“What the BLEEP!”
I've wanted to write a post for Kingdom Pen on this topic for about three years now, ever since a debate I got into on the One Year Adventure Novel writing forum. Is it okay to include cussing in your story? Or is it always wrong?
Is profanity a sin?
Of course, to determine if it is wrong to include profanity in your novel, you first have to believe that it is wrong to use profanity yourself. The Bible makes it clear that profanity is a sin (Ephesians 4:29, Ephesians 5:4, Colossians 3:8, James 3:9-12, 1st Peter 3:10, etc.)
While there are those Christians who would dispute that cussing is a sin, it is not the purpose of this article to make the case profane speech is sin. For the sake of this article, I’m going to assume we all agree that cussing is a sin.
But is it wrong for your characters to cuss?
So, swearing is wrong, but does that mean we can’t use it in our stories? After all, we display other forms of sin in our stories. Theft, murder, abusive anger, lying, jealousy, the list goes on. As we spoke about regarding the need for more strong female characters in modern literature, there is a difference between depicting something, and glorifying it. What is so different about profanity? Can we not include profanity in our stories, but simply not glorify it?
I came very close to including a cuss word in one of my novels once. I wasn’t planning on having this particular villainous character swear. I didn’t write in my outline that they would use this particular word, but as I wrote this rather intense scene between my protagonist and this villain, and as the conflict heated up, and the accusations flew, it just came to me that the villain should swear. It fit. She was the kind of character who would use a cuss word, and since I had included no profanity anywhere else in the story, the word would gain shock value.
My scene froze as I debated with myself over whether or not I should include this particular swear word, and the old discussion that I was involved in on the OYAN forum came back to me. There is a time and a place for everything, right?
Though this seemed like the time and the place to include a curse word, I eventually decided against its usage for a number of reasons, five to be exact, and I figured I should share them to help any of you who may be struggling with this dilemma in your writing.
5 Reasons not to include profanity in your story
1. It’s lazy
As I mentioned, I felt compelled to use a cuss word for the shock value it would add to the scene, but doing so would have been weak story telling. Attempting to communicate the vileness of a character with a curse word is just lazy. Using a cheap dirty word instead of doing the work to characterize her as a wicked person is a short-cut which would have harmed my story. I would have missed the chance to come up with a deeper, more creative and unexpected way to show what kind of person she was. Cuss words are lazy.
Described another way, profanity for shock almost falls more into the category of “telling” and not “showing.” It’s like saying, “Susan was a bad person, so she kicked the puppy,” instead of writing, “Susan, her mouth twisted in a grin, yanked her leg back before sending it forward in a violent kick. The steel toe of her boot landed in the puppy’s belly, causing the animal to yelp in pain as it was launched off the ground.”
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In the first instance, you understand that Susan isn’t very nice. She’s a puppy kicker, we get it, but it’s not very compelling. It doesn’t paint a picture of her evilness. In the second example, we see the glee in her face, we see the steel-toed boots hitting the poor defenseless puppy. Why is she even wearing steel-toed boots in the first place? It must be for the sole purpose of kicking puppies! What a horrid person!
In the same way, just having a few bad words come out of a character’s mouth isn’t really going to help the reader see what makes them evil. We’re not going to learn anything about them. Profanity doesn't make your story or characters anymore "edgy" or interesting. Don’t be lazy. Don’t have your characters cuss.
2. Your characters aren’t real people
I really hate to be the one to break this to you, but your characters aren’t really people.
I know we writers like to pretend our characters are real people; indeed, it’s essential we feel as though they are real. If we don’t, then our readers definitely won’t, and they will never connect to our characters, and our stories will never be read.
That said, we are still the ones writing the words. We are the ones creating the dialogue. We can’t include profanity in our stories, and then point fingers at our characters.
“No, it wasn’t me! It was that darn (see, no swear!) Jedediah! He lost both of his parents and was raised by a gang of professional cussers. They cuss for a living! Of course Jedediah is going to cuss! I keep telling him to STOP but he won’t! He's uncontrollable!!!”
Yeah…no. You wrote those words. You are responsible for them.
This reality became even more apparent to me when I considered the possibility of reading my story out loud if it had that cuss word in it. Whoa…I couldn’t read that! Why does merely writing the bad word not seem as bad as speaking it? Does writing it and claiming it came from a character you created really free you from responsibility? I don’t think so.
