Do you swear?
Last month, I shared a photo on my Facebook stream about the universe. It had stars and mountains and a lot of swearing in it. As soon as she saw it, my mother called. She was surprised I would swear on Facebook. Wasn’t I worried what other people would think?
Well, after debating with her the differences between swearing on Facebook, and sharing a photo on Facebook that someone else had created with swearing in it, I said I thought it was okay because the swearing was meant in reverence and awe.
In my head, I also thought ‘wow, she really does not read much of my writing’ – because a lot of my characters swear. It makes reading my work aloud to groups of eager listeners tricky for me because, well, I don’t really swear myself. In fact, I get embarrassed when I have to read the words aloud (come and watch me squirm sometime, I go red in the face!).
Is it realistic fiction without?
So why do my characters swear? Simple – most of the people in my life swear. People swear on television, in movies, on the street too… I prefer it if friends and family don’t swear in front of my children, but that’s because their world is so different to that of adults and I want to keep it that way as long as possible. I also don’t like Hubbie to swear in arguments. But then I am gifted with the ability to rile him more than most… (he he).
For the majority of adults, however, swearing is a normal part of everyday life. If they don’t swear themselves, like me (unless I stub a toe), then they know someone who does. So I wanted to know… how do writers handle swearing in their fiction? Are they happy to create characters who swear, or does it depend on their own use of profanity?
Along came one of my famous Facebook polls and, after a couple of weeks voting, here are the results:
Results as at 22 March 2013
Incorporates results from Facebook & Twitter.
Thanks to my writer-buddies who answered the poll or who commented on it: Margo Lanagan, Catriona Sparks, Jason Fischer, Mary Victoria, Laura E. Goodin, Geoff Brown, Gillian Polack, Graham Storrs, Kylie Scott, Andrew J McKiernan, Bruce Lyman, Martin Livings, Alan Baxter, Nansi Kunze, Leife Shallcross, Leigh Blackmore, Tom Dullemond, David McDonald, Imelda Evans, Jodi Cleghorn, Ross Hamilton, Zoya Nojin, Anne Swan, Füzzy Mijmark, Josh Whiteman, Matthew Morrison, Wade Bowmer, Devin Watson, Laura Miller, Carol Neal Thomas, Author Katherine Vucicevic, Barry Allen Gibbons II, Jo McClelland, Dorothy-Jane Daniels, Jacqueline Cross, Amanda Jayne, Kate Shapter, Simon Dillon, Pippa Jay, Simon Robertson, Simon Dewar
This was my most commented-on poll to date, with a lot of writers debating the when and how of their characters swearing. A couple of writers were keen to establish that they have never used and would never use swearing just for shock value. For me, that’s a given though. I don’t know any writers like that 🙂
I had lots of humorous comments too, on both Facebook and Twitter, declaring that characters who don’t swear are barely worth writing about (thanks old copywriting buddy Josh – ha ha).
But all joking aside, it seems I have a clear answer to my question. While some writers create characters who swear and some don’t, most create them ‘sometimes’ (irrespective of whether they swear themselves). Given that ‘sometimes’ could be said to be a qualification of ‘yes’, then the results reconfigured more simply give:
Results as at 22 March 2013
Phew! I’m relieved you all think swearing is a common enough human characteristic to represent it in your writing, to various degrees. It is a realistic approach to fiction, I feel.
Why we humans swear… well that’s another matter. On episode 142 of the 2010 season of MythBusters, the hosts devised an experiment that proved swearing aloud aids pain tolerance by 30%. Perhaps that’s why a lot of my characters swear – I do like to push their physical and emotional boundaries, he he.
As for that Facebook post of mine that sparked this discussion… it’s here: “The Universe is ?#@*&%! rad”.
Now… what about you? Do you swear yourself and does that influence whether your characters swear in your stories? Let me know in the comments below!
In a crowded shop my son tried out new swearwords he had learnt in preschool and of course everyone looked at me. I found the best way to stop him using such words was to explain they are only used when you want to make someone angry.
A good rule for a kid!
And I must admit, when I stubbed my toe on a castiron drain a couple of weeks ago, I really wanted the drain to suffer my wrath! Unfortunately, because I was outside and in earshot of the neighbours, I had to keep my wrath in check somewhat. Damn that drain!
I try not to swear, but occasionally I do so deliberately for comic effect. My children tell me off if they overhear me though…
As for my stories, I don’t think my personal beliefs on the subject have any bearing on whether they would contain swearing or not. It depends on the character, genre and context.
When I was a kid, Simon, I remember having a swearing jar for my Dad. He had to pay 5p every time he swore. I can’t remember what eventually happened to the money… but there was always plenty in the jar!
I seldom use the ‘F’ word myself. I reserve it for moments of extreme pain such as the time I dropped a heavy beam of wood on my head. I hear the word all the time in everyday conversation, films, and music though. If anything it seems more acceptable to use it in ‘polite’ conversation in the US than in the UK.
Characters in my books use it in their speech, especially in anger.
The ‘F’ word is just a word though as David Icke pointed out in a humorous comment. If you don’t like saying it, he suggested substituting the word ‘sandwich’ for it. Of course this brings a whole new meaning for the phrase ‘I’m just popping out for a sandwich’.
Ouch! How the sandwich did you drop a heavy beam of wood… on your head?!! You must be very strong to have been holding it above your head in the first place 😉
I swear a lot and my characters often swear too, but I usually receive feedback from beta readers saying “tone the swearing down”. So I am conscious about minimising the swearing depending on the character (some characters HAVE to swear a lot). I think because I do it so much it’s easy to just put it in without thinking, but readers might find the frequency jarring. So it’s one of the things I assess when editing dialogue in my stories.
Interesting that you say that, Stacey. An editor friend of mine on Twitter said the same thing. “Swearing can be harsher to read than to hear, which is why some readers/writers are cautious” she said. When it’s in your own work, and in character, it’s hard to spot. Thank goodness for beta readers!
A friend of mine saw my response on Facebook and wondered why a Christian would ever answer anything other than “Not at all”. :-/ I later got to pen a lengthy response about why that isn’t realistic.
Truth be told, it has to be in character. And most of characters copious swearing just isn’t in their character. However, I did write a short story where I let a secondary character swear a lot more than normal. It made him come across as coarse, which was exactly why I let him do it. I think it worked, but I’m not sure.
That said, my characters let fly when I feel the shock value is warranted. Like when someone is quite literally fearing for their life for the first time ever.
I think that’s exactly it. Most probably, your friend has never been in a life-threatening situation. If they were to be, I’m sure there’d be plenty of swearing!!
I am an Aussie, swearing is always appropriate! and always inappropriate, but in a good way;-) Sometimes you just need need a swear word to explain how fantastic, devastating or astronomical something is/was or always has been.
Bl**dy oath, mate, too right!