Question: profanity in dialog

[Dennis]

Reviews are coming in for our newest scifi thriller. Some are five star and no mention of the profanity. Some reviewers are put off by it, and focus on it and give it two stars. I would love to hear the opinions/experiences from readers, and from other writers, of using profanity with such characters as: navy seals, Russian thugs, and a foul mouthed lawyer

[Phillip]

I write based on how characters would act. That means soldiers and criminals swear. I go for a PG-13 version of swearing, but the big bad will never refer to someone as a "dill weed" because of a constraint I place on myself not to swear.

[Randy]

On the one hand, I'd say it doesn't bother me one way or the other. However, I have read books where practically every line of dialog contains profanity. In general, I would avoid such a book. Not because I am offended by the profanity, but the "hero" I want to read about wouldn't typically be the kind of person that would be speaking that way all the way through the book.

Not sure if that makes sense?

[Dennis]

E.C. wrote: "I know that in real life, soldiers say the most awful things to one another. Not the usual curse words, but really mean, specific things, to show they're tough guys and as a way of testing each oth..."

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[T. K. Elliott (Tiffany)]

It doesn't bother me at all - as long as it's true to the character. And that works both ways. If you write a character who is in the kind of position where swearing is normal, but you don't write that - it seems odd. Likewise, the other way around - unless it's a specific part of the character that you've set up. And either way, other characters should react appropriately. So your lawyer can be foul-mouthed if that's the way the character is - but his colleagues will probably at least raise their eyebrows (or roll their eyes).

Of course, I'm British - and I get the impression that we Brits swear more than Americans. :-)

But bear in mind that you can't please everyone all the time. Even if your use of swearing is absolutely true-to-life, you will still get people who complain. You just have to decide whether you're willing to accept that, or not.

[Eli]

I think as with most things in books, it really depends on your audience. If your target audience would be offended, then don't put it in. If it wouldn't, feel free. The problem though is that you need to ensure that those buying your book understand the extensive use of profanity so that you can weed out readers that would be offended. All that being said, if enough people are being offended, what that means is that you have a good problem. That means a wide enough swath of the public is interested in your premise and you should probably consider reducing the profanity to allow for the maximum in sales if that is your goal.