Young Writers Society

Lately I've read a lot of stories written by teens where they have swears in the narrative often. What do you guys think of this?

I don't mind swearing in stories, but I think it should be limited to dialogue. Also, only certain characters should swear. A lot of the stories I've read lately just throw in random swears with characters who don't normally do so.

(By the way, I haven't seen this on this site. Just some others.)

So, do you guys see this often? I don't swear in real life (I'll get in the habbit and accidently do it in front of a little kid I work with,) so I nearly never do in my writing. Do the other teens on here put in a lot of swears? Do you mind reading things where the characters swear constantly? Do you ever see it in the narrative? Do you see adults do this?

I think teens swear too much in real life, also, but that's a whole different topic.

~JFW1415

(Please don't kill me if this is in the wrong spot...)

Moved to Fiction Discussion.

I personally never, ever swear--or at least, I make a conscious effort not to. But in a lot of my first person things, you'll see that a choice few of my characters are foulmouths. When you're kind of in "their" mode, it gets a lot easier to let things slip through.

It only really bugs me when it's used in third person. In first, you can swear all you want, as long as it doesn't get to the point of feeling false.

I personally refuse to have swearing in anything but dialogue, or first person I guess . It shows character, but it shouldn't show literature/grammar. When used in narration (i.e. third person), it shows the author can't find the right word to use and inserts a foul, insulting word. Yes, I use insulting, because I, personally, don't understand why swearing has to be an option. The author doesn't have to swear to get the point across. I can fully understand if the author uses a normal word.

Otherwise, swearing shows character. When in dialogue, it shows if the character cares about what they say or if they don't care, as long as they get the point across, or if they're really open. I know a nice character with a kind personally would not swear because they wouldn't want others to swear at them. But a gangster, idiotic character would, not caring what they say but getting their point across.

Swearing in third person is fine. In fact, if your POV character swears, I encourage you to do it. It helps to give the narration the voice of the POV character in a way few other techniques can.

DON'T SAY BAD WORDS, CHILDREN.

Ahem!

In literature, however, I think there's a place for it. And that's internal or external dialogue. Otherwise, it really shouldn't be used, especially in third person. Most stories are written in third person omniscient, and if the omniscient voice is cursing, it now has it's own character. Omniscient Man should not curse.

Also, writers who want things published (or intend on letting your parents read) should consider their audience. Please don't have your characters effing this and that if it's going to be a children's book.

One last thing: I've found that cursing can be overused, misused, and sometimes destroy the mood or tone. So be careful.

Free indrect speech says swearing in third person = okay.

I honestly don't understand everyone's opposition to it. When writing in third person, the narrator often takes on the voice of the POV character.

Eg. When writing from the antagonist's POV, you may include in the narration annoyance that the protagonist keep on thwarting the antagonist's plans. (Crawford rubbed his eyes. That insolent swine of a boy had repeatidly meddled, and repeatidly got in the way of progress. Something would have to be done about him.) Naturally, this isn't the opinion of the narrator, but of the character.

Swearing works in the same way. The narrator partially takes on the voice of character.

Sureal, I see your point. Free indirect is a good way of meshing the two. But including swears? I think this can be done, but only in a few exceptional cases. Otherwise it might just come off as author inexperienc or look comically out of place. Maybe that's just me, though. I mean, sure, the example above is good, but

Crawford rubbed his eyes. That insolent swine of a boy kept meddling. He just wouldn't stay out of the f***ing way. Something had to be done.

Just doesn't work for me. I guess it depends heavily on tone.

Well, as with all words in writing, swear words have to be correctly used, not just thrown randomly in for the heck of it.

I tend to never write curse words into my narration, because it usually bothers the heck out of me.

I do curse a bit more in real life than I wish I did; I honestly blame my environment. In fifth grade the school I went to was real... I'm not sure of the word? No on cursed, for one thing, and no one was dating. Only one kid in all of my fifth grade class had a "girlfriend", and his girlfriend was in the other fifth grade class. They were The Couple. I moved to a different school near the end of the year, states away. Everyone cursed, everyone had boyfriends and girlfriends and it was a complete culture shock for me. Cursing was cool, and I picked it up from new friends who probably weren't the best people, but how did I know? The environment was so different from the one I had previously been in. Now, I do it a lot less than I used to, but still more often than I would like to.

Only certain characters of mine actually curse. One in particular, Ludger from Death Machine, would not be the same person if I scrubbed his mouth was a bar of soup. He needs to be fowl, disgusting, and insulting or he isn't himself.

But in narration? You can do it in some places and it works just fine, but somethings really do not work out. I tried reading Paint it Black and what really turned me off from that book was all the curses. They were so free and wild, and needless, and it was over stimulation instead of characterization. If you do curse in narrative, you need to be sure to use it properly and in small enough amounts. Some people might be able to tolerate it in large doses, but it just makes me think the writer is trying too hard to give their characters the bad-boy feeling.

It really depends on the situation. If it doesn't sound right, then I won't swear. If it does sound right, I will. It just depends on what the word choice calls for. ^_^

I don't use swears if its not related to the characters speech or thoughts. Rarely do I get that into a story to make it worthy of putting my own spin onto the aspects of telling. Swearing is something that shows character, but for an author it is one that insults you ability to tell a story and remain outside of your story.

If the character is in a situation that calls for it, then use it, but don't narrate it with swears. It is just really not necessary and seems to be a let down to read it whenever swearing is out of character in a story.

I don't see anything wrong with using swearing in dialouge. I swear, almost al of my friends swear. It's a common and normal thing to do, although it may not be the best thing to do. If your character needs to, why shouldn't they?

I don't mind swearing to an extent.

Acceptable: "Bleep if I know", "Bleepit", and other mild things, as long as they are in dialogue, and done by characters that would normally do so.

I try not to swear too much.. I was always told that if you swear, you're not bright enough to think of another word to say. But I slip up at times. Doesn't everyone?

I wish people wouldn't swear as much though.. it gives me a headache.

I think that swearing in stories is alright to an extent. I don't think they should swear every three sentences for no reason at all.

I do accept swearing as statement being made by a book, for example, a book that is trying to make swearing sound dumb or vulgar.

I don't see anything wrong with swearing, either in dialogue or in the narration. Sometimes it's just necessary for literary effect.

Swearing in third person is fine too; you are generally writing the thoughts and POV of your character so it's no different from first person.

In some things it's appropriate to swear liberally (if that's what your character is like), while in others not at all; you have to make sure it's balanced out and you haven't put in swear words just for the sake of it. That's not a good thing.