3. It would make your story unrealistic
But, hey! If Jedediah really was raised by a gang of professional cussers, then how could he NOT cuss? Isn’t that unrealistic?
The most common argument I have seen for including cussing in your story is that it is “realistic.” True enough, profanity has become commonplace in our culture. If you’ve ever been to public school, you’ll probably hear five to ten F-bombs just in the few minutes between classes. Instead of someone saying, “This lemonade is good stuff!” they will say, “This lemonade is good BLEEP” Instead of asking someone, “What were you thinking?” it’s, “What the BLEEP* were you thinking?” Cussing is normal. Cussing is the vernacular. It’s literally the “vulgar” language of today.
Well, if it’s so common in the modern day, and we are writing a modern-day story, we should probably have some cussing going on, right?
Yes and no. The problem is if you take that line of reasoning to its logical end, then you’re going to have to have a BLEEP ton of swearing in your story (pardon my French). Just using a cuss word here and there isn’t going to cut it. In fact, it’s just going to make your story seem even more unrealistic. If you’re going to open the Pandora’s box of profanity, then you really have to go all the way.
Reading your story out loud is definitely going to be awkward.
Instead, if you want to tap into this realism, but you don’t want to fill up your story with profanity, you can describe the character’s vocabulary without including actual curse words. You can say that a character, “Swore, cursed, profaned, blasphemed, etc.” You don’t have to actually use the words. This technique fits closer with the Biblical method for describing sin. The Bible mentions terrible sins, but it doesn’t go into graphic detail describing the sin. We can know your character is using profanity, without you actually having to subject us to it.
The point of our stories shouldn't be to show how terrible the world can be. I think we already know. What many don't know, is that light really is stronger than darkness. We include darkness in our stories to show the light; the focus is the light, and going over the top to describe darkness by using graphic detail or profanity just isn't helpful, and puts sin before our minds which isn't healthy. We should be writers of light, showing the greater reality that good is stronger than evil, and will win out in the end.
4. Tolkien didn't include swearing
Was The Lord of the Rings a pretty good story?
Yes it was.
Did Tolkien include cuss words?
No he didn’t.
That’s good enough for me.
5. Will your little sister read it?
Finally, I knew I couldn’t use a cuss word because my younger sister would read my story. I didn’t want her to read that word. I don’t want something I created to have that kind of filth in them. There are better ways to portray evil, much better.
George Washington once wrote of profanity, "It is a vice so mean and low without any temptation that every man of sense and character detests and despises it." Do we really want to include language in our stories that anyone with sense and character will detest it? Will our story really bring glory to God with such language? I don't think so. If we as Christians are saying it's okay to use profanity, we are sending a message I don't think we want to send. We don't want profanity distracting from the truth of Christ.
As writers, we have to be careful with what we write. We certainly don’t want to harm others with our stories, and using profanity has the potential to do so.
You don’t need to include swearing in your stories. In fact, I would say you’re better off without it. Don’t take the easy way out. You don’t need it for realism. Remember that we are responsible for the words we write.
Write courageously. Write well. Write for Christ.
Become an Unstoppable Writer!
Thank you for this article. THANK YOU.
I, personally, have never and most likely will never struggle on debating if I should enter in cuss words or not. I don’t say them, I don’t like to read them, and like you said, it’s just really not needed and you can put in tons of better words.
One Christian author in her fantasy series created curse words for her characters to use. So instead of having them say the words people normally say today, her characters said things like, “Dragon’s Teeth!” I though it was a really creative way of incorporating the talk into the rougher characters.
I wish I could send this article along to every author I have read curse words in. So many authors, even non-Christian, should read this.
I’m glad you liked it! I don’t cuss, and don’t like reading or hearing profanity either. Bleh.
I do like to make up my own derogatory terms as well, depending the story if it’s sci-fi or fantasy. I read one sci-fi story about this human colony which was created on the ocean floor, and used all kinds of nautical terms as rough exclamations, which I thought was pretty cool and made the world seem more real, and the words themselves don’t have a bad meaning, unlike our profanity.
Thanks for the comment!
