Swearing in novels

mewellsmfu

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I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I've been unable to turn up a thread concerning swearing in a novel. I know it's been discussed in query letters, but am curious to hear your thoughts on swearing and how much, if any, is appropriate. I'd also love it if you can point to authors who've employed swearing.

I understand it's a no-no in certain types of fiction, but some subjects seem more conducive than others. War novels, crime novels, thrillers, novels about politics. Parenthood—kidding, not kidding—for sure.

How do you react to swearing in a novel, is there a certain level you're willing to accept, will you read a book with swearing or would it immediately be a no-go? Would it depend on the character? Is it okay for a soldier in combat, a police officer or criminal, a politician, a couple having an argument?

I have no problem with swearing in books or films, but I do like it to be appropriate to the situation and/or the characters. I found the language on "The Wire" totally believable, for example, but would find a lot of swearing in books geared at teens less creditable (although a quick trip to the mail pre-COVID-19 provided a pretty graphic reeducation as to the language preferences of middle school students).

And what does the professional publishing world think of swearing? Does it make a book less sellable? I understand it would limit the audience somewhat, but I wonder if someone who reads cozies and romances would be likely to pick up a book that's more likely to contain swear words.

Your thoughts, opinions, conjecture and knowledge are much appreciated.
 

InkFinger

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If cursing in a novel is no-go territory, I'm screwed. Almost everything I write has at least some cursing.
 

lizmonster

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I'm a bit of an outlier in this, I've found, but swearing doesn't bother me a bit (and I had no indications it caused problems with the books I had published). I have heard, anecdotally, that some people are averse to religious-based profanity in particular. It's all going to depend on your market.

I feel pretty strongly about every word I include in a book. Some characters swear more than others (my current dual-POV book has one character who swears a lot, and another who doesn't swear at all on the page). The amount of cursing - or not - is absolutely deliberate. I do tend to lean on my own cultural background for word choice, and I'm trying to challenge that a bit.
 

Chris P

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I think you've already identified it. Consider: 1) audience, 2) characters, 3) context.

Audience: Kids books have different levels of cursing than books for adults.

Characters: Pirates curse more than preachers.

Context: All characters behave according to the norms of their world [Edit: I think "interact with" the norms of their world might be a better way to say that]. To have a character disobey these norms shows something about the character. This can be used to the writer's advantage. A pirate cursing at a high-society dinner party shows something very different than the pirate being gracious and well spoken at the same event (while curdling the waves of the sea with invective during battle). A pirate not cursing during the heat of battle, where even a preacher would curse, shows something else.

The intersection of all three, and how you break the character and context rules (audience is pretty firm) determines the level of cursing.
 
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Ari Meermans

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How well do you know your characters? Would they swear from anger or frustration or for any reason at all? (You'll find your answer in who your characters are.) The language a character uses is a behavioral pattern just like any other and goes to characterization.

I'd recommend using swearing sparingly; otherwise, it ceases to have any meaning—textual & story-wise—just as it does IRL.
 

Marian Perera

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Here's a few such threads :

Profanity

Profanity in WIP

The f-bomb in fantasy, which is one of my favorite swearing threads because of the poster who said, "Either way [the f-word] never really stands out to me anymore, but if your aim is to entertain giggling little school boys who pleasure themselves by hearing it, then go for it."

Profanity question

Tolerance of expletives in novels

And very much recommended is this blog post : Good Bad Language, by K. J. Charles

How do you react to swearing in a novel, is there a certain level you're willing to accept, will you read a book with swearing or would it immediately be a no-go? Would it depend on the character? Is it okay for a soldier in combat, a police officer or criminal, a politician, a couple having an argument?

I'm fine with swearing in adult fiction. It does depend on the character, but characters from any walk of life can swear. I once worked in a hospital laboratory where we had to draw blood from patients ourselves, and one day we got a boy whose veins were damn near nonexistent. Plus, he'd struggle a lot. We finally had to ask our supervisor to step in, because we were getting nowhere, and when she came back in, she said, "I had to poke that fucking kid five times!"

Moral of the story : the staff in hospitals swear a blue streak. We just don't do it in front of the patients, the medical director, or anyone likely to donate money to us.

And what does the professional publishing world think of swearing? Does it make a book less sellable? I understand it would limit the audience somewhat, but I wonder if someone who reads cozies and romances would be likely to pick up a book that's more likely to contain swear words.

