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Swear Words

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Paul Whybrow

Paul Whybrow

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Cornwall, UK
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I'm having a bit of a mental tussle with the place of swear words in my current WIP. It's a psychological thriller featuring a gruesome death, drug smuggling, illegal importation of weapons and human trafficking—all typical of Cornwall!

Given that I'm writing about hardened detectives and violent villains, they shouldn't be talking like genteel vicars at a garden tea-party, but despite this I haven't included that much swearing. It's not out of prudery, for I can out-swear anybody, and have, once causing a foul-mouthed Tourette's Syndrome sufferer to complain about me.

My reluctance to use oaths is more that I fear it will be distract from the flow of the story. Swearing is a useful tool to emphasise the tension a character is feeling when talking, but starts to look like the writer is going for a shock effect if peppered through the text. Anyone who has read Irvine Welsh (best known for 'Trainspotting') will know what I mean.

In real life, people use expletives in a calm way when talking to one another, showing mild irritation at best. Funnily enough, I wouldn't be having this problem if I was writing an erotic novel as I could use profanity willy-nilly!

How do my fellow Colonists deal with four letter words?
 
I personally don't use swear words in my MSs unless it's necessary for the text and true to the character. In my series, my MC good guy doesn't swear as much, but when he's really mad, he obviously uses some choice words. The MC bad guy is a very eloquent smooth-talker, so he almost thinks swearing is beneath him, so he doesn't much either. But my other MC bad guy swears a lot. For my most recent book, my MC good guy cares exactly zero about what people think of him, and he's a darker hero than my first MC, so he swears a good chunk. It all depends on my character and the story.

I just make sure that when I use them in the story, a non-swear word wouldn't communicate the same frustration/anger that the swear would, because you're right. It can distract the reader if it's overdone, and you don't want that.
 
Swear words on page are different to swearing verbily. The affect is stronger in written form. So whilst realistically the characters may swear the way it is written needs to demonstrate that somehow without the added strength of the written form of swearing. I have just read that part in Harry Bingham's most excellent 'How to Write' and he says something similar along those lines. I know you have his sister book; How to Publish i think, that is excellent too. :)
 
My narrator swears to relieve his feelings sometimes. He uses the f word, and bastard, shit, arse, tosser, twat and I can't remember if he says wanker. Must check. But he only uses such language for that reason, and sparingly, not just as par for the course.
 
Nicole Wilson said:
I personally don't use swear words in my MSs unless it's necessary for the text and true to the character. In my series, my MC good guy doesn't swear as much, but when he's really mad, he obviously uses some choice words. The MC bad guy is a very eloquent smooth-talker, so he almost thinks swearing is beneath him, so he doesn't much either. But my other MC bad guy swears a lot. For my most recent book, my MC good guy cares exactly zero about what people think of him, and he's a darker hero than my first MC, so he swears a good chunk. It all depends on my character and the story.

I just make sure that when I use them in the story, a non-swear word wouldn't communicate the same frustration/anger that the swear would, because you're right. It can distract the reader if it's overdone, and you don't want that.
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My main characters run the gamut — the love interest is more virginal, and swears almost never. When it comes out, it's either comical or tragic. A few coarse characters swear very frequently, and a few in between.

I did a fantasy series in college that pushed the envelope so much that I abandoned the entire series. It was extreme enough I would have been embarrassed to have my name associated with it. Sure, I could have finished them, used a pseudonym, but eventually it would have been tied back to me, and then it looks even more like I was ashamed of it. But in that series, I allowed myself precisely one F-word per book, in the scene that called for it above all others. The one I'm working on now, while violent in several places and with more liberal profanity, is not nearly as extreme. It's all in the flavor you want to evoke.
 
Paul Whybrow said:
I'm having a bit of a mental tussle with the place of swear words in my current WIP. It's a psychological thriller featuring a gruesome death, drug smuggling, illegal importation of weapons and human trafficking—all typical of Cornwall!

Given that I'm writing about hardened detectives and violent villains, they shouldn't be talking like genteel vicars at a garden tea-party, but despite this I haven't included that much swearing. It's not out of prudery, for I can out-swear anybody, and have, once causing a foul-mouthed Tourette's Syndrome sufferer to complain about me.

My reluctance to use oaths is more that I fear it will be distract from the flow of the story. Swearing is a useful tool to emphasise the tension a character is feeling when talking, but starts to look like the writer is going for a shock effect if peppered through the text. Anyone who has read Irvine Welsh (best known for 'Trainspotting') will know what I mean.

In real life, people use expletives in a calm way when talking to one another, showing mild irritation at best. Funnily enough, I wouldn't be having this problem if I was writing an erotic novel as I could use profanity willy-nilly!

How do my fellow Colonists deal with four letter words?
Click to expand...

Trust your instincts. There are people out in the real word/world that effing swear every effing other effing word as if it's (terrible) punctuation. It becomes irritating in real life as it would on the page ... but still.

As my stories are for children I can't swear outright, but I do enjoy finding alternative, creative ways of expressing frustration instead. Less is more as "they" say.
 
