To Swear or Not To Swear

     I missed a lot of updates because blah blah blah life happens, nobody cares, let's move on.  Hopefully I'll be able to make that up to you all, so here's an "I'm sorry" article that ends with almost everyone already in the right!  Excellent job, you beautiful readers and writers, jolly good form!

     So, should you swear in your book?  Should you not swear?

     The answer is yes.

     We live in a world in which cursing is the norm--whether you yourself swear or not, you know people who do, and many of the people who don't typically condone swearing will swear from time to time--when their kid gets themselves arrested, when they stub their toe, when they mindlessly repeat whatever their parents just said without thinking.  And it sells!  People care less and less about vulgar language these days; my generation (and those before and after mine, naturally) is casting aside the stigma as the words lose their power, and we'll probably be seeing brand new curse words coming in to take their place in the future.  People swear, and that's realistic.

     But if you aren't comfortable with cursing?  Don't curse.  There's still a large population that dislikes vulgarity, and unless the dialogue is written poorly, no one who does swear is going to care that the F-bomb hasn't been dropped.  They probably won't even notice!

     So ultimately, it's up to you!  Find what you're comfortable with and stick to it.

     If you're torn up about it, though, here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Your Characters.     If you're on the fence, this might be the most important question of all.  What kind of person is your character?  Are they rough, tough, tumble?  Crass?  Do they delight in offending others?  Or are they sweet, demure, easily embarrassed or overprotected?  Or somewhere in between?  Maybe the latter fits Clarissa to a T--but she loves watching the look on others' faces when they hear a high-voiced little darling call her teacher a cunt.  Or perhaps the former more accurately describes Thomas--but his mother died when he was young, and since she never cared for foul language, he pays homage to her by trying not to cuss.  At the end of the day, who your character is will best determine whether they'll swear.  Try to analyze each of your characters closely and determine the best lingual choice for each.  When in doubt, let the characters talk it out.                                                                                                     
2. Your Audience.     This is one I personally pay less attention to, but if you're writing for a specific audience it could be important to consider.  I mean, nine times out of ten you wouldn't write a picture book where every fifth word was fuck (although the exception is a masterpiece), and a devout elderly Christian probably wouldn't care for something like Stephen King's Firestarter (true story--I borrowed the book from the library a couple years ago only to find that someone had run through every curse word with black sharpie).  If you're writing for an intended audience, you might want to analyze what that audience wants and make your decisions based on that.                                             
3. Levels and Balance.     There are levels to cursing.  You have things like My Little Pony, without a curse word in sight, or books like Harry Potter, where only one curse word was ever really used.  Then there's Stephen King, sowing and reaping casual cusses as far as the eye can see, and Homestuck, where nothing would be the same if it weren't for Andrew Hussie's famed flagrancy.  My Little Pony and similar shows find ways around swearing that seem organic and realistic for the age group appealed to; same thing with Harry Potter.  None of the dialogue seems tacky or unintentionally hilarious/infuriating, and the one use of obscenities is, without a doubt, grand.  

                My mother and I listened to The Deathly Hollows on CD a few months after the book came out, and when Molly finally cut loose at the end and cried, "Get away from my daughter, you bitch!" it had us standing and cheering.  It was a superb use of powerful language, made all the more powerful by its absence in the rest of the story.  If Molly had been known to curse like a sailor, the line would have fallen a little flat due to common exposure--you probably don't go outside and ogle every tree you see, because trees are pretty commonplace in this world.  It's the same for cursing--most people don't jump when a teenager swears, but when a seven-year-old tells someone to go fuck themselves, holding about their person all the vicious malice they're capable of, it can take a few minutes for the words to settle in.  Exposure causes expectation.  Keep that in mind.

                At these levels, it's a delicate balancing act for people who are typically exposed to cursing.  For those who aren't--well, I've never really been one of those kids, but for nine or ten years I WAS a kid who didn't believe in cursing.  For myself, at least.  And it was easier then to write for children than it is now.  Growing up is tough on your sensibilities, kids, I don't recommend it.

                At the more "vulgar" level, the balancing act shifts to retaining intelligence and coherence without sacrificing realism.  People swear; people swear a lot, some more than others.  Some people (Second Selectman Rennie in Under The Dome) use substitutes for actual curse words while others (Doc Scratch in Homestuck) curse almost not at all, and others still (Karkat Vantas) don't seem capable of speaking without spewing forth a volcano of molten obscenities.  King does an excellent job with his character development, and typically doesn't swear in narration unless it's attached to the thoughts of said characters.  Hussie, on the other hand, swears whenever the fuck he feels like in his narration--the intelligence in his work is demonstrated instead through advanced lingual skill and the plot itself.

                Whether you curse or not, it's about balance.  Do you think it's easier to avoid cursing and preserve intelligence, or to curse and preserve intelligence?  Either way, that's what you're aiming for; preserving intelligence and coherence.  Think it over, look at a few different styles of writing, and try to figure out which option you think is best for you.  Not for anyone else; just you.  It's your story, after all.


     Like I said, in the end, whatever you choose, if it's right for you, it's the right decision.
   
     Justification for not cursing:  It's not realistic, it doesn't fit the characters, it doesn't fit the story.
 
     Justification for cursing:  It's realistic, it fits the characters, it fits the story.

     Just one request, though, from the depths of my heart--please, whatever you do, don't demonize cursing or the people who curse.  No, it's not a large population, less than ten percent of the roughly 2.4% of children with Tourette's have it, but children and adults with coprolalia can't control that they curse, and the looks and whispers and insults garnered because people so highly associate swearing with uneducated, uncouth heathens can be overwhelming.  I might get into that in another post, but just remember that while swearing is sometimes a choice or indicative of lesser mental capacities--sometimes it's just a product of genetics or society.

     TL;DR:  Do what works for you.