I made a list of authors who use profanity in novels, though it's by no means a comprehensive list :

1. Sophie Kinsella
2. Anne Stuart
3. George R. R. Martin
4. Stephen King
5. Joe Hill
6. Matthew Woodring Stover
7. Cecily von Ziegesar
8. Judith Michael
9. Judith Krantz
10. Susan Howatch
11. Bertrice Small
12. Sidney Sheldon
13. Brian Lumley
14. Graham Masterton
15. Margaret Atwood
16. Jackie Collins
17. China Mieville
18. Colleen McCullough
19. Richard Preston
20. Dan Simmons
21. Nora Roberts
22. Lisa Kleypas
23. Hannah Moskowitz
24. Stacia Kane
25. Minerva Spencer
26. Tiffany Reisz
27. James Kelman

Quite a few romance/women's fiction authors on that list.

Hope this helps!
 

LJD

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And what does the professional publishing world think of swearing? Does it make a book less sellable? I understand it would limit the audience somewhat, but I wonder if someone who reads cozies and romances would be likely to pick up a book that's more likely to contain swear words..

I don't know about cozies, but A LOT of romance contains swearing...with the exception of those labeled inspirational, Christian, or "clean."

I randomly searched for "fuck" in a whole bunch of the e-books I own, most romances, and about 80% of them contained "fuck". Most by trade pubs. Some very successful books.

Honestly, as I reader, I don't care, and I'm not even going to notice unless the swearing is really, really over the top.

As a writer, I've yet to read a review of one of my books that complains about swearing. (I do, however, get the occasional review complaining about sexual content.)

I wouldn't think about it much unless you are writing something religious or for children.
 

ChaseJxyz

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There's two ways to think of it: should you (the author, i.e. the narrator in 3rd person) swear and should the characters swear?

I probably wouldn't write something like "Bob looked at the situation and noticed how f'd up it was" because there's better word choice for that. Narrators tend to be more "formal" than what a character says or thinks. But Bob might say or think "Wow what the f" and that's fine if it fits his character. In my current manuscript the "author" is supposed to be an academic so she's never going to swear in the (very formal) footnotes but there's the option to have the (3rd person) narrator swear if it makes sense and feels like the best option. Some characters swear a lot because they're crass, angry or disrespectful (or in a very tough situation and not thinking about what they're saying) and others aren't going to swear unless they're really put into a corner. Just like how some characters are going to use big, fancy words because they're "smarter" or regional words since they're from somewhere specific, their word choice can say something about them, it's just up to you what it is you're trying to get across.

Look at "The Good Place," some characters swear a lot, some don't swear at all, and you never actually hear any of the words since they're censored (which creates some really good wordplay). There's a reason why no one is able to swear because of the setting, so when people DO swear it means something.
 

Roxxsmom

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Whenever one of these swearing threads pops up, I recommend this book: Holy Sh*t, a Brief History of Swearing. The author discusses much of what is known about swearing in different times and places in history (unfortunately, with a focus on western history, but as far as I know nearly all cultures have curse words) and on the science behind why people swear and its psychological and physiological benefits (they exist). It's particularly useful, imo, for people trying to come up with a system for swearing in speculative fiction, where religions, morals, and social norms are created by the author. But it's a useful for read for people who are certain that swearing is always bad or only something a certain kind of person will do, as they can gain a bit of perspective. It's also useful for historical fiction, as certain words considered swears today were used differently once upon a time. People have used the words "fuck" and "shit" to refer to sex and defecation/feces for a long time, but "fuck off" or "not giving a shit" are more modern expressions.

As for whether to include it in a given book? That's really up to you. As others have already said, some of the choice will be driven by your target audience. Editors for children's fiction, or Christian/inspirational titles will have likely not tolerate much, if any, and which words are used will differ too. A "sweet" romance would likely have no, or only very mild swears, but a romance with a higher heat level may well have more. Writers can choose to ignore swearing entirely and not mention or portray it, and this can work. It's also possible to mention that someone swore without using the words themselves. I've seen this in kids' books.

Uncle Bob said a bad word, and Mother shushed him.

You can also limit the words used. Some are considered saltier than others, though that's very much a moving target and can depend on context and on the audience, or even an individual experience. On one fantasy writing site that forbids swearing in the forums and has an "R" versus "PG" rating for story critique submissions, most agree that "damn" and "bloody" are pretty benign, "PG" rated swears these days, but that the F-bomb and S-bomb are going to be "R" words (reference to the US movie rating system). But some insist "damn" and "Bloody" cross the line too, even if they do appear in Harry Potter movies. I remember one person insisting that "bloody" was the word her grandma washed her mouth out with soap for, and she insisted that only really low class, uneducated Brits use it. I don't like to explain people's own culture to them, but my parents' oldest family friends are a British couple who are Cambridge faculty, and they definitely use the word "bloody" sometimes, and I've certainly run across upper crust types using "bloody" in some British historical and contemporary novels.

