How do you handle profanity?

Discussion in 'Setting Development' started by Montego Bay, Dec 21, 2015.

  1. Jeni

    Jeni Member

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    I agree with Cogito, a little profanity can add character and get a point across but a sure fire way to lose my interest is to show me a book, poem, or movie with a profanity as every other word. It becomes crass and pulls from the storyline. Its ok to show me something about a character in the way that he/she speaks but to continue that line as every other word will suffer me to lose interest quickly. I am a romance fan especially historical romance but I wont buy a book with a sample that is full of hard core profanity.
     
  2. Seraph751

    Seraph751 If I fell down the rabbit hole... Contributor

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    If your characters are true to their personalities then good, bad, coarse, elegant, then there should not be a problem because for them it is natural. While your friends may be shocked if you cursed, they may not be as shocked when your characters do so because that is a part of who they are.
     
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  3. BoddaGetta

    BoddaGetta Active Member

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    It's like using a unique spice. You might use that one particular spice in moderation for one unique food group, but not in most other foods. And if you use too much, even for that one meal it's supposed to go with, it will ruin everything.

    If it matches the character's personality [and isn't used too often], it's fine. Or if there is one straight edged character and there is a poignant moment that stresses them to the point of letting a curse slip through, it can have an effective impact.
     
  4. TheWingedFox

    TheWingedFox Banned

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    I added a few profanities, but then decided my novel is best suited for an early teen audience, and so decided to drop them, because I want to market it to that age group.

    The difficulty there is how to get (particularly) teens to convey cursing when there are slang terms used quite constantly in those cultures which I can't use.

    Profanities often express anger, so it's just a writer's job to express that in a cleaner, and usually more literary, way.
     
  5. Samuel Lighton

    Samuel Lighton Senior Member

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    I handle profanity honestly. Then again, profanity doesn't phase me at all. I owe that to working in a builder's pub for seven years.

    If a character would swear, they swear. If a character wouldn't, then they wont. For me it's a case of who my characters are. Do they swear only when they're angry? Do they swear because it's just a part of their conversational vocabulary? Sometimes it doesn't have to mean anything. And although it's crass humour, I do find this hilarious and it almost illustrates my point:



    I kind of live by that philosophy. Not the gratuitous swearing, just that it doesn't really hurt anyone. Offend? Sure, but at the same time, when you fill your writing with people, they're going to act like people. Not just censored PC mannequins. And people offend each other all the time. Swearing is as much a character tool as anything else. For example, I've got a character that swears all the fuckin' time because, well, it's just his way. He never means anything by it, it's just how he knows to talk. On the other hand I have a character who is often angry, AND SWEARS BECAUSE IT'S HIS ONLY FUCKING OUTLET THAT'S REMOTELY FUCKING HEALTHY. I also have a character who recognises the distinction and likes the first character but dislikes the second because of the reasons above.
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2016
  6. Lew

    Lew Contributor Contributor

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    One of my characters is a Roman soldier, and profanity is part of his normal lexicon, though I keep it mostly light and in English for the most part. God-cursed instead of Goddamn, and one Latin one, fellator cocksucker, when he is really pissed. Son of a bitch, bastard, hell and damn all well sprinkled in day to day speech, exactly the way I would expect a senior sergeant in a male environment to use them. He never swears around women, though after he marries, his wife gets to hear his candid observations on occasion.

    His friend and senior officer (who gets legion command afterward) uses hell and damn, but sparingly, mostly in humorous, not angry context. Very controlled in speech and action under stress

    The girl uses bitch, when she is pissed at the other female (she has cause), hell, damn and son-of-a bitch, usually copying the centurion's fractured Latin, from whom she learned them (she becomes centurion's wife). "I'll kill yer, yer son of a bitch, I'll kill yer!" And she means it, when her consort attempts for the last time to beat her, before her new life with Antonius begins. And later when drunk, tells really off-color joke with hilarious sexual connotations to a group of men with whom she has been riding security, who gave her a very hard time before they accepted her as part of the team. Part of male and female bonding in the first century, such as it was.

    The senator hardly ever uses profanity, but when he refers to someone as fellator you know he means it!
     
  7. TheWingedFox

    TheWingedFox Banned

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    ...I might use that on some of my colleagues...see you later, fellator.
     
  8. Lew

    Lew Contributor Contributor

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    And get away with it, if they don't speak Latin!
     
  9. Michaelhall2007

    Michaelhall2007 New Member

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    I agree 100% with this guy.
    If the protagonist is upset at someone for sleeping with his wife, the reader would think less of the author if he just said" oh, fiddle sticks"
     
  10. PassTheDrinks

    PassTheDrinks New Member

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    I don't swear myself, either. But I will add the words to my character's speech if that is how my character(s) are. I actually do not feel bad putting it into my characters as I would if I used such words myself. I don't swear because I just don't think to. I am not offended by it, and actually grew up around it. My brother was swearing by 14 and my 13 year old sister swears like a sailor and no one bats an eye. All my friends swear and I believe I even heard my grandma let it out once (that was odd). I'm just the only one I know who doesn't do it. And if a word was read behind my back of one of my character's swearing, no one said anything about it. But they all know swearing is not my thing, since they make fun of me for it. Even have tried to coax me into it when we were teenagers. Which I did not amuse them.

    What I am saying is if you do want your character to swear, modestly or profanely, go ahead and do it.
     

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