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To Swear, Or Not To F***ing Swear?
I swear like a mad **** in all my writing. I reckon if you're writing people that would swear, make them swear. You know better than anyone else what your character's would do. Just so happens that all my characters are the types who swear though. Maybe I was brought up wrong.
People swear in real life, they shouldn't be afraid of it in a book!
I try and keep swearing to a minimum so it has more impact when I do use it. However, occasionally there might be a character where it's natural for them to swear a lot so the dialogue will reflect that. Overall though I don't swear much myself so I don't tend to swear much in my writing, but swearing wouldn't put me off a book.
If you're doing it for shock value, then no. If he's doing it naturally, then it's fine. But if all your readers say it's too much, you might want to listen to them.
Swearing in a book does not bother me. In my romance book my male character swears because he hasn't had a cultured upbringing. I think it's fine if it fits the character and I hear it in real life all the time. What I did is put a warning that it contains strong language, that way if someone is likely to be offended they know not to read it. By the way I'd love a free copy of your book to review, romance is my genre.
You can't please everyone. If it fits the character then I would say leave it in. Someone will always find something to be offended about.What you might think about doing is just putting a warning "Contains bad language" or some such. Then people who don't like that sort of thing can be warned.
I think it adds a layer of realism to a story. I mean yeah, you have to keep the script tasteful. No one wants to see a dropped F-bomb every paragraph. But a lot of people in everyday life swear like sailors, and for someone like me who's a stickler for good dialogue, it's important to capture every detail. That means cussing.
This is a great question. In my three contemporary/suspense romance books, (3rd one is due out in the next few months) the only swearing is done by the villains in my stories. There are a few occasions I have a main character swear, in fun, such as joking with a sibling or friend.
I think some words should just be left out. The more vulgar ones. You have to be true to life. Almost every cusses. My grandmother who was a wife of a baptist preacher said "damn it" all the time. If it was okay for her... :)
I'm interested, Michelle, that you say your book is a romance, because I've wondered whether readers in that market expect sweet, rosy, soft-focus stories where the hero's strongest word is perhaps "damn". Okay, shoot me for being a judgmental w#@%er, but maybe the Mills & Boon crowd demand that sort of thing. (That censored word was writer, by the way!)However, my book is in the rom-com slot, so I think I've scared a few people that were expecting a squeaky clean romance. I also don't have a pic of a half-naked man on the cover, revealing his pecs and abs. My male character is much more real: ordinary-looking and rough around the edges.
Definitely need to put a warning: Beware - Naughty Words! I have to say, it makes me laugh those books that post the warning: "Explicit sexual content, suitable for 18+ only." That's not a warning; that's an advertising gimmick!
I agree it's a great question. If it fits the story, gets a point across (usually illustrating a character's disposition, stress level, etc.) then let it fly.I write Science Fiction, and the emphasis for me is the story; but you have to develop characters to fit the story, characters are supposed to be real people, and real people sometimes swear. You will rarely find the "F" word in my books (rarely, but it might slip through once or twice), but there are a few other expletives (or, as Mr. Spock said in one of the Star Trek movies, "colorful metaphors") that may appear -- usually uttered by a character in anger or moments of stress.
Hey... S*** happens! ;-)
My writing is blue with swear words. Most of my characters tend to be very gritty and quirky, so their swearing gets quite inventive. It just wouldn't be true to the characters to filter their filthy banter. Writing is a package though-swearing fits well with mine, because I don't work with clean characters or concepts. My newest novel has a LOT of bizarre perversion in the concepts. Even if I removed the swearing, there'd still be readers alienated by the content itself. I'm happy with that, and while it may alienate some readers, others really enjoy it.
Your writing will NEVER make everyone happy, so you just have to look at how you want to write, and act accordingly.
I curse like an itchy pirate...so do most Australians. So when I write...and the character suits it, the dialogue is naturally offensive. Hey, it's organic...that means it's better for the environment or some shit, right?
Indeed.Someone somewhere will not like something - swearing, sex violence or lack of those. You certainly can't please everyone.
If you suddenly lace your kids book with sex scenes or cuss words then yes that is inappropriate but if it is an adult book then most people can take it or leave it. I bet I hear worse on the bus on the way to work.