– Reagan
I absolutely agree with Katie. While I’ve never considered it, I have had to face several writing friends who told me it was made a better story, or it was the character’s way, or something along those lines. What I ended up telling them was, “You know, I understand that, but in the end, people are going to judge me based on what I wrote, and I’m the one who’s going to have to answer for it in heaven someday. I’m representing myself and my family by what I write, and I’ve chosen to be above accusation. Maybe someone would read this stuff in my story and decide I’m not really like that character, or whatever. But maybe they’d read it and decide I’m like that, too, and I don’t want to take that chance.”
Your point about working harder to SHOW what the character is like rather than letting the word do the work for you is excellent, and I never thought about that before. The next time I get into this discussion, I’ll mention that.
Thanks so much!
Actually, I just thought of something else. Something I haven’t decided fully yet is how to handle romance in my writing. Is there a post in the future on this? 🙂
That’s a very good point. We are responsible for what we write, and Bible says we will be accountable for every word.
How to handle romance, and at what age someone should attempt to write it, is definitely a tricky issue, and we actually are planning to write a post on it for next month’s theme, “Characterization and Relationships.” So stay tuned for that! 😀
Thanks for commenting!
Reagan
Thank you for this post! I personally have found that if you don’t use it a lot, you don’t tend to. Also, it’s fairly easy to imply profanity if you feel that you MUST include it, namely something like “What the-” and then you cut the sentence off. It has the same effect, engages the same frustration that profanity does, and doesn’t actually use it. Also, the more the reader feels that profanity should be included, the more that same reader will mentally insert it. Other readers will just assume that the character cut off his sentence.
I love this! I wasn’t a fan of TFIOS because of the profanity, that had nothing to do with the story and I felt the whole novel was weak. The Hunger Games, however, didn’t have any swearing, and was fantastic in plot and storyline.
Actually The Hunger Games does contain the words hell and damn multiple times, both in the books and movies. It also says the f bomb in the movie.
Thanks so much for writing this. I personally can never understand why anyone would make an argument FOR cursing in writing – especially if they’re against speaking it. It doesn’t make sense to advocate for one and condemn the other.
I think there’s a lot of good reasons to cuss and to not cuss in the stories, and I think it comes down to what kind of story you want to write and who you want to read it. ‘Cause I think you have to look at like why we’re not supposed to cuss as Christians. We’re representing Christians, if we have this awful, horrible person cussing in a story will people look and see “That writer clearly lacks love and respect for people.” Honestly I think in that respect it would do /more/ harm to have this horrible person speak in a clean, respectful way, like then what are you promoting or message you’re trying to send? xD But you do have to look at who’s going to read your story. If it’s directed to 12 year olds, don’t cuss. If it’s directed to 30 year olds, I think they can handle it. And it’s not like you’re cussing for shock value or because you’re trying to show people just how bad the world is, and those were the points she argued against which isn’t necessarily the only reason… And if /you/ have an issue with cussing, if writing a cuss word in your story makes you feel like you’re sinning, //don’t// do it. That’s a sin for you. If you’re going to feel guilty for it, don’t do it. So, I don’t think it’s a definite you can cuss or you can’t cuss in stories, it changes on a bunch of different circumstances.
You also have to look at what *is* obscene talk? (I’d like to point out the verses say obscene/vulgar/whatever talk, not “cussing.”) What are words? Words are decided on the culture. In Germany, they drop the f-bomb /all/ the time, but that’s totally okay for them, like it’s not “obscene” for them it’s just a word. And when I was younger, I had friends who, due to their age and just the environment they were in, had an issue with saying “freaking” and so I didn’t use that word ’cause they considered it a bad word. But now, I don’t know anyone who considers that cussing, probably due to the difference of 12 years old and 16 years old, so I do use it. Then, I’ve seen mini-cultures where the word “p*****” was not obscene at all. It was actually a Christian culture. (I’ve actually noticed a general trend in this word where people are using it more and it’s becoming less of a bad word.) Certain words are not deemed evil by God. They’re deemed evil by us, and that’s why they’re bad to use. I could go on I’ve got more examples but I won’t, it’s just it all depends on who your audience is, in writing or just in talking. But if suddenly everyone decided there were no bad words, none of the cuss words had the same power anymore, I probably still wouldn’t say a lot of them ’cause that makes me feel like I’m doing something wrong.
So, whether or not you should cuss in writing is NOT black and white. C.S. Lewis had characters cussing. There are many factors that determine whether or not you do it. Whether you feel wrong doing it, who you’re writing to, your motivations for doing it (I’d refrain from doing it for shock value or to “show people how bad the world is,” as the author of this pointed out), etc.
