Swearing

[Froggie4ever]

Okay, I'm writing a fantasy YA novel. I believe firmly in not actually putting swear words in writing, and just writing "he/she swore" or marking it out with "****!" or "----!". But since this is a fantasy world, they'd probably have their own set of swear words. My question is, is it still a bad idea to write out the actual swear words that I come up with, or should I just bleep them out? (I'm writing a fantasy war story, so it would be more realistic if there was some swearing) Opinions.

 

[liesje]

Good Question! I've never liked writing swear words out either. Personally I find that when people star them out (eg ****) I find myself trying to guess what it is, which isn't always so good because I get all these words going round in my head, so maybe just writing 'he/she swore' would be best, or making you own ones up in the fantasy language. Depends what you feel comfortable with, I guess.

 

[GryffinSong]

I like the way Anne McCaffrey handled it in her dragon series. She made up swear words that weren't at all related to real swear topics, such as "shards" which just referred to a broken dragon egg, I assume. It got the idea across, without bringing to mind any negative concepts.

 

[Tariel]

I would just keep the made up expressions in there, because that's what I like the see the most.

Side note: most of the expletives I use in everyday life are "fictional," or they came from books.

 

[sunstruckdream]

I don't see what's wrong with writing out a made-up expletive. That's probably what I'd do.

 

[Radagast]

I like the way Anne McCaffrey handled it in her dragon series. She made up swear words that weren't at all related to real swear topics, such as "shards" which just referred to a broken dragon egg, I assume...

And which made sense in context. Dragons were important in that world, and so dragon-related swear words made sense. A good example of imagining the characters and then working out what they would say under stress.

Watership Down uses a made-up language instead. I vaguely remember "silflay hraka" as a swear word...

 

[Axioma]

Made up swearwords usually work best, because they fulfill two contradictory functions at the same time - they give the world a feeling of realism, because you know what, people DO swear, and sometimes they swear a lot, and AT THE SAME TIME, they drive it home that this isn't Earth and that these people have different customs and different swearwords. It makes everything at the same time instantly recognizable and alien and new.

But you can get away with only reporting that someone swore if they do it for an extended period of time, such as say after hitting their thumb with a hammer. There's no point in writing line after line of made up swearword, so you can just inform the reader that the man swore for some time, and that the heroine was quite impressed with his vocabulary and had to write down some of the new words for later use.

 

[Kokopelli]

About the only "made up" swear words I use are from Battlestar Galactica.

Other than that, I don't hold back on the language if the situation arises.

 

[Subdood]

Personally, I prefer to try to paint the scene such that the reader can put themselves into it and fill in such expletives for themselves, thus foregoing the actual need to insert the word itself.

Mature characters (as in real life) have learned how to articulate something without having to resort to crude expletives.

Our more crude characters necessarily (or by definition) haven't learned this. To be real, such characters need to express themselves as their character determines. But I think a good writer can do this effectively for the reader without having to resort to doing too much of it themselves. An occasional expletive isn't altogether unwarranted, but it might be a good exercise to try to rewrite such passages without them.

In other words, we needn't "be" our characters to characterize them sufficiently.

 

[sunstruckdream]

Personally, I try to keep the language mild. I feel it's unrealistic to write a character who would absolutely curse and never, ever have them do it. 'He/She swore' works a lot of the time, but not for every situation. Yes, mature people in real life often can articulate something without swearing, but with real, palpable characters, there are moments other than moments of articulate, carefully-constructed expression. People blurt stuff out, say things without thinking, react to things, and yell stuff - they just do. No, you don't need to 'be' your characters to characterize them adeptly, but all you have in a story to convey a character is words. I'm personally of the the opinion that certain words, though they may be harsher, are sometimes necessary. Don't get me wrong - there are some words you'll NEVER see in anything I write - but I don't see what's so horrifically disgusting about the 'd-word,' for instance. Yeah, it can mean to be damned to hell, but it's also an expression of frustration that beats a lot of the crass or vulgar ones by a long shot, and a lot of the characters I create would have no problem using it. I don't like to use it in life - but they're not me. I draw the line at more shocking words so as not to dishonor God or pull focus from the story, but yeah. Those are my feelings on it.

 

[SkyArk17]

Personally, I think it's okay to let the readers know the swear word, as long as your not trying to encourage the reader to use it in an inappropriate manner (like to berate someone).