Sept 13, 2021
How do you feel about the use of profanity, either in your stories or in what you read?
Profanity is such an old-fashioned, polite term. Let’s call it like it is. Swearing. Cussing. Using bad language.
I was probably ten the first time I heard my father swear. Rightfully so. A car ran a stop sign and almost hit our station wagon, with the entire family in it. Even then, only one word slipped out and my mother didn’t even correct him.
That may have been the only time I was shocked by a curse word, and I don’t remember what word he used. I read well above my age level, so soon I was running into improper language in print and it wasn’t a big deal. (Okay, the words might have made me giggle when no one else was around.) By the time I graduated from high school, even the nightly news occasionally let a bad word slip through their filters.
The point is: ages and ages later, when I began writing fiction, I understood that the use of swear words was part of life. Realistic dialogue can create a character better than anything else. If I was creating a twenty-something male in who was a mechanic, or a plumber, or in IT, the use of swear words was important in fashioning the setting and the personality. I wasn’t writing sweet romances so, I made the decision to include curse words. But, in limited numbers, only. I didn’t have a point to prove. No paragraphs filled with long strings of harsh language. And, for the most part, only the milder swear words.
I’ll confess, I broke that mold in The Baron’s Cufflinks, when a character’s continual use of profanities become a plot
point. Some of the harsher words, too. I cringed as I typed them, but they were true to the character, Annabelle LeRoix.
This is where I normally give you a clip of a story as an example. Not this time. Use your imagination. Or go pull the book up your kindle or off your bookshelf. (Is this a good time to mention that The Baron’s Cufflinks ebook is on sale for 99¢ at all retailers?)
For Detective Horace in The Ranger’s Dog Tags, I went a different direction. A detective on the Orlando Police force might be expected to drop a few cuss words here and there, but he’s a church-going man. True to his faith, he doesn’t swear at all in the book.
I’ve lost a few potential sales to people staying true to their beliefs, and I’m okay with that. They’ll ask if my books have adult scenes or bad language, and I’ll answer honestly. If they want to stick with Christian fiction, that’s their choice and I’ll support it. (But I can’t imagine writing it.)
So, all of you who read this blog but never comment, here’s your chance. Talk to me. Tell me how you feel about the use of swear words in the books you read, including mine. While you are thinking about it, I’m going to check out what the other authors in this blog hop think.
As always, until next time, please stay safe.
Sept 13, 2021
How do you feel about the use of profanity, either in your stories or in what you read?
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Yes, like you I add it in my writing if to make conversation more realistic. I don’t like doing it, but hey, these days it needs to be done.
The milder words don’t phase me. I think twice about some of the stronger ones. But they are words like any others, and words are our tools.
Yeah, but some readers don’t like too much swearing. It’s a fine line we have to walk.
I want what I write to be realistic, like you I include how I’ve heard people talk, whatever they might say. I do think that less is more, one word has more effect if you don’t expect it.
And I think we’ve become ‘immune’ to some of the words that used to shock us.
To be realistic in the dialogue – sometimes you just gotta let your characters cuss.
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