Swearing in Literary Material

that_guy · Apr 5, 2011

Heyy all, I'm pretty new to the site and wondering what the rules are against curse words in literacy material. My narrative im working on for a competition has aggressive swearing in it to make it sound more realistic. but is it allowed to post here? I'd post a link not the actually text eg copy and paste.

cheers
tony

dpaterso · Apr 5, 2011

Curse away to your heart's content (in your writing samples) but we ask you to put an adult language warning in the subject line, as we have members who don't like it. Check out the announcement in Share Your Work.

-Derek

Mr Flibble · Apr 5, 2011

I'd also point out that many people won;t follow a link. So cut and paste. (And swear.

) It makes it a lot easier to crit too.

that_guy · Apr 5, 2011

cheers all haha so i guess ill be just copy and pasting the work.... and do i "have" to have a post equal to or greater than 50 to post my work for it to be criticized?? cos im not going anywhere anytime soon and wont ditch the forum...

Mr Flibble · Apr 5, 2011

You do yes, afaia. We used to get so many fly-bys, where the first post is 'Please crit this', they got responses, and then we never heard from them again (or sometimes they'd post once to tell us we didn't understand their genius

)

If you get to 50 posts, you should have a good idea of the tone etc of the forums and what to expect, so it helps all round. Ofc you can crit other's works to get your count up (helps you both ways, as critting is a great way to learn, plus you'll be nearer your count!) If, like some beginners - and I was the same myself - you feel 'underqualified' just remember, you're a reader, so you can crit as one. It doesn't have to be an in depth line by line. What worked for you, what didn't etc.

Have fun!

bellabar · Apr 5, 2011

I see you're an Aussie. As an Aussie who lived OS for a while, I am now much more conscious of including a warning for other more delicate ears. Things which I don't even hear as swearing eg the word "bloody" which in Australia is used as an alternative to "very" most of the time, is considered profanity in some arenas. So if you think your words are "aggressive" they probably are offensive to some. Write want you think sounds right, and put a warning on it so people who don't want to read it don't get surprised.

Alessandra Kelley · Apr 6, 2011

Ooh, yes. "Bloody" got me, too. I'm an anglophile yankee who liked the sound and was using it as a mild emphatic until I learned better. Oops. (I also have a friend, a very religious, mild person, who got it from me and treated it a little like an alternate version of Winnie-the-Pooh's "bother", until we learned better ...)

Mr Flibble · Apr 6, 2011

Um, bloody is extremely mild over here. Kind of like damn or blast in the fifties. Where did you get the idea it wasn't?

bellabar · Apr 7, 2011

From being told off by my boss for using it! Perhaps its not a country based thing, just that different people have very different opinions.

Charlee · Apr 7, 2011

I use bloody and don't really consider it swearing but I wouldn't be happy if my daughter used it so I guess it is pretty bad...

As for swearing in literary materials I think if it is important for the story/ characters then it isn't a problem

Son0fgrim · Apr 8, 2011

I believe cursing is fine in literature if it supports the profile of the character. For example, Scurvy pirates are probably going to yell profanity when fighting.

Darren Frey · Apr 9, 2011

I think it goes along with the charecter and their personality there is nothing wrong with swearing in literature.

Swearing in Literary Material

that_guy

ZZZZAAAAAAPPPP!

dpaterso

Also in our Discord and IRC chat channels

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

that_guy

ZZZZAAAAAAPPPP!

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

bellabar

figuring it all out

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

bellabar

figuring it all out

Charlee

Sometimes I have no Y

Son0fgrim

practical experience, FTW

Darren Frey