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Vulgarity



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Tue Dec 15, 2015 8:33 pm
Angrynoodles says...



In my book certain characters will curse when they are shocked or angry. Should I take that out and replace it with something else? When I try to get it published it will be aimed at young adults so I am not sure if it is okay to have vulgar language. Are certain swears bad and others can be worked with?
  





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Tue Dec 15, 2015 8:49 pm
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Vervain says...



There is no go-to "rule" for swearing in Young Adult fiction but, as it is, I don't think that many people would have a problem with cursing. As long as it's not dropping heavy swears every other sentence, it should be fine; plenty of Young Adult novels use profanity in this way, depending on the characters and their reactions.

Besides, some people have different ideas about what's "good" in literature for them—if they're uncomfortable with swearing, it's not necessarily that it's a Young Adult novel that's swearing that's the problem, it's just that some readers don't like it. And that's just who they are, you know.
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Tue Dec 15, 2015 10:12 pm
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Carlito says...



I read a lot of YA and I see swearing all the time. Some people will be turned off by it, some people won't care. With swearing, I think you need to be mindful of why you're swearing. If you're swearing for the sake of swearing, or you're swearing to try to make your book more edgy or cool or something - that's a problem. If swearing is essential to the plot or your characters, then I'd say go for it as long as it's tasteful (like not to the point where it becomes distracting) and deliberate (like there's a reason they're swearing and you're not just throwing it in there).

In terms of taboo swears - I've seen literary agents say that nothing is truly taboo in literature. If you think something is taboo, chances are an author is going to try it and the world isn't going to collapse. But with language, that doesn't necessarily mean you can go for whatever. I don't think there are any hard/fast rules but I would be careful with any words that could be seen as discriminatory towards any group. If it's absolutely essential to the plot and/or characters I would tred very lightly because you don't want readers to assume that that's okay or that's how you feel. Other than that, I've probably read just about every major curse word in a YA novel :)
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Thu Dec 17, 2015 4:13 pm
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Stori says...



I think some readers may even think less of you if you "bleep out" the profanity. After all, young people live in a chaotic world today. On the other hand, I once read novel (Prophet by Frank Peretti) where any swearing was glossed over, yet because of the subject matter it had no impact on the story at all. On the other hand, Prophet is an adult novel...
  





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Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:40 pm
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Lefty says...



In YA fiction, I don't think there's an issue with swearing. In fact, if swearing is fitting for a specific scene or character and you dull it down simply because you're uncomfortable writing it and fear people might not like it, it will probably come across that way or maybe seem out-of-place/out-of-character if a dulled down version is used.

For instance, it would make sense for a ten-year-old or maybe a shy teenage girl who was raised in a family who doesn't swear to say something like "darn it" or "dang it" in a bad situation, but if you were writing an 18-year-old troublemaker getting caught doing something they weren't supposed to, it would be unlikely for them to use "darn it." Of course, it totally depends on the story, the characters, and the time era as some worlds or eras might not use some of the language used today.

On the flip side, it's not good to throw around language just for the sake of throwing it around. There needs to be a good reason for the character to use it, and be fitting to what is going on.

I've seen a variety of different levels of language in YA. For instance, in The Hunger Games and Legend, I remember very little, if not any language in those despite the fact they are considered YA. On the other end of the spectrum, The 5th Wave trilogy uses a variety of swear words throughout the books, even throwing in the occasional F-word which I had never seen used in YA fiction before. Personally, I think language (especially the F-word) was used a bit too much in The 5th Wave and it came across like the author was trying too hard to sound like a teenager. Shameless Plug: In the YA trilogy I've been working on, I use some language in sticky or annoying situations such as:
Spoiler! :
Hell, damn and damn it. I believe I used "shit" once.
simply because it fits the character and using something like "darn it" or "be quiet" sounds a bit silly to me for that character.

When it comes to publishers, I don't think they mind language much. I don't think I've ever seen a submission guideline that said anything about vulgarity or language. Worst case scenario, I would say if they liked your novel but wished there was less language in it, they wouldn't turn you away for that. They would simply mention that they'd like you to use less in revisions, which I don't think would happen anyway.
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