Writing fiction: Using swear words?

[Portrait]

The thing is, if you use swear words when writing a polished work of fiction, it’s not because you’re angry. It’s because your character is angry, and you want to make that clear.

I am certainly not going to write a book where everyone is always polite, even though I think people should be polite. I will allow my characters to use language in an “unsavory” manner, because human interactions are not always positive or uplifting. I’m not going to ignore those moments.

The question then becomes whether one is going to say “he cursed” every time, which greatly diminishes a character’s voice and makes it easy to ignore their feelings, or whether you’re going to let them use some words you wouldn’t use in real life. I don’t use just one tactic or the other, but if what a character is saying is important, I’m going to let them say it- on their terms.

I still think it’s best to avoid it whenever you can, but I don’t think it’s always wrong, either.

Dear Kamaduck,

Cordial greetings and a very good day. Thankyou for your response.

You cannot, dear friend, drive a wedge between the real world and the world of fiction as far as the use of impious profanity is concerned. It may indeed be your character who is expressing anger but if you have him utter some expletive then that is still offensive and demoralizing to your readers, unless, of course, their moral sensibilities have been entirely dulled and blunted. Tragically, that is so often the case nowadays and explains why there is widespread indifference as to the use of bad and uncouth language.

If, dear friend, you are a Catholic author you will surely want to write novels that are free of debasing elements, like profanity, as you will be desirous that reading your book does not leave a blot on the conscience or a stain on the character. In the words of St. Paul you will, hopefully, want your literary works to encourage men to think on “…whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report…” (Phillip 4: 8). Our world is already deluged enough with culturally unhealthy reading material and thus Catholic authors of all people should want to write novels that stir up men to cultivate their taste for the higher things - things that challenge the mind, deepen the character and foster a love of excellence, be it literature or the arts. Profanity in fictional works will never achieve this, whatever other merits they may happen to possess, because it always spoils and degrades them, irrespective of what motivated the author to use such unsavoury language in the first place.

As I said to another poster, dear friend, since the Sixties there has undoubtedly been a breaking loose from the moral uprightness of previous generations, when a robust Christian consciousness held sway. What is urgently needed today is for devout Catholic authors to steadfastly resist the ever rising tide of moral and cultural deterioration in their midst by writing some jolly decent literary stuff, devoid of smut and profanity. This can be done without characters having to be excessively polite and genteel, but it can also be done without the use of four-letter words and other unsavoury language. As has been observed, the great classical writers managed to acheive this up until about the late 1960’s. Their fictional works were still a thrilling and riveting read and their characters were often quite menacing, but there was an absence of unholy profanity. If good tales could be written then, without having to have recourse to the use of bad language, then why not now? Is it that our decadent age has brainwashed us into believing that, because we are now liberated from so called Victorian inhibitions and prudery, there is no place for ‘bland’ and ‘corny’ morality tales? Have we really come to the point that to be realistic our novels must be gritty and nasty, our characters ‘mean’ and frequently uttering expletives or uncouth street slang to prove that they are credible? If that is so then it is high time that Catholic authors who are worth their salt strive earnestly to reverse this most lamentable state of affairs, otherwise they also will be complicit in the moral declension of our age.

It is, dear friend, never morally permissible to use profanity, irrespective of the context, since profanity does not comport to the Christian standard of language. Therefore, if a Catholic author has his characters speak profanity, then he is undeniably not being a credible witness of his most holy religion and neither is he commending it to others. Non-Christians who have ample opportunity to observe the offences against good taste commited by those who profess faith will hardly be encouraged to assume the mantel of Christ’s religion themselves. Catholic writers who resort to profanity in their literary efforts only bring our most holy faith into disrepute in the eyes of the watching world. (cf. Rom. 2: 24).

It is time that Catholic authors dare to be different and start writing culturally healthy reading material that will truly ennoble and which will, please God, arrest the moral decay of our Western world.

God bless.

Warmest good wishes,

Portrait

Pax

 

[edwest2]

Firstly, I don’t think you ever said why bad words are worse than violence- you said they’re both terrible things.

Secondly, nobody here is arguing for freely using profanity all the time. That’s just bad writing no matter how you slice it. The current argument is between those who want no profanity whatsoever, and those who think it’s OK within limits if used for purposes of realism and characterization. Nobody wants to write a story where children “spew expletives” (unless you classify 16 year olds as children, in which case some of us might).

Nobody here wants to write what you’re describing.

First, as a professional editor, the portrayal of violence is judged on a case by case basis. There is a spectrum involved which are heavily influenced by the obvious examples writers are surrounded with. All those bad influences are obvious when I read an individual manuscript.

So, let’s look at violence in writing and the spectrum.

1. Minimal detail. He died or he was murdered by gunshot or stabbed to death or caught in an explosion. In today’s ‘over the top, explicit, blood flying everywhere is expected’ cultural mindset, this is consistent with the standards we hold. And we do not want to see the other stuff in a manuscript.
2. Medium detail. Some detail about say, a torture where “he attached a strange device” or “he was badly beaten and bloody” or “I could feel a few ribs crack and then I blacked out.”
3. Explicit detail. Not limited to most anything. Graphic injury, references to lots of blood, elaborate torture with elaborate details, dismemberment, decapitation, violent death out of revenge or just because the character felt justified, or the writer thought it was cool.

Spectrum of motivation.

1. Right and wrong are clear. A soldier, police officer, undercover agent, security guard and similar, have the right to defend themselves. Or an accident, sabotage or criminal/enemy inflicts wounds that are not life threatening or are. All are in the right or clearly in the wrong.
2. Right and wrong plus additional details regarding an incident. Some descriptions of the wounds, whether the character lived or died, and comments related to the reason he died: revenge, accident, shot by a criminal, killed in combat, or killed while doing espionage work or killed by a psychopath/sociopath/serial killer or zombie. Once again, motivations are clear.
3. Killed for thrills by a gang or vigilante (Feelin’ lucky, punk? Go ahead. Make my day.) or a guy who thinks that someone who tries to kill him deserves maximum payback that is either quick and results in dismemberment or graphic injury, ending in death, or a long, elaborate series of injuries that end in a brutal, graphic death. Blood everywhere is preferred. Justice? No. Crime? “I’m my own judge, jury and executioner” or “Human life means nothing anyway and Ill get my revenge even if I might or will die in the process.”

“Right and wrong is up to me - only.” or “I make decisions. Right and wrong, laws and justice don’t exist in my world.” or “I’m crazy and killing is what I like or am compelled to do.”

This is the most dangerous version because good, lawful means are NOT an option OR I’m a mentally disturbed person who must or likes to kill. And let’s spend the reader’s time by dwelling on that person’s mind and brutal killings. And perhaps giving the reader a reason to sympathize with the character.

In conclusion, do people use swear words in real life? Yes. Do you want to add to that in your writing? Because, like it or not, a writer is reflected in his work. The writer’s decision to add a few “appropriate” swear words are motivated by what? Accuracy? Realism? No. I don’t believe that. I don’t think there’s any compelling reason to add swear words.

If we, as writers, are to create a world where our characters live, then let’s make that a world that’s better than what we have now, no matter how common certain things are.

Excerpt from an article published in the National Catholic Register:

“You have to renew all the culture. You have to renew the media. You have to renew the legislators. Everyone has to be renewed. And what is new, though it’s not really new, is that everyone must be involved in it, not just the bishops, the Pope, the religious—but particularly the laity, who form 99.99 percent of the Church.”

Over the last 40 years, I’ve seen only one trend in “popular” media. “Give us permission to show a little skin” which ended up encouraging others to show more, and more. In this case, “Give us permission to use a few ‘appropriate’ swear words.” Where does anyone reading this think that’s going to go? It will result in less swear words in the future? History shows us that will not be the case.

Of course, the examples I gave are not exhaustive but I know how stories are told, how characters are built, how circumstances are created and how death is something that happens to people. I never wrote that profanity should be used a lot, but what I’m seeing here is similar to the degrees of sin or questions about dating; i.e. how far can I go before it’s considered wrong/bad/sinful? or venial/mortal? or how much can I get away with and feel like I’m still a Catholic?

Peace,
Ed

 

[RPRPsych]

Dear RPRPsych,

Cordial greetings and a very good day. Hear, hear to the above bolded remarks. Many of the great classics (and not so great classics) were written at a time when the Christian consciousness was still jolly influential and held sway within society. However, since the permissive Sixties we have been gradually breaking loose from the moral uprightness of previous generations. It is all part of godless man thinking that he has outgrown the idea of God and the moral restraints of an ‘oppressive religion’, the tenets of which have long since been supposedly debunked.

Are we truly a better more cultured society for all the smutty fiction, peppered with profanity, with which we are now sadly blighted?

God bless and thankyou for your contribution, dear friend.

Warmest good wishes,

Portrait

Pax

Why, thank you!

I’d fully agree with you on the fact that a lot of fiction (in both French and English, which are the two languages I can actually read) written before this period is implicitly based on a Christian worldview, even if the author isn’t quoting chapter and verse at us all the time.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that adult themes have no place in fiction. Take something like The Forsyte Saga (and its successors); all these novels deal with fairly heavy themes, including marital rape, adultery, implied suicide, and mental illness. But there is no coarseness or unnecessary detail in Galsworthy’s text, with the result that the reader feels the tragedy of these situations, without reveling in clinical details.

I always remember what my mother told me about a fairly contemporary novel (Sophie’s Choice by William Styron) that she’d had to study when she was younger; she said that the basic story was good and tragic, but that the unnecessary smut just about ruined it for her, and that she actually preferred the film version because it couldn’t include such graphic prose. I think there’s a lesson to be learned there, and it’s one I try to follow whenever I try to write myself.

