F*ck This Sh*t: Swearing in Literature
DISCLAIMER: I’m talking about writing for adults here. Don’t drop any cursing in a middle grade manuscript and come bitching to me about it, okay? ;)
A lot of folks immediately cringe at the idea of adding curse words to their manuscript. Most of that is cultural or religious… and that’s fine (I guess).
But you ever had a meal at someone’s house where they spent like 14 hours preparing it using an ancient family recipe or some shit? Then they dump it on your plate and when you take a bite it tastes like someone boiled beef until it turned into a rubbery goo?
That’s what it’s like when I read an otherwise good (adult fiction) book with zero swearing. It’s missing the spices that would’ve made it pop, even if all it needed was a little salt.
Cursing helps your text come off more authentic and relatable by bringing in realism.
I’m sorry to be the one to tell y’all this, but people swear all the time in real life. Not incorporating cursing into your manuscript strips a sense of realism from the piece. Adding it, however, can make your characters feel more genuine and down-to-earth. It can also add extra punch to certain emotions, making them raw and powerful. When used right, swearing gives your characters depth and dimensionality.
It’s important you don’t just sprinkle cursing into your work for the sake of it. As Aaron Sorkin said (paraphrasing): “No one ends a statement with, ‘dammit!’” Dropping fucks into your prose without respecting the flow of a sentence is about as effective as neutering a cantaloupe.
So, instead of trying to force it, aim to incorporate cursing in a way that sounds natural and true to your characters and story. Never underestimate a good curse in the hands of an expert. If they’re a mechanic, you better be ready to turn seventeen fucks into a series of dramatically more complex haikus, for example.
People who know how to swear are a pleasure to listen to in a discussion. If you aren’t familiar or are uncomfortable, find yourself a swearing buddy and give them a listen. Much like accents, people from different cultures, ethnicities, and economic backgrounds will have their own unique flavor of dialog, usually with their own curses of preference. For me, I have a reliance on "fuck," mostly because it’s so fucking versatile.
Ultimately, the key to using cursing effectively is identifying the pacing of a sentence and make sure you’re not throwing off the cadence and flow of the words just to pop in a swear word.
When you do just drop curse words willy-nilly it ends up being stilted dialog. The first season of Another Life on Netflix was like this: fucks were littered around like scattered seeds in a haphazard garden. A good 70% of them should’ve been cut, but someone thought they made the show gritty so they remained.
Now a couple examples since none of you probably believe a goddamn word I’m saying yet. A good swearword amplifies the sentence, either as an emotional trigger or as an enhancement to whatever comes next in the sentence.
Go fuck yourself, Jim, is a pretty clear usage. However, That is fucking spectacular! (from Kingsmen) is a, well, spectacular example. In the first, cursing is used as an expression of anger or displeasure, which is what most non-swearers seem familiar with. However, the second one is an expression of joy that is elevated to an almost euphoric level by the addition of fucking.
So be sure to use cursing to add spice to your dialog and only when it really adds something to a sentence. In some books, that means only a few characters might swear at all; perhaps only a grand total of six or seven curses in a 100,000 words manuscript. And that’s fine.
For others, we measure our fucks by the Wyant Ratio.
Don’t believe me that fuck is an incredibly versatile word? Then I present to you one of my favorite YouTube videos of all time:
