thebibliosphere:

caffeinewitchcraft:

dragonenby:

writing-under-stars:

rein-reblogs-stuff:

elumish:

Ways to deal with your characters swearing in your story:

• Include the swearing in the dialogue
• Say “he cursed”, “she swore”, etc.
• Don’t have them swear

Ways not to deal with your characters swearing in your story:

• Uncharacteristic minced oaths (gosh, heck, darn, etc.)
• Censoring your own dialogue (please don’t write @!%# in the middle of your dialogue)

What’s wrong with gosh and heck, I’m using these myself… Would love an explanation, thanks. (No sarcasm.)

There’s nothing wrong with gosh and heck (I have a few characters that say those things). It’s more of a characterization thing. For example, if you have an immoral character who gleefully breaks the law, their religion doesn’t see cussing as wrong, etc, they’d probably use pretty rough profanity (fuck, shit, cunt, etc). But if your character is innocent, has a strict religious code, has high morals, etc, then yeah, definitely have them use much, much lighter “swear words.” At least, that’s my hot take on it

that’s a good take. use what words feel right, but don’t ever go #@&! in your writing unless you make graphic novels/comic books

Furthermore, giving them unique swears or phrases is great for making it more real! If you’re not particularly fond of swearing in dialogue (or in dialogue description), you can make something mundane read like a swear.

“You and Aunt Laura,” he says, staring at her. She flushes. Aunt Laura ran away to the circus at 25, four years after it left town.

Or even just add “X swears” to dialogue of a complete normal word!

“Crumpets,” they swear. It’s vulgar, they know, but watching the last horse vault over the fence merited a little vocal vulgarity.

That’s very clear and reads pretty funny, imo.

Unless you are Terry Pratchett, in which case you can get away with this:

“D*mn!” said Carrot, a difficult linguistic feat.” –Feet of Clay.