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.

[Papaphilly]

Profanity is what it is, profanity. It certainly has its places. I personally do not have a problem with it as long is it is part of the story and not the story for shock value sake.

[Gavin]

I'm with Papaphilly in thinking profanity in fiction can work fine as long as it is done right. Navy seals, Russian thugs, and a foul mouthed lawyer using profanity would be fine for me as long as it was not overdone.

Despite the fact that a lot of profanity might be realistic for the dialogue of those characters the rareness of profanity in fiction in general can make it feel more prominent on the page. It is one of those tricks of perception. Could also just be a case that readers felt overwhelmed with it being used by so many different characters so cumulatively it started to feel like overkill even when it felt fine in isolation in a scene.