One last thing to add, if you step into a high school, yes, there’s plenty of cursing. However, living on a marine base, the most cussing I’ve heard from a group of people is always from marines. Personally, the amount they cuss is not overly shocking (most of them, I’ve seen some pretty extreme cases), and they only barely reach, if they reach, the amount you’ve claimed is said by high schoolers. If you write speech exactly how it is said in the world, realistically, yes, then I think you’ll find they cuss a lot less than you seem to think they would. Is that reason enough to cuss? No, that would entirely defy everything else I’ve just said. You run whether or not to cuss or not through the filter I’ve explained above.
Personally, I want my characters to be real. They’re real in my head. I want them to be realistic. I want to imitate life. And, life has things like cussing, murder, hate. I don’t want to write these things for shock, to show people just how bad the world is, but to imitate life exactly how it is, and through that we can see God’s glory *more*. Our world is a broken world. I’d like to portray that exactly how it is. I don’t think it necessarily glorifies God more if you sugar coat the world to make it seem nicer than it really is. After all, doesn’t that imply that everything’s okay without God? But that’s just another deciding factor for the decision of whether or not to cuss in your story. You also have to run it through everything else I’ve said.
Things are NOT as simple as this. It’s not a definite yes or no. The answer to this question will change from every person to every story. If someone chooses not to cuss in their story, I applaud them for that. If someone decides it’s better to cuss in their story, cool, too.
You have to also think about how cussing is bad because what comes out of your mouth reflects your heart, and we’re supposed to be made new, with changed hearts. So, if you use cussing in your story, are you doing it in a way that reflects your heart as changed and made new or still living in sin? Yes, in fact, you *can* have cussing in stories that reflects your heart in a way that’s changed, were you to use it as evil, and not good. Just like you can have murder in your story and reflect a changed heart. It’s the same. And every one of these points could go for murder, too. Why do we get so stuck on cussing? If writing about murder makes you feel very uncomfortable, then don’t do it. If it brings dark thoughts to yourself, or makes you think about things like that, then don’t do it. That’s a little extreme, so go with sexual immorality. The same could be said for that. Furthermore, this should be taken to what you read and watch, too. If you don’t feel right writing a story with cussing, don’t read one with it either. Guard your heart. Each person knows what they can and cannot watch, what will lead them to sin and what they’re safe from. There’s no clear yes or no answer to this question. It depends on the person, then depends on the story.
If you cuss in your story, it’s not ncessarily a bad story. If you don’t, it’s not necessarily a bad story.
While I agree with the basic message and some of the points in this post, I do have some thoughts of my own. While I definitely don’t curse in real life, because I do believe that it’s a sin as you said, and I have yet to curse in my writing because I’ve yet to find a point where it’s absolutely necessary, I do have some thoughts on this.
1. It’s lazy – On this, yes, I do agree, and I think this applies to lots of things in writing. If you’re using it strictly for shock value, it’s not necessary at all, and it IS lazy. If you’re using it just to illustrate how evil someone is, that’s wrong and lazy too (although I would point out that baddies are not the only ones who curse; I know lots of very nice people who use profanity on occasion. I don’t condone this, but it’s how it is. It’s more an individual personality thing.)
2. Yes, we’re responsible for the things we write, totally and completely. They’re your words 100% and you CAN control it. But if I choose to have a character murdered in my book, that’s my words/actions too, isn’t it? I obviously don’t condone murder under ANY circumstances, but I’m including it in my story. And obviously you don’t want to include senseless violence for shock (like point 1) because there’s no reason. But I feel that I can present something without approving of it or doing it myself, if I’m comfortable with it and I don’t think it’s unnecessary. If I’m comfortable doing it, I’m not glorifying it, and I feel that I can include it and keep my morals, I don’t believe I should shy away from presenting something that should be there. Take responsibility for your words and definitely be able to logically defend why you included a certain thing, definitely, though.
