Language questions

I have no problem with cursing.

What do you guys consider when deciding whether or not your characters will curse?

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Their circumstances and nature.

If it comes naturally to the character and fits the situation, so be it.

Issues arise when cursing is put in simply for the sake of being there.

It can become very monotonous very quickly.

my mom stopped blushing some time ago.


That said, I am less concerned about if she would than about how my characters talk. That depends on the character, their voice, and the situation they're in. Not on my moral code.

i'm not against swearing at all, but i do agree it can become too much too quickly. i also believe that if it is used sparingly and placed in the correct place in a scene it can be jarring in a good way and help paint the emotions of a character without further explanation...especially if it's a character that never uses unclean language.

for instance, take HBO's Deadwood. they swear so damn much it almost became ineffective because i got so used to it, but in one episode when the clean-speaking character dropped the word it nearly knocked me over because i knew he had to be pushed to a maddening point to use it.

The principle I use is to go ahead and include foul language when it is proper to do so. The way I read it was, If a bricklayer drops a brick on his foot, he's not going to say, "Ow! Golly gee! That hurts!" His choice of language will be more colorful, so go ahead and put it in.

Proper use of such language can have a great effect. Does anyone remember Aliens? (I believe it was; the one set on a prison planet.) Moments after the prison administrator denies there is a problem with aliens, one bursts through the ceiling and drags him away. All the prisoners grab chairs and whatnot. One of them delivers a single swear word. When I saw the movie, it brought the house down from the impact of its timing.

On the other hand, swearing for comic effect, as I have seen in some 60s and 70s movies, doesn't work.

So, what I'm saying is, use these words when it is proper to do so, but not to excess, and not just to shock people.

Hope this helps.

I think it's dangerous to look for generalizations. Even book-by-book is way too broad. You may have one character who is ridiculously foul-mouthed, and another who is made uncomfortable by it. The question, to me, has to be answered by each specific character in each specific situation in the story. I don't see how any generalizations can apply here.

You can use every tool in your toolbox. The trick is in using the correct tool for the task you're trying to accomplish.

Let me get this right - you're worried about what your mother will think of your writing? Who are you writing this book for?

As for language, you write true to your characters, and their circumstances. I thought every writer did this.

TJOak said:

But I sometimes get distracted when I read other books that are filled with colorful language to the point it turns me off to the whole thing....

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I agree. I think the problem is 2-fold

1) if a writer who doesn't swear a lot tries to make a character that does.. it's a bit like writing about sex when you haven't actually done it.. it will be fantasy, wishful thinking and stilted writing easily becoming a bore to read

2) not making the swearing credible. Many people swear a lot, but not all the time and certainly not in all situations. Even the most drunken sailor will not swear when standing before his captain, or a judge. Too much swearing and lack of flexibility kills the credibility and humanity of a character. That's when the swearing gets silly.

I would say that bad language is like accents and colloquialisms. Some characters use them, some don't, and a little goes a long way.

Russell Secord said:

...and a little goes a long way.

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I even think that generalization is dangerous. Betty White's foul-mouthed character in Lake Placid worked because of the consistency of her obscenities. If you tried to sprinkle an occasional F-bomb, the result would have been an entirely different character.

It (probably) wouldn't work if every character was like that, but IMO juxtaposition of time/place/character with someone who can't turn off the constant stream of obscenities can work well.

This is basically like any other character attribute. Can a character be too attractive? If everyone is and it's done poorly, it will get old. Too smart, too dumb, too ugly, too nice, too naive... It's all about how it fits into the narrative for me. Sometimes an over-the-top character is just the seasoning the story needs. They are seldom the main ingredient, though.