Sex scenes are a no brainer: no closed-door sex for my books. There's a sub-genre of romance for people who don't want to read sex scenes, so it's their own fault if they stray outside that and end up with a steamy book. Profanity is less clear-cut for me. I'm desensitised to pretty much everything thanks to my love of extreme horror, but at the same time I'm conscious that most people aren't. I swear casually in conversation and my friends don't bat an eyelid, but plenty of people would. My characters do swear, but they swear a lot less after edits than in first drafts. I think it was 37 'fuck's in my latest novel pre-edit, and only a handful post-edit. I don't think I lost anything by removing them, but I did probably save myself from a few disgusted readers like my mother. With this kind of thing: My issue is not the swearing, but that it sounds really cliché and unrealistic.
There is also the issue of swearing as an indication that somebody is really losing it. A character who normally doesn't swear, who suddenly screams "Fuck you!" will be a character who is really in a temper or pushed to the limit. You can lose that tool if your characters swear all the time. However, there are ways around it. Characters who swear all the time also do lose the rag on occasion, and it's a challenge to think of what they would actually do to express that rage or horror. Obviously their word choice won't be the only indicator.
Back when I wore a uniform and profanity was the norm (shit, that's approaching poetry), I injured myself in some random, minor way. Someone asked if I was okay, and another guy responded "Yeah, he's still swearing. Unless he goes quiet, he's fine." The thing is, it was a pretty accurate assessment. On a related note, I'm struggling right now with deciding how much profanity to use with a military character, since a transcript of the way they (we) talk would just be tedious.
Well I can't remember what he said really. I just typed up the closest thing to what he really said but it was something along the lines. I know he didn't say 'and I liked it' but it was still supposed to be obsurd and irrelevant to what was going on in the story though. What do you think would be a better way to get his irrational antics across?
I don't know - impossible to say without knowing the character. I just know I wouldn't want to feel (as a reader) that the author was trying to shock me with his out-there behaviour.
Well it's not quite for shock but I just wanted to make him give these crude remarks during serious matters. If there was another remark or maybe even a crude joke I could replace it with then I would consider using it.
If that's the character, write him that way. I don't really see a problem there. Those who can't stand profanity, can read something else, yeah?