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Jimithyh said:
Trust your instincts. There are people out in the real word/world that effing swearing every effing other effing word as if it's (terrible) punctuation. It becomes irritating in real life as it would on the page ... but still.

As my stories are for children I can't swear outright, but I do enjoy finding alternative, creative ways of expressing frustration instead. Less is more as "they" say.
Click to expand...

I worked as an infant teacher for six years, and an experienced colleague used to say "oh bum", when she wanted to swear in front of her class. This made the children giggle, as it was a rude word, while helping her to relieve her own tension on a wave of happiness.
 
My professor, when he taught about this exact thing, told us that it's really up to us. However, people swear in real life. You may be a Christian writer, but other people have different beliefs and if you're going to write about a hard-boiled dick slumming through the ghettos, realistically there will be swearing. It adds veracity to the story. On the other hand, some people cuss worse than sailors in real life. In a story, that can be very off-putting to any reader because it interrupts the flow of narrative. So, again it's kind of subjective, but for me I would try to balance it.
 
Owen Latchkey said:
My professor, when he taught about this exact thing, told us that it's really up to us. However, people swear in real life. You may be a Christian writer, but other people have different beliefs and if you're going to write about a hard-boiled dick slumming through the ghettos, realistically there will be swearing. It adds veracity to the story. On the other hand, some people cuss worse than sailors in real life. In a story, that can be very off-putting to any reader because it interrupts the flow of narrative. So, again it's kind of subjective, but for me I would try to balance it.
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I did have a particular character that I portrayed perfectly realistically in terms of being a gruff, coarse vulgarian bastard, but in written form the effect was overpowering, and had to be dialed back to come off as the sympathetic character he should have been. A lot of complexity got overpowered.
 
Paul Whybrow said:
I'm having a bit of a mental tussle with the place of swear words in my current WIP. It's a psychological thriller featuring a gruesome death, drug smuggling, illegal importation of weapons and human trafficking—all typical of Cornwall!

Given that I'm writing about hardened detectives and violent villains, they shouldn't be talking like genteel vicars at a garden tea-party, but despite this I haven't included that much swearing. It's not out of prudery, for I can out-swear anybody, and have, once causing a foul-mouthed Tourette's Syndrome sufferer to complain about me.

My reluctance to use oaths is more that I fear it will be distract from the flow of the story. Swearing is a useful tool to emphasise the tension a character is feeling when talking, but starts to look like the writer is going for a shock effect if peppered through the text. Anyone who has read Irvine Welsh (best known for 'Trainspotting') will know what I mean.

In real life, people use expletives in a calm way when talking to one another, showing mild irritation at best. Funnily enough, I wouldn't be having this problem if I was writing an erotic novel as I could use profanity willy-nilly!

How do my fellow Colonists deal with four letter words?
Click to expand...

There's an interesting show streaming on Netflix. It's called Battle Creek. One character is clearly someone who would curse and the other, someone who would not. You can see the two extremes in the show - although I don't remember the cursing character cursing.... I WOULD remember if the uncursing character suddenly started cursing.

I would say it depends on your character but I do think a characters choice of words - language use - tells us who they are, and if your character is someone who curses, then they should. It would only take people out of the story if it wasn't something the character would do. Then ... sometimes a character doing something out of character ... like cursing... could be a tool too.
 
Amber Zade said:
There's an interesting show streaming on Netflix. It's called Battle Creek. One character is clearly someone who would curse and the other, someone who would not. You can see the two extremes in the show - although I don't remember the cursing character cursing.... I WOULD remember if the uncursing character suddenly started cursing.

I would say it depends on your character but I do think a characters choice of words - language use - tells us who they are, and if your character is someone who curses, then they should. It would only take people out of the story if it wasn't something the character would do. Then ... sometimes a character doing something out of character ... like cursing... could be a tool too.
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Oh yeah! Battle Creek is set in Battle Creek! It's in Michigan — maybe 45 minutes from the little town I grew up in, and 15 minutes past Kalamazoo on I-94. I looked at renting a house there, but it's a dump.
 
Jason Byrne said:
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::D
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Of course, the cursing that's available to a writer entirely depends on the context of their story. For novels set 1,500+ years ago - or in countries not yet colonized by English-speaking people - it wouldn't technically be correct to use any 'Anglo-Saxon' swear-words (never sure if that should be hyphenated or not any more). For example, 's**t' originates as the Old English verb meaning: 'to be split down the middle' (I guess those Anglo-Saxons must have had terrible constipation :-) So would it be historically accurate to include that in a novel set in Celtic Gaul or Rome? I guess any novel written in modern English *could* include any vernacular terms, but do we necessarily know the ancient equivalents were in use in antiquity, and could be translated to mean the same... (but I'm just being picky :-)
 
It's always puzzled me how most swearing references sexual activity or private body parts, with blasphemy bringing in religion in a sacrilegious way.

You might think that rather than using things that we're fond of, swearing would choose people, physical activities and jobs that make us disgusted. In my opinion politician should be a swear word! The only profession that is used as an insult uses Cockney rhyming slang, with 'merchant banker' being a euphemism for wanker.
 
Yer, I heard something about Americans find "ute" a bit offensive? Short for utility of course.... ;)
 
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