3. I’m a very realistic person, so I’m iffy on this one. I believe, however, that there’s a balance between including the realistic amount of cussing and including enough cussing to make it realistic, if that makes sense? I’m as irritated as anyone else with novels that curse every other sentence. I believe that’s unnecessary and adds nothing to the story. And yes, the token “he swore” is a great alternative that I wish was used more often because most of the time it ISN’T necessary to include everything. But does that mean we should sanitize everything completely? Some of my favorite books include vulgar language; I’m more okay with it because it’s not glorified, it’s not painted as something good or for shock value, but rather used to illustrate the vulgarity of the world. And that’s seen clearly. (These books are Red Rising by Pierce Brown and Unwind by Neal Shusterman specifically, by the way, both of which bring up EXCELLENT moral points and themes that while not explicit do line up with Christian beliefs.) (Also, this is beside the point but I could make the argument that the Bible itself gets EXTREMELY graphic at times, so much so that something like that would never be accepted in a work of Christian fiction.)
4. Honestly, I don’t believe that this is a valid point to make for this argument. Using an example of one good (admittedly spectacular) story that fits your point hardly makes it the rule for all stories ever; context is something to take into account. Many people, myself among them, consider works like ‘1984’ and ‘Fahrenheit 451’ to be good STORIES in themselves but those contain profanity at times. Also, I would like to point that C.S. Lewis himself has allowed his characters to cuss multiple times! I’m thinking of his Space Trilogy especially, which is an amazing and theologically brilliant series of books in itself. That doesn’t prove things the other way, of course, it’s just something to take in mind. (Although in Lewis’s works it was used as a part of the realistic dialogue and culture of that time; some of those words were considered less vulgar and used more casually. Context is important to keep in mind.)
5. I’m iffy with this point. Yes, we don’t want to expose people (especially little siblings, of course) to sin and filth. I don’t believe that’s all right. There are things I wouldn’t want my siblings to read or watch because of it. But I also don’t believe in sanitizing everything to the point where it’s both unrealistic and unhelpful (which I believe is the problem with most Christian fiction). I think this is something that should be approached with discernment and consideration for the person involved. I would rather let someone encounter something sinful and ‘filthy’ in the context of a story that presents good morals and doesn’t glorify it than let them encounter it first elsewhere. Yes, you wouldn’t fill a MG book with profanity, and for a good reason. But I don’t believe that one word in a good story would be harmful if the person reading it is mature enough to discern that it’s not right.
I hope this came across as respectful 🙂 These are just my own thoughts on the matter.
I do actually agree with what is being said. Being one who has no issue with cuss words. I have never agreed with using profanity for shock value. To me it shows much less intelligence from the user than someone who might use it in a more appropriate context.
I agree with this; no cussing, and especailly no taking the name of God in vain. But may I ask why then one of the winning “Begin Your Novel” entries did that? I just was confused by that since it doesn’t line up with your beliefs.
Thanks!
I did not think that was an example of cussing. I understood it more to be an appeal to God, rather than a flippant cuss.
I have wondered that before, this post is so helpful…. Especially point four!
Thank you for writing on this topic! I can’t count the times I have struggled with this issue in my writing, even though I had already made up my mind. Your points brought out my thought in a very clear way. Because I think it boils down to what would Jesus want me to do and would I be ashamed to have Him read my story? If so, than why should I write it because He does read it, every single word. Plus, your point about reading it aloud is also a big factor, if I would have to skip words in my own story when reading, what does that say about me as an individual? Finally, as you said, our characters are not real. As Christian storytellers, our books should not merely be written to amuse or to help someone escape from reality. If they are then we have just wasted our time on a bunch of futility. They should not only instruct, but also point people to a better reality and inspire one on to live his own life better. Just like Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities.” When ever I read that book, I get inspired, rejuvenated and re motivated to live my life for Christ and not waste it. And yet it is a Classic, among the greatest works of fiction ever to be penned. (Dickens didn’t use swear words,by the way, and for me, that is sufficient!) But if our stories have more purpose than a dime novel, swearing must not find a space in their pages. Thank you again.
Another wonderful post, Reagan. I especially liked what you said about reading your story aloud. Let’s face it, if your story is good enough, you may have to someday! In that sense, you truly are representing yourself with your writing.
While I have never used or even considered using profanity in my writing, I have read many books and most likely written in a few stories things like “he swore” or “cursed.” Especially being the lover of historical fictions and westerns that I am, I have definitely found that cowboys, outlaws, and the like are often made more realistic by simply stating THAT they swore, not by going into detail, which gets tiring for the reader after a while.
Again, great post! Keep up the good work!
~Abby
I am so grateful that I only have to hear all the cuss words my friends say, and not have to read them. I would never have to think twice about my characters cussing
