Popping in for a quick thought about cursing in books. I write romance so my thoughts will apply best to that genre. Sometimes a flaming \"f\" word fits right in and suits the text. Other times, even a milder word, like \"s**it\" or \"da*mn\" can jerk me out of the story. What fits where? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are few absolutes in life or fiction. For every rule, there is a reason to break it. But, since a writer never wants to throw reality in a reader's face, a rule should never get broken without thought, planning, and a sound literary motive. Given all that, my \"almost always\" rules revolve around the period of the book. In a historical, most curses can make use of more archaic - and more poetic- curse substitues like \"arse\" for ass. A historical polluted with profanity takes the reader out of the period and back to the present. And that's where profanity belongs. A contemporary romance or romantic suspense can take some tough talk. Cops or detectives, lawyers discussing a case, an intense board meeting, a fight with a colleague - all of these may be primed with some down and gritty language. The story might require it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of the time, instead of tossing in a four-letter word, a writer can get creative - and make the reader smile or, possibly, introduce an insult to a reader's real life. Just think of 'duck' and 'ducking.' Ie; \"Isn't that ducking fantastic;\" or \"Screw me? Duck you.\" Instead of saying - \"You're just a genuine asshole, aren't you?\" A character might say - \"You're a real booger-bear, aren't you?\" <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Insults don't always have to be down and dirty. In contemporaries or historicals, getting creative may have a bigger pay-off for the story and the reader. Four letter words are like pain pills - use only as needed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Popping in for a quick thought about cursing in books. I write romance so my thoughts will apply best to that genre. Sometimes a flaming \"f\" word fits right in and suits the text. Other times, even a milder word, like \"s**it\" or \"da*mn\" can jerk me out of the story. What fits where? There ...continue reading \"To Curse or Not To Curse\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4946"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4946"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4949,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4946\/revisions\/4949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}