To curse or not to curse....

I agree with the first post...
you don't always have to curse, or say every single curse. I have several scenes where basically in some sort of battle "Kate" will curse...it would be unrealistic otherwise. However, to curse all the time kills the power of it.
It's a balancing act on a tightrope to be honest.

 

I think that there is a link between cursing and gender, especially with the 'c- word'. Although i've never understood why the 'C- word' is seen as offensive, especially when its male counterpart is barely offensive at all.

 

It's interesting. Maybe because my friends and I used it without batting an eyelash I am desensitized to it. And perhaps we do it because we are girls and we like to own that word, eliminate its ugliness. In the same vein as black people using the n-word. Or maybe it's just fun. Who knows?

And I agree with Cpn Anon---why is no synonym for penis ever as offensive as the c-word?

 

I don't use cussing in my fiction because, honestly, I don't cuss. Some of my friends cuss, but I don't, so I don't write them.

I'm not knocking anyone who does, I love Stephen King, and Joe Hill, both of those authors are very crude. Including and excluding swearing can have good and bad qualities.

I think it seems less classy to place in cussing (unless it's extremely sparingly), but at the same time it's difficult to be realistic without them. Not impossible mind you...some people just don't cuss, and there are ways around it even when you're writing someone who does.

Considering both things have their faults, considering both can really ruin a story if you do it wrong, this is all in the hands of the writer. If you can pull off a story realistically without swearing, good, wonderful, more power to you. If you can't, and you feel more comfortable with cuss words, and you pull that off without going overboard (and making it too unrealistic...King does this sometimes, like when he has little kids cuss around adults, who rarely seem shocked at all...that seems a little awkward considering not EVERYONE is THAT open with swearing, no matter your beliefs on the matter), alright, go for it.

Your audience of course, comes into play. Don't write cuss words (or use them extremely sparingly, I've seen people get away with about one at the most) in young adult novels, especially not in children's novels ex: Goose Bumps. If you write Christian lit, it might be best to steer clear of them as well, though that's becoming less true gradually.

In the end, as I said, it's in the hands of the writer whether it is good or bad to include or exclude cuss words.

Edit: To further along a point, I think that people over exaggerate cussing in society, they think it's more popular than it really is. I remember a friend walking up behind me and slapping my back as hard as he could. I'm a small guy, so I buckled over in pain and cringed...but I didn't have an urge to say anything, especially not to swear. He looked at me wide eyed and said -- "How did you not just now cuss?"

Even if I did cuss, in that moment, I didn't want to speak at all...so my reaction would remain the same. I catch my dad, who is quite vulgar at times ("f" this, and "f" that), saying "Aw, shucks" and "Frig!" and "Shoot" and even "Ah, rats!" Not for censorship...no, he cusses around me, in conversation with me, all the time.

My point is, it's not always the norm, even with people who do cuss, sometimes they don't. It's like...saying that it's required to say "My toe!" every time you stub your toe...realism is more based in reaction than words, and people's language can change without reason.

 

Personally if a character would do it then it should be written down.

 

While the decision is ultimately up to the writer, I think that cursing is largely unnecessary.

 

Well, iv'e read a few books that use curses but its kind of a turn off for me, I believe it would be better to make up your own curse word. For instance

F#&*- Freck
S#!+- shniggles (just kidding) ****aki mushrooms!

Something around those lines make it a little softer than the blatant or random curse word. And uually after im done reading i start using that curse lol! "Aww freck me sideways !!"

 

Cursing isn't supposed to be soft though. Perhaps if it's a missed bus or something like that, but otherwise, it should be hard and empowering.

 

But when a character curses sometimes it's pretty abrupt and could change your view on the character, sometimes that happens to me. It feels random. Unless it is a sailor/truck driver/bar owner I really would hate it if characters cursed.

 

Perhaps it's about different social climates then. Cursing is pretty universal where i live; from teachers to seven year olds. If someone swears it doesn't change my view, to me it seems normal. Is cursing where you live still relatively taboo?

 

Its not taboo, but man teachers and 7 year olds, im pretty sure thats a little too common. Everyone curses, but in a novel it takes away from a character. And plus, the seven year old scares me, ive never heard Mommy i want a F#$%!*$ candy bar!

 

Surprisingly, some children do speak like that around their mothers, although i mostly meant on the streets. It's also surprising how much abuse you take from children around here as well.
Granted, there are still people who don't curse much, and situations where it's still considered impolite to curse. But overall, the stigma with cursing is washing away rapidly (even the once horrible 'c' word isn't as bad as it once was, it's used freely between many of my peers).

I don't think it particularly takes anything away from a character, as long as it isn't forced it's just a passing thing. To me, if a character curses after something happens, it doesn't change how i view that character (unless it's an elderly woman, or someone i wouldn't expect to swear [if it's outside of their character, if it's an elderly woman who swears then thats fine, but if it's an elderly woman who still believes in old fashioned values, then it would be odd (unless it's trying to show hypocracy or something)]).
To me, making up curse words would detract from a character; if a series of bad things happen to a man (fired, broken up relationships etc) and he says "snap" or "sugar", that character is ruined. If he screams curse words, i believe that character, it doesn't alter my view on him because it isn't out of place for him to curse. There's something distinctly cartoon like about a series of asterix or !$£%.

I definately think that region has to be a factor though.

 

I can agree with you on that sense then

 

I have to agree with most- I used to think that certain choice expletives were necessary to get a point across as opposed to expressing this feeling through your writing. Now I believe that most cuss words sound cheesy and fake in general writing.

 

I try to vary it depending on character and situation: the upper class aristocratic characters don't swear (apart from the occassional damn) because they have been well brought up. This leads to some rather quaint moments.

The soldiers swear like troopers, but try and control it in the presence of women or children.

The working class characters swear, because they haven't been brought up properly at all.

That said, I rarely use hard swearing (there is just one instance of the F-word in the whole thing, and just a handful of the S-word. Most of the swearing is low level stuff like: "When I find the bastard who kidnapped my sister I'm going to fillet him like day old fish." or "I am Michael Callistus and I am drop dead bloody marvellous!"

I tend to use blaspheming rather than swearing to get across exclamation, with "Turoth's Cock!" being my favourite when the protagonists sees something that shocks or astonishes him.

 

I'm also not into continuous swearing. A little D or H here and there is alright for me. My character Trey even cusses sometimes, but only when very surprised or angry, and even then I'm trying to keep him level.

But other authors, as much as I'd rather they didn't, can swear all they want. It's their book, let 'em cuss up a storm... which I've seen literally happen before.

EDIT: Yay! First post of page 5!

 

Your habits are kind of the opposite of mine. I never curse (except 'shit' but that's a very mild swear word in my country) out loud. (Mind you, I do curse a lot in my brain. I suppose it depends on your religious viewpoint whether you find that acceptable.) But when I'm writing, I so easily find myself wanting to let my characters curse.

On my policies for them, I like when an author uses curse words if it has a function. Take Looking for Alaska by Jonh Green. His characters swear all the time, but the amount of swearing per person fits with each particular personality. It also mimics real-life teen language. Still, it wouldn't be fair not to mention that this book did make #1 on last year's ALA banned books list.

 

The answer's pretty simple, and probably what countless others in this thread have already said. Don't use it for the sake of it. If the scene calls for it, and I mean really calls for it, use it. But even then, it has to sit comfortably with your characters and/or narrator. Case in point - Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. Can you imagine that book with no swearing?