This kind of disagreement about relative offensiveness of different common swear words may be why some people prefer to avoid swearing entirely in their stories, but again, whether that works or not depends on the kind of story, the narrative voice you are using, and also on the narrative viewpoint.
 

onesecondglance

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But some insist "damn" and "Bloody" cross the line too, even if they do appear in Harry Potter movies. I remember one person insisting that "bloody" was the word her grandma washed her mouth out with soap for, and she insisted that only really low class, uneducated Brits use it. I don't like to explain people's own culture to them, but my parents' oldest family friends are a British couple who are Cambridge faculty, and they definitely use the word "bloody" sometimes, and I've certainly run across upper crust types using "bloody" in some British historical and contemporary novels.

There is definitely a difference in the way swearing is treated in British dialects to mainstream American English. In many regional British dialects, swear words ("curse word" is an Americanism, as is "cussing") are literally expletives: they pad out sentences like punctuation and are not used either to offend or to intensify. This can lead to some unintentional hilarity when the need to intensify does arise, and the only option is to just string more and more expletives together. I've observed the same trait in Australian and, to a lesser extent, NZ English. This may well happen in regional US dialects - I'm just not as familiar with those.

As with many things in the UK, the use of swear words - frequency, situation, and word choice - is deeply entwined with class attitudes, and like much of our class attitudes, is near-impossible to explain to those not born into it, and even for natives is prone to contradictions of experience / largely incomprehensible.

Regarding the use of swearing in fiction - I listen for speech patterns in the real world and use those as a basis for my characters' voices. If that includes swearing, I will. Some characters deliberately don't swear on the page because that's their voice. Others swear a lot. As with all things fictional, it's not about pure verisimilitude. Just as you might edit "um's" and "errs" out of dialogue for clarity and pace, you need exercise judgement over how and where you include swearing.
 

Chris P

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There is definitely a difference in the way swearing is treated in British dialects to mainstream American English. In many regional British dialects, swear words ("curse word" is an Americanism, as is "cussing") are literally expletives: they pad out sentences like punctuation and are not used either to offend or to intensify.

Ha! You reminded me of a time I wrote a working-class UK male character in his early 20s for a project. To my American ears (with our pathological aversion to swearing) he sounded pretty on target. I had a British beta reader provide feedback to see if I'd captured him accurately. She replied "Lol! So somewhere you heard that British people swear a lot? That's so funny! He does sound very British, though." Nothing like a good mixed message from a beta reader to keep things crazy.
 

Lakey

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Swearing is a tool like any other that you can use to establish character. As others have said, whether your characters swear, how frequently, and what words they choose when they do, can signal things to your reader such as class, education, nationality, temperament, and so on. For me, I write a lot of stories set in the 1940s and 50s, and my characters use “damn” and “Christ” not infrequently, but rarely “shit,” and never “fuck.” Not that people in the 40s and 50s didn’t say “fuck,” but my characters thus far have not been the sort of people who would do it often (cf. choice of swears as a signal of social class). I’ve been told that my choice of swear words is successful in contributing to a sense of the time period.

Changes in swearing behavior can have value in characterization as well. If a character who doesn’t swear through the whole story busts out with a “you fucking bitch!” in the climax, it might tell you something about the character — maybe merely a signal of how far over the line the character has been pushed by the events of the story, maybe a signal of repressed misogynist hatred boiling up to the surface, depending upon the context and other aspects of the characterization.

In short, as I see it, in 2020, unless you’re writing for one of the very specific audiences mentioned above (e.g. young kids, readers looking for Christian stories), then you can go ahead and use swears — but use them intentionally, the way you ought to be using every word you write, to establish something about your character, your character’s state of mind, your setting, and so on.

(Oh, and someone above said narration should be more formal and not use swears even where the dialogue might — not necessarily true. In very close third person I could readily imagine narration using swears the same as the POV character might use them in dialogue.)

:e2coffee:
 
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Ari Meermans

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The following statement by Lakey (above) very lightly touches on an issue I've often thought about because I've addressed it in a few beta reads and noted it sometimes in SYW:
(Oh, and someone above said narration should be more formal and not use swears even where the dialogue might — not necessarily true. In very close third person I could readily imagine narration using swears the same as the POV character might use them in dialogue.)

Author-as-narrator. VERY easy to fall into this one even in close third if you aren't careful. More often though it's a "trap" that authors fall into when narrating in omniscient—which, yes, is not often used anymore—or when worrying overmuch about proper grammar. Author-as-narrator may sometimes be appropriate in certain instances such as when the author is meant to be understood as an unnamed character (as an example) but that's advanced craftsmanship so if you're doing it, make sure you're doing it purposefully . . . as well as purposely.
 
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mewellsmfu

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This is great stuff. Thank you do much for the input. Marian, I must confess, I searched every possible way to find swear words except for the one you mentioned. Profanity. Of course. Banging my head on the dictionary.

This feedback is really helpful.
 
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