Young Writers Society

I'm 15 years old, and I'm planning my first ever attempt at writing a novel. It will be a realistic fiction about crime / heists, so it will be kind of gritty. I feel like in the dialogue between characters, swearing would feel natural (for my style of dialogue, think the opening scene of Reservoir Dogs). However, I also think it might not be a good choice to include it. My parents might read it, teachers might read it, etc. What would they think of my characters dropping f-bombs every other sentence? I can't think of any other way to do the dialogue, though: swearing just feels like it would be natural for my characters, and whenever I imagine a way to omit it, it feels kind of forced and awkward, like I'm trying too hard not to swear. For example, when a career criminal is in a majorly heated argument with someone during a heist, then hears sirens coming, they aren't going to say "Oh my gosh!" Or "Oh dang man!". I'm just not sure what to do about it... Do you think my parents / teachers would be bothered by it if they read it? I've never been allowed to swear at home, ever.

You know your parents/teachers best. You might want to bring it up to them- "mom, dad, if I'm writing a book about criminals, do you think it's appropriate for me to have swearing in it?" Doesn't hurt to ask, right?

One thing you can do regardless of that is simply say "he cussed/she swore" you don't have to tell us what that swear word is, which I think is pretty cool. And even if you just put "he swore" in, then if you want to change it later, when you're older and your parents don't care about that as much, you can easily add swearing when you edit! ^_^

If it makes you feel better, remember it's not you that's swearing, it's the character. Authentic dialogue is really important and if you think a character needs to occasionally swear, then I think the character should probably swear. As long as you're not swearing for the sake of swearing or swearing to try to make the book seem more edgy or cool or something, I think you're fine (and based on what you said, I don't think that's the case for you). The swearing should be there because that's how the character expresses him or herself. If you feel weird about actually including the swears in there, I like Holy's idea about saying "he cursed" or "he swore" or something like that. The reader will get the same idea without the (maybe shocking) swear word.

In terms of how your readers will react. That's always a bit tricky. I tend to swear in my novels and when I invite people to read my work, if I think the swearing will make them uncomfortable or something I just warn them that it's there. I feel like most teachers (I guess it would depend on what type of school you go to) would be used to swearing, especially English teachers. I think if your parents or teachers were going to read it and you included the swears, I would consider giving them a heads up first. Then if they are turned off by it in some way, maybe try explaining that this is the character, not you and this is the way you felt you needed to tell the story to make it authentic. It's always important to keep your audience in mind, but I think at the end of the day you need to do what you need to do to tell the story you're trying to tell.

Good luck!