Writer Needing Some Guidance

[Wayfinder]

Hello!

I am a writer, struggling to be a novelist, and I need some guidance. I like writing short stories and other things, and I’m worried about using profanity and other things of a particularly graphic nature, possibly sexual in nature, but I don’t ever want to go so far as to have my work belong in the pages of a profane publication. I endeavour to use prose to keep the sordid stuff above the waist, so to speak, but what about profanity?

I have a series I’m thinking of where the setting is the near future, where Catholics are being persecuted but a small group of devoted monks and nuns go out to fight the evils the modern world simply can’t due to their utter lack of faith that blinds them. And I think the effect of story is a wonderful way to evangelize, but I try not so much to preach, but to show. Not get too rosy or saccharine, but to demonstrate through action how powerful faith and hope can triumph over despair and evil. In so doing, I’d like to keep this kind of realistic, but, again, I won’t go too graphic if at all possible. But profanity might be necessary in this regard.

I admit I’m no G.K. Chesterton (who is these days?), but I am trying to speak to readers of our time.

 

[laircy]

Hmmm, I wrote a similar novel last year (not published… in retrospect it was rushed and probably could have been executed much better but that is besides the point) and had a similar difficulty. I wanted to portray the evils of the culture but did not want it to be too… “bad.” I tried to do it with some euphemism and suggestion. What exactly do you mean by profanity? The use of language? I think a word here or there is fine as long as it’s not excessive… or if it’s just someone shouting a word you could say, “He cursed” or something like that.

 

[Viki63]

Did you see the TV series “Prison Break”? I was halfway through when I realized that this series, set in a prison, had not one bad word in it, There’s plenty of violence and descriptions of nasty activities, but no F bombs or others, and you don’t even notice because the characters are so well done.
I don’t think profanity is necessary to tell a realistic story, If you listen to people who use profanity in real life, theyre using it because they have poor imaginations, and can’t think of a better way to express themselves.
Writers should be able to think of better ways.

 

[seagal]

The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia both featured many epic battles between the forces of good and evil. Not a profanity among them. I read lots of secular mystery stories, and while there’s the occasional f-bomb, there’s not a lot of profanity there either. I think a good story can be written without using profanity, or, since your story seems to be more in the fantasy genre, perhaps substituting made-up profanity (“by the first egg” and “shards” are 2 from the PERN fantasy stories).

 

[Lou2U]

I might get flamed for this, but I would suggest that you do use profanity.

I’m not saying you should make it a heavy feature and I’m also not a writer, so I don’t mean to sound presumptuous or superior, but I think that the best way to show the difference between characters is how they speak and act.

You have nuns and monks? From this I can tell you will be using them to show how faith can persevere and how powerful it can be. But IMHO, you need to show the reader what faith is persevering though, which is where using profanity may help.

I just wanted to address this:

I don’t think profanity is necessary to tell a realistic story, If you listen to people who use profanity in real life, theyre using it because they have poor imaginations, and can’t think of a better way to express themselves.
Writers should be able to think of better ways.

In my opinion, profanity, whilst not necessary to tell a realistic story, isn’t used just because of “poor imaginations”. In certain books I read, authors are choosing to use them instead of not being able to think of anything better, with the sole purpose of making the reader think about why they are being used.

OP, I would say use profanity - not repeatedly, but enough to get the point across to the reader to show the difference between the modern world and the nuns and monks trying to evangelise it.

Lou

 

[Bonnie]

I find the use of profanity and vulgarity jarring - even when I like the author.

When you have a bad guy, it is better (in my opinion) to tell rather than show. In can be done well. What you don’t want to do is draw attention to the fact that you aren’t using profanity or vulgarities. In fantasy/sf you can get away with made up swearing or use foreign words (see Firefly), and in historical pieces, you can use old phrases that no longer have the punch of modern profanity.

 

[Regina7]

I agree that profanity should be skipped. It’s just not necessary. There are so few Catholic novels that when I find one, I love to share with my older kids. But if there’s cussing, I won’t.

 

[Linusthe2nd]

Hello!

I am a writer, struggling to be a novelist, and I need some guidance. I like writing short stories and other things, and I’m worried about using profanity and other things of a particularly graphic nature, possibly sexual in nature, but I don’t ever want to go so far as to have my work belong in the pages of a profane publication. I endeavour to use prose to keep the sordid stuff above the waist, so to speak, but what about profanity?

I have a series I’m thinking of where the setting is the near future, where Catholics are being persecuted but a small group of devoted monks and nuns go out to fight the evils the modern world simply can’t due to their utter lack of faith that blinds them. And I think the effect of story is a wonderful way to evangelize, but I try not so much to preach, but to show. Not get too rosy or saccharine, but to demonstrate through action how powerful faith and hope can triumph over despair and evil. In so doing, I’d like to keep this kind of realistic, but, again, I won’t go too graphic if at all possible. But profanity might be necessary in this regard.

I admit I’m no G.K. Chesterton (who is these days?), but I am trying to speak to readers of our time.

There is never any need to use " potty " or dirty or profane language. Many Catholic and non-Catholic writers have written highly successful novels without it - and also without " bed room " scenes. Appeals to sex and profane language means that the writer is either caving in to a degraded public morality or can’t write. Follow the example of clean writers like G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, Sir Authior Conin Doyle, Midhael O’Brien, etc.

Linus2nd

 

[friardchips]

Hello!

I am a writer, struggling to be a novelist, and I need some guidance. I like writing short stories and other things, and I’m worried about using profanity and other things of a particularly graphic nature, possibly sexual in nature, but I don’t ever want to go so far as to have my work belong in the pages of a profane publication. I endeavour to use prose to keep the sordid stuff above the waist, so to speak, but what about profanity?

I have a series I’m thinking of where the setting is the near future, where Catholics are being persecuted but a small group of devoted monks and nuns go out to fight the evils the modern world simply can’t due to their utter lack of faith that blinds them. And I think the effect of story is a wonderful way to evangelize, but I try not so much to preach, but to show. Not get too rosy or saccharine, but to demonstrate through action how powerful faith and hope can triumph over despair and evil. In so doing, I’d like to keep this kind of realistic, but, again, I won’t go too graphic if at all possible. But profanity might be necessary in this regard.

I admit I’m no G.K. Chesterton (who is these days?), but I am trying to speak to readers of our time.

I have to confess that I enjoy a very popular set of films about wanted criminals driving cars around the place, and they are most definitely not holy, they try and make crime out to somehow be okay if you say your grace at mealtimes; yet, no profanity! The first hint of profanity in a book or film, whether or not it is about certain areas of life, and I’m put off. The film ‘71’ I don’t recall as having hardly any swear words, if any. You remember the scenes in ‘The Passion of Christ’ with the ghastly soldier types - no swearing in the subtitles as far as I can remember. Impression given is more powerful than the vulgar expose’ of bad language. And the fact that you are asking does kind of betray a certain guilt at the idea of strong cursing. We can put our hearts on the level of people to empathise with them without having to lower our own standards when setting about the accomplishment of such a task.