I used to have a tutor who used to say he could use the f word as a noun, verb, adjective and adverb in the same sentence.:)
Dean wrote: "I curse like an itchy pirate...so do most Australians. So when I write...and the character suits it, the dialogue is naturally offensive. Hey, it's organic...that means it's better for the environm..."Strangely enough, I'm an Aussie! And I'm all for the environment...
I think it depends on the context and character. Simon, I'm not going to tell you to clean up your character's language, because their speech pattern is as much a part of their personality as anything else you create for the character is. Keep true to your characters ... they'll thank you for it, believe me, and your readers will see your writing as more authentic.For the record, I've had comments on my works that they would probably be more popular as YA books, but unfortunately this would eviscerate the vocabulary of a couple of my female characters, one of which is implictly described in one of my books as "curs[ing] like a castrated stevedore." For these two characters, dropping casual f-bombs is as much a part of their personalities as their activities in the books. Basically, in some circumstances if they can't cuss, they can't speak.
I tend to go with the logic of "if it suits the character or situation, do it." Personally, I find it more jarring, disruptive and annoying when a character who logically should be swearing - given previous characterization and the level of stress inherent in a situation - doesn't. Even worse is when they substitute "fake" curses: Oh sugar!" And such.But hey, that's just my opinion; your mileage may vary. XD
Yeah Alexandra, I agree. The F-bomb is the most flexible word in the english language. In some parts of Australia you can have entire conversations without having to use another word.
Simon, you may be onto something there with the cover. I've read a few romance romance books where the character, usually male, swears but now that I think about it, they usually had a rough looking guy on the cover, or motorbikes. Maybe people judge too much by the cover. I'm kind of glad I put a warning on mine now, as I don't have a half naked man on the cover either.
I meant to write romance once, not twice
My characters tend not to swear. I just don't feel the need, as if when I did, it would be purely for shock value. That works for some authors and some characters, just not mine, you know?
For me, it all depends on your targeted audience and on the character(s). I wouldn't put a lot of swear words—or I'd water them down—if I were writing a children or YA story. On the other hand, if swearing is part of the character's way of talking, of being, of thinking, even, then not having him/her swear would strike me as unnecessarily prudish. I use "shit" and "fuck" on a daily basis as a person, and I know a lot of people who use those too (well, mostly their French equivalents, since I live in France), for things as trivial as just knocking their pinky toe or missing the bus. So I don't see why my characters should say "sugar" instead of "shit" if it's not in their way of being. Such things would actually even break my suspension of disbelief as a reader.But, again, it depends on the audience. I wouldn't create such characters, for starters, in a story intended for children. I'd find other ways to incorporate language quirks.
Yeah, love them so much I had to say it twice. BTw Dean, your book looks intriguing and I had to laugh at your profile where you list your influence as Shiraz, love it.
This is an author that I know who had to change the title of his book - Amazon didn't like the title. Which is a pity, because it is an amazing story of how he moved from England to Spain... to breed alpacas, when he wasn't rescuing abandoned dogs and various other animal-related activities. It's now called "Seriously Mum, what's an Alpaca?"Bloody Hell, What's an alpaca?
Yzabel wrote: "For me, it all depends on your targeted audience and on the character(s). I wouldn't put a lot of swear words—or I'd water them down—if I were writing a children or YA story. On the other hand, if ..."You can literally say, "Pardon my French", then!
Obviously I wouldn't be using that sort of language in children's books. I did a bit of work in children's television years ago, and there is an official organisation that vets scripts before production. So I'm well aware of all those issues. But I'm not writing in that genre.
Copper_Wings wrote: "My characters tend not to swear. I just don't feel the need, as if when I did, it would be purely for shock value. That works for some authors and some characters, just not mine, you know?"Exactly the same reason that I don't write about sex - although my characters presumably get down it, I, personally, don't feel the need to write the icky details. I couldn't do it seriously anyway - I'd laugh too much.
I agree that swearing should be in character--for the character and the story. If it's the kind of story where it makes sense that characters cuss constantly, then you are not going to draw an audience that is shocked by that.My first book is children's, and uses nothing stronger than "heck" and references to characters having used stronger language (first person narrator doesn't use those words herself). I'm working on a murder mystery. It's a cosy, so stays pretty clean, but there is one scene in which the MC cusses a blue streak, intentionally out of character but key to the scene. I'm hoping no one will be offended by that, as it is definitely not gratuitous.
Thanks Michelle. Yes my book is intriguing..and yes I drink a lot of wine...so much that I have forgotten what my book is about...which makes it intriguing.