Peace be with you, too.

 

[Kamaduck]

So, let’s look at violence in writing and the spectrum.

That was an excellent explanation. I don’t agree with every point, but it was very thorough and really helped me see where you were coming from.

I just finished reading Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins, about an hour ago. There was lots of graphic violence, lots of pain, lots of suffering. It wasn’t always- no, it was never- clear who the good guys were. It’s the kind of story that makes you want to puke, but it also makes you want to read the sequel. I genuinely believe it was a good book, and the world is better for its existence.

Thinking back on it, though, there were no swear words. Drunkenness, anger, killing, random nudity, drug addictions, and all kinds of other objectionable stuff, but absolutely no swearing or even euphemisms. And honestly, I think swear words would have been distracting. The pain of the novel is so much deeper than what can be conveyed with four-letter-words.

I still think writing swear words isn’t an automatic no-no, but I’ve been convinced (more by this excellent novel than anything) that doing without them is far more interesting. With that in mind, I shall respectfully withdraw from this discussion. I look forward to discussing the specifics of violence in media with you at a later date, because your explanation of that was genuinely intriguing. I don’t want to derail the thread, though.

Anyways, right now I really need to write something.

 

[aspirant]

In a story I am writing my characters sometimes use bad words but not to excess.

Fiction writers use such language in a variety of ways.

An example that particularly interests me is the American Catholic short story writer (and novelist) Flannery O’Connor. As a short story writer, she doesn’t waste a word and often uses profanity with more than one layer of meaning.

For example, a character might shout “Jesus Christ!” in an unthinking or even irreverent way but, on another level, O’Connor herself is using the name at a particular point in the story in a deliberate way to bring the true Christ to the reader’s attention.

Consider the interaction between the Misfit (a nihilisitc serial killer) and the grandmother (in many ways, a petty and shallow person) in the story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” While the grandmother is pleading for her life, she cries out “Jesus! You’ve got good blood!” The grandmother is not addressing Jesus, but the Misfit: On the grandmother’s part, it’s an unthinking profanity followed by an appeal to the Misfit’s good “breeding.” But O’Connor, as the author, is using the statement on more than one level. At this point in the story, O’Connor really does want the reader to think of Jesus’ blood, something the grandmother should have considered more seriously and more often throughout her life. (Indeed, though the Misfit is himself a nihilist, he correctly diagnoses one of her problems: “She would of been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.”)

 

[The_Curt_Jester]

I’ve never liked swear words in books. Some Catholics use them in their writings and I tend to wonder why because it doesn’t help build the character and it doesn’t add to the literary quality. I think someone who is truly good at writing can portray a character with a foul mouth without writing a single one of those words.

For instance…

The man uttered an oath, slapping the counter in irritation.

…has the same meaning as…

The man slapped the counter in irritation. “&)(#$%)(&#%!”

Obviously the quality of my writing isn’t great there, but it’s just an example.

 

[Viki63]

I draw to your attention the Lord Peter Wimsey novels of Dorothy Sayers, which were extremely popular in their day and still very valued by mystery aficionados. She’s a Christian, but uses no profanity that I can recall in her work. Her characters aren’t Christian, which I find interesting, but they are highly moral, except for the villains of course, who are still ladies and gentlemen.
I’m working on some novels that are about people who don’t happen to be Christians, but am trying to do it without foul language. We’ll see how well they sell.

 

[edwest2]

At the end of the day, as writers, we leave a legacy to all who read our work. To give you examples of responses from some people over the years regarding our books.

1. You inspired me to be a writer.
2. You inspired me to enter my current line of work.
3. We like the fact that your books are known for not including some material that others may find objectionable – which, by the way, does not mean I’m encouraging anybody to promote relativism. And WE MAKE IT A POINT to screen our work for objectionable material, which is why I have a yellow highlighter which I use to mark any objectionable word or paragraph or description, and I’ll add notes that include my reasoning in some cases.

Our characters are meant to be clearly good or clearly evil. And there’s a spectrum to that.
So some characters may be very good while others may be on the edge. Example: While not evil (yet), they may be tempted to do the wrong thing or find themselves in trouble because if they are not skilled at doing the wrong thing, they are more likely to get caught OR, due to lack of experience, a “simple” robbery may end up with the character being killed or the character killing someone else even though he had never, ever thought about the possibility. Example: The homeowner is believed to be on vacation. The goal is to break in, steal his valuable coin collection, and get away. But surprise. Unknown to the character, the homeowner let his trigger-happy brother live at his house while he was away. On top of that, he’s a gun nut and a little paranoid. He doesn’t like leaving lights on or is content to install a simple device that will turn the lights on and off at preprogrammed times of the day.

No, life isn’t filled with just one kind of person. Nobody is just like anybody else, but we would be wasting an opportunity to do better than the bulk of the “popular” media out there.

Peace,
Ed