In order to ward off a de-rail in the "Your Author Appeal/Creator Thumbprint" thread, I created this.

So, how do you handle cursing in your works?

edited 6th Jun '11 12:05:28 PM by chihuahua0

I use it like I do most forms of dialogue.

Sloppily, but with effort.

Read my stories!

I neither avoid it nor throw it in for the sake of it. They're like any other words to me.

edited 6th Jun '11 12:07:24 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.

Depends on the story. If I want to make it all-ages, I'll avoid swearing, usually by just writing around it but sometimes by using translated or made-up words. But some more "adult" stories benefit from strong language and the characters would seem insufficiently emotionally invested if they didn't swear sometimes ("well darn, our life support systems are down").

edited 6th Jun '11 12:10:07 PM by jewelleddragon

It's largely setting-dependent for me. Since most of my settings involve warfare, it's pretty common.

yey

Since I don't curse in real life (I can say thinks like dumb, idiot, and jerk, but not stupid, crap, hell, etc.) I tend to not use it a lot. I usually use what a lot of Young Adult authors use by saying, "he/she cursed, '[insert dialogue here]'". If my character do curse, it's either a mild Precision F-Strike (Oh crap, Justin thought) or they just naturally use mild swears.

Excess use of it makes me uncomfortable, but a good amount of use to it makes the dialogue more realistic.

I don't use made-up swears, since most works only make one and use it all the time (D'Arvit, frak). The only work that executes it greatly is The Maze Runner, which uses three swears.

edited 6th Jun '11 12:14:05 PM by chihuahua0

Stupid and hell are considered strong curses? Wow, I've always been using them when I wanted mild ones.

Personally I don't mind using cursing, It feels stupid idioty to avoid cursing when a character logically would. Same with reading, though I usually don't mind stuff like "he cursed". Though at least be a little more imaginative with the alternatives.

As far as cencory goes, I find it only acceptable when they're replaced with @%*&#! like these. When used in places where you don't expect it, (Heroes, for example) it's hilarious.

For some reason, the word stupid sounds strong to me compared with crap and hell. I don't know why.

Crap and hell is sort in the low-moderate tier of curse words (PG). Words like b****** and b**** I would say low-strong (PG-13).

Symbol swearing? Nah...Too narmy.

edited 6th Jun '11 12:22:07 PM by chihuahua0

Hmmm... can someone give examples of high curse words then?

(As for the symbols, it goes without saying they are only acceptable when used for comedic effect.)

edited 6th Jun '11 12:24:42 PM by Dealan

if a situation is serious, i wont use any. even characters known for swearing wont swear.

hopefully it'll create the effect of Let's Get Dangerous!

but for the most part i just think swearing in a story that takes itself seriously ruins the atmosphere, possibly because i dont want to trust the readers to not turn into 7 or 13 year olds who think swear words are inherently funny

I think the high ones would be things like fuck, shit, bitch, motherfucker, asshole and cocksucker.

When in doubt, stick with George Carlin's Big 7.

Also, possibly assblaster, though I don't think that's in common enough use to qualify.

edited 6th Jun '11 12:32:11 PM by Gault

yey

In Endless Conflict characters swear like soldiers just when you'd expect it too!

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."

Fuuuuuuuck I use asshole as mild one too. Not to mention fuck. Or shit. Or bitch.

Swearing is Serious Business in English, apparently.

Whenever I would curse, my characters curse. Sometimes I'll go and edit it out later, when it's getting too heavy or isn't appropriate to the character, but it's still there. I very often slip into Sophisticated as Hell along the line too, just because that's what I do when I'm relaxed.

I also do the whole "Alice cursed, throwing the box to the side." sort of thing as a stand in during fights and tense situations. Especially where what bad words they're making a string of doesn't really matter, just the fact that they realize they're fucked.

Probably the only one I don't use on a regular basis, outside of racial slurs, is c***. I can't even type it out — it feels like I'm breaking a really bad rule, and should be ashamed of even trying.

edited 6th Jun '11 12:42:37 PM by Dec

Nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanit Deviantart.

I have fun making up racial slurs and insults for my more species-diverse works. They get... um.. they're very crude, as these sorts of things are wont to be.

I myself am reasonably desensitized to curse words. The only one that I ever did a double-take at ("cunt") was recently made a normal word thanks to The Book of Mormon. There's no reason, except for the sake of gearing a book towards a younger audience, why I can't have the characters swear the paint off the walls if it makes sense for them to.

i. hear. a. sound.

This, pretty much.

Although I suppose most of my works lately have been not entirely serious, so narm hasn't been a concern for me.

Sort of relevant: Has anyone seen In Bruges? If yes, did you feel that the constant swearing helped or hurt the humor? IMO it helped, since it was so over the top.

^^ I think it's a little weird that people use cock/dick so liberally, but not cunt. Not a big deal, just a thing of curiosity.

edited 6th Jun '11 3:06:55 PM by melloncollie

I don't swear in real life, ever. So I'm more then a little reluctant to put swearing in my works. I will have curses when it seems appropriate for the characters and the situation, though - saying "Bob swore" at a "Precision F-Strike Moment" would be a little jarring to read. I write my works only for myself, so I'm not worried about keeping things age-appropriate - but I'll only write things that offend myself if I feel it's actually necessary (which is also the main reason I've never written a sex scene - very few can't just be skipped over with a Sex Discretion Shot to achieve the same narrative purpose).

In more comedic works, like my comics, I will have fun with censorship.

Edit: Sex Discretion Shot isn't a trope?

edited 6th Jun '11 3:11:28 PM by nrjxll

It's Sexy Discretion Shot, but Redirects Are Free.

I perfer the "he swore" method, since a lot of Young Adult books use it, and that's the genre I'm writing in.

IN BRUGES IS THE BEST FILM EVERRRRR

edited 6th Jun '11 3:33:27 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.

I agree — I'm pretty sure it's more of a social conditioning thing than anything. Part of it is that other strong swear words — fuck especially — has been played around with so much on the internet and with my friends that it looses some of the impact. Things like "cock-gobbler" and "man-whore" just make the words sound silly, and while the words are still dirty, they're dirty in a way that's kinda fun.

But I've never heard the c-word played around with like that in real life, partly because no one I've met IRL uses it period. Because of that, however, it's like the last sanctified dirty word in my head, and is probably the last word that people could shock me with by saying. And considering my tolerance levels to cursing, that's really weird on my end.

Nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanit Deviantart.

I'm pretty bad about swearing in my writing. I censored it for a short while, before finding ways around the stronger ones ("He muttered his favorite four letter word" is pretty effective, I think, and it amuses me for some reason). Recently, though, (specifically, right before writing a scene wherein one character who's supposed to swear like a sailor is burned) I realized not writing it was a form of limiting myself.

I've got two guns pointed west and a broken compass.

^^ Heh, I get what you mean. Despite what I've been saying I still do the double-take when someone actually says cunt out loud in actual conversation, mostly because it's unexpected.

^^^ INORITE WE SHOULD WATCH IT TOGETHER SOMETIME

This amuses me also, if that helps. Dunno how well it would do in a serious work though.

edited 6th Jun '11 4:32:08 PM by melloncollie

People who curse, curse; people who don't, don't. Simple as that.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

I've only used it in serious stuff, but it's been comic relief every time.

I've got two guns pointed west and a broken compass.

I swear quite frequently, so I actually have to dial it back in my writing. Most of the time, when writing dialogue, I just have to really get into the character's head and write what they would say.

No one believes me when I say angels can turn their panties into guns.