certain characters, the ones who aren’t like me. My capacity for swearing is limited to moo.
So, anyone who’s different usually does…
October 31st, 2007 at 7:03 am
I swear and I agree with part of this article, but about what Mat said. In my class someone swears basically all the time when teacher not about, saying f*ck like twice or three times in a sentence good article though.
October 31st, 2007 at 7:33 am
I don’t write swearing because I believe it’s wrong, but there have been situations when a swear word would have done well for the situation.
Good article. Some authors just *roll* in profanity. If you’re writing a war novel, then yes, I get that, but sometimes it seems like they’re just throwing them in to make their book seem big.
October 31st, 2007 at 7:57 am
When I think about it, in my writing I don’t really swear as much as I do in actual life. I know that isn’t a good thing; perhaps I have just dirtied my now social life, but in my writing, I really do try to keep it down to a minimal. I wont use terrible words, like the one that is in my hometown’s name; Scunthorpe, and I obviously wont use racially revolving words; but I will use the odd, less offensive profanity.
There is definately a time and a place for the use of cuss words; and you should always remember that you should stay in character while using them in your work.
November 13th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
This article makes a good point. Swearing- aside from offending parents who might tell their younger children not to read something because there are too many obscenities- eventually detracts from good writing. However, it does have its place.
Profanity can effectively characterize someone. Stephen King does miraculous things with swear words and dirty nick-names in his writing. He can create a character out of a profane expression they might use. A good example of this is Beaver from the sci-fi/horror novel “Dreamcatcher”. Beaver is a goofy, foul-mouthed funny guy and you fully expect it of him when he calls someone a “dunder-f*ck”.
And I agree with Twit, who says that profanity fits in a war novel. If your characters are professional soldiers who face death as a daily occurence, or drug-dealing gang-bangers from the hood, or obnoxious high-school students, then have them swear away. But if your character is an Oxford-dwelling, English professor, then for crap’s sake, don’t have them drop F-bombs every which way.