Rebecca wrote: "I agree that swearing should be in character--for the character and the story. If it's the kind of story where it makes sense that characters cuss constantly, then you are not going to draw an aud..."Readers are weird if they'll accept a murder, but not a swear word. A "cosy" murder? I'd be careful if your target market is expecting a cosy story and you hit them with even an isolated swear word. And I think that is important - who is your target market, which is why I said earlier that I feel that the Mills & Boon crowd stumbled across my book thinking it was a straight romance.
I'm with everyone else - if they need to swear, let them swear. My book is a romance too, but just because it's romance doesn't mean that all the language has to be fluffy and pink with bows tied around it. Both my protagonists are thieves and outcasts, so for them not to swear would be completely unrealistic.Like someone else said, it's possibly more to do with the expectations in general, but ultimately you can't please everyone, so why bother trying?
As someone who doesn't personally swear, I don't mind swearing in novels. However, I think it's like a characters accent. If you write out a strange accent phonetically for every single word the character speaks, it's going to get annoying to read very quickly. What you want is to give the impression of a character who swears a lot, without making certain words the most used in the book. So make it obvious the first few times he talks, then only do it occasionally, or describe it rather than say the individual words each time.
Rinelle wrote: "As someone who doesn't personally swear, I don't mind swearing in novels. However, I think it's like a characters accent. If you write out a strange accent phonetically for every single word the ch..."I see what you're saying. I wrote a play set in Scotland and to replicate their way of speaking, not to mention the many Scots words, it would be difficult for anyone to understand outside of Scotland. So I gave an impression of their way of speaking.
But I'd find that hard to do with swearing. Are you moulding a character to conform with a particular market? I think they either swear and the reader has to accept that or not. If someone is going to be offended, only saying F#@% once or twice is still going to upset them. It's like half putting on a condom. It only needs a couple of those little soldiers to wriggle out and you get pregnant.
No, I don't think that's the case. I wouldn't be bothered at all by a character who swore for emphasis on occasion. If it was every second word, it wouldn't be offensive maybe, but it would constantly jar me out of the story.
In my novel, the characters are pretty rough, hillbillies, bikers, laborers, etc. I feel that, were they not to swear, the dialogue would seem unrealistic. I think the characters and their circumstances have a lot to do with the swear/ no swear question. In my case, I pretty much write the dialogue the way I hear it in my head. If I tried to skirt the cursing, it just would sound fake to my ears.
If you avoid being true and realistic to your characters personality then your not a writer. Even if you don't like swearing yourself you must include it, if that's what it takes for particular character development. In my novel "The Monkey Toy" which is about sailors, I would be a fool and a fraud by avoiding salty language. If the reader is offended by swearing then stick with Harry Potter type books.
Boy, that's a good one. I did so much research before my first one came out, and it sold hardly anything. So, my third one I just let loose, and like magic it became popular. Now in real life, I'm a polite gentleman, but in the fantasy world of writing, let it fly! Kind of juices it up I think.http://www.amazon.com/The-Forbidden-P...
I am not a fan of "strong/offensive" language. Right out of the gate, such content is "insulting, disrespectful, hurtful, galling, rude, uncivil, et cetera." Why would I want to alienate readers that way? I see the word "prude" being flung around a lot in these kinds of discussions, but prudes are readers, too, and their opinions affect readership—and sales. Those so-called prudes are often willing to overlook mild swearing, but do you want to push the limits past endurance because you aren't up to the challenge of devising creative ways to portray swearing sailors, rough bikers, uneducated hillbillies, swaggering pirates, or scruffy space pilots? While I have seen reviews berating the use of foul language in a book, I have never seen one that complained there wasn't enough!
My newest book is a western horror and one of the main characters is a bit ill-mannered however I dont use the big swears or is it tasteless, its used cause it needs to be. One F bomb and the rest is gritty southern western language.
Robin wrote: "I am not a fan of "strong/offensive" language. Right out of the gate, such content is "insulting, disrespectful, hurtful, galling, rude, uncivil, et cetera." Why would I want to alienate readers th..."I think the point here is, if you don't like that sort of book, nobody is forcing you to buy it. If I create a biker character that doesn't swear, then I'm not being true to the character. Just the same for sex - if you don't like sex scenes, don't buy 50 Shades of Grey.
Something that does annoy me are people that haven't bothered to read the blurb or the first three chapters that Amazon allow you to sample online, in which they would get an idea of the book, (and the fact that there's swearing in it) and later complain that they didn't like it. They didn't know what they were in for? Also, people should make the distinction between not to their taste and a book that is badly written. I don't like Country and Western music - it's not that it's bad, it's just not my cup of tea.
If someone doesn't like swearing, I won't call them a prude. It's their taste and I respect that. All I ask is the same respect in return - that I don't believe my book is bad simply because one character - not all of them! - swears.
***NOTE: If anybody downloads my book on a giveaway promotion, please understand that I am a budding author trying to make a living. I give books away free to help establish my name. If you don't like it, posting a bitching review without backing it up with solid reasons only destroys my chances of earning money. I don't claim the dole; I get no welfare benefits of any sort and yet I'm not complaining that there are no jobs - I'm creating my own. So I think it's bloody cheeky if you've got a free copy and trash it simply because you don't like swearing.
Yes, as you can see, I swear too. Does that make me a bad person?
I don't like reading gratuitous swearing if there is no need for it, and even if a character would swear like a trooper if they were living flesh, I feel a writer can introduce the character as having a foul mouth, and then only use bad language when it's absolutely essential after that.For me, my brain automatically filters out a lot of swearing I hear, but I struggle to filter out swearing on paper. As a consequence, in my own fiction, I try to keep bad language to a minimum, and use it mostly for effect, not as a conversation style.
This might be something like making conversation sound real. If you just write the way people really talk, your reader has long since fallen asleep. And if you write cusswords as frequently as some people use them in conversation, it will simply be absurd.
Looking around at the reviews you have here and on amazon, I don't really see a lot of divided opinions. Most people are saying it's a good book, a few are saying they didn't like the swearing. But that's the point of reviews. Hopefully they will let people who aren't comfortable swearing know this isn't a book for them, and those that don't have a problem with it will ignore those reviews. Sounds like an interesting storyline.
I'm not opposed to using curse words in writing, especially if the term is to illustrate a character's crudeness or general level of anxiety. I do think that an over use of cursing however can put some readers off. Although curse words exist in my books, I keep them to a bare minimum. There are occasions though when S!@# is indeed the right word.
I think the real key is that, if you're avoiding cursing - whatever your reasons may be - to make it flow. The same if you're using it. Honestly, if you can write it (either way) so it flows and isn't noticeable - Ted Dekker does a good job of this; it only occurred to me when I dug up the Kindle copy of Thr3e and did a word search that they hadn't really done any cursing - it's fine. But, Dekker also doesn't tend to have characters who should be dropping "sentence enhancers" into every phrase. On the rare occasions such a character does crop up, he falls back on "So-and-so swore under his breath" and moves on. Which is fine, if not overused.Then on the other end of the spectrum, you have the books where it's glaringly obvious that they were tiptoeing around the issue. I had started to read a novel that was supposed to be about a young gangbanger... and after fifty pages of wooden dialogue, I put it down.
I suspect what really irks me about it is that somehow, a lot of these arguments/discussions/whatevers start over books that include sex, violence and other "immoral" acts... and yet dropping the f-bomb is the tipping point? "Oh, it's totally okay to have fake BDSM and a 'love story' that's about a psychotic, manipulative, abusive stalker and a pathetically naive girl... but don't say any naughty words!" or "I know it's about the brutal murder/suicide of three teenagers and the events that follow, and we spent four pages reading all about the crime scene, but if I see the s-word, I'm out!" But maybe I'm the only one that sees these issues.
(Just for funsies, I went through my last book and counted. 11 f-bombs. 18 s-bombs. For a 75k word novel about a murderous faerie who likes to cut people up and leave the remains in... interesting... poses, that also includes a 6k word chapter going into one character's abusive childhood with a drunken, illiterate physically-and-emotionally abusive father, I'd say that's not too bad... but then again, no word in any language has ever bothered me. And having been at the receiving end of an abusive father, I can categorically say part of the meaning of that section is derived from the things he says to his son, and I personally feel the whole sequence would have been castrated had it not included those words. But hey, what do I know?) XD
It's interesting what people have been saying. I do agree that gratuitous swearing would be off-putting, but I feel in this particular book it is important for the character. Part of the story is about how Mike should grow as a person. In the following excerpt, Maria actually tackles him about it.*WARNING: Avert your eyes if you get scared by the f-word!
‘ – Dad thought that books were for pussies. Which is also why I haven’t kept any of my old books: the miserable fucker burnt them all.’
Maria laid a calming hand on his shoulder. ‘Your Dad must be a very mean-spirited man. And I wouldn’t have said you were a… a…’
‘Hmm?’
Maria got a little flustered. ‘A testosterone-challenged person.’
‘A what?’
‘A testosterone-challenged person. A… you know…’
‘Oh, right!’ Mike brightened up. ‘You mean a pussy! That’s what I had meant to say before, but it just kinda slipped out. I had also meant to call my father a forlorn fornicator. A pusillanimous procreator; a spiritually-constipated copulater; a morally-corrupt, sexual congress-man.’
‘That sounds redundant to me. How about a belligerent begetter?’
‘Very biblical. Here you go: a manure-based fertiliser. The double meaning is a bit crap.’
‘Your puns stink.’
They had a good laugh, which helped to ease the tension.
‘You see,’ said Maria, ‘you can get beyond the four-letter words.’
‘That’s me: Mike Grey, two four-letter words.’
‘What I mean is that you’ve just demonstrated that you have a fairly good vocabulary – you could make better use of it, rather than resort to the sort of language that Detective Hardmann uses.’
Swearing in writing, at least in my writing, is completely determined by the character I'm developing and how I want him/her to be perceived by the reader.
My first book had all of about three curse words total because the two main characters weren't the cursing type and only used it when the situation called for it. I'm finishing the sequel right now and there is a lot more cursing because a couple of the scenes occur in a police precinct. Cops swear, and some do it a lot. Even as a female officer, I've been known to let some colorful words fly in the office. It all depends on whether your character is the type and what kind of situation is presented. I find nothing wrong with cursing in a novel as long as it's done realistically.
Denise wrote: "People will review your book based on how they feel about it, including swearing. It's part of the deal as a writer. I get you're aggravated by the comments, but all writers receive poor reviews. W..."Want to hear something amusing...I had a review from someone who never read my book. She was outraged that after my acknowledgements to about a dozen people and institutions for their help, that I had the audacity to dedicate the book to myself (for finishing the book despite everyone telling me I wouldn't). Sad but true commentary of the times.
Denise wrote: "People will review your book based on how they feel about it, including swearing. It's part of the deal as a writer. I get you're aggravated by the comments, but all writers receive poor reviews. W..."This is what I find strange, Denise - you write sex and swearwords, but won't read it. We can enjoy, for God's sake, a murder story, but don't like swearing. We can revel in the gory details of a murder, but get uncomfortable with kids being killed. I had actually thought about a story of a serial killer that murders children; nothing grisly - just puts them to sleep with an injection or something; but I was worried that it would put people off.
What did you think of the excerpt that I posted above?
Maggie has an interesting way of getting around this. She will have the character say "I swear under my breath" so we don't actually hear the swear word, but we know they are swearing. I personally think that the appropriate swear words add to the book and make it more realistic, but it's sad that you could lose some readers based on this.
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The Casual Vacancy (other topics)Bloody Hell, What's an Alpaca? (other topics)
I've written a book that seems to have divided readers, some of whom discount the book purely on the basis of the bad language. The romantic hero is not a knight in shining armour - he's an uncultured, drinking, skirt-chasing, 35yo, bad lad, who isn't likely to say, "Oh, bother!" or "Sugar!" No, he says the f word, (and that's not facebook, even though at times it does annoy me). Maria, the main character, is a nice, refined, interesting, intelligent girl who doesn't say any naughty words, so I wanted Mike to be a strong contrast, otherwise there's not as much tension. And let's face it, a 35yo guy who doesn't swear might be a good friend to invite to a tupperware party 'cos he's got a great recipe for fondue, but as a love interest? Or maybe I'm just an ignorant, badly brought-up Aussie.
Strangely, although there are some references to it, there's no sex or violence. The characters have to actually fall in love. Call me old-fashioned.
50 Shades of Grey is supposedly full of BDSM, so I would have thought people would be prepared for the f word. I personally find more offensive the linking of violence with sex, particularly as it is the woman who is demeaned. I don't think it is adventurous or liberating.
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. If you'd like to judge my book for yourself, I'd be happy to send a free review copy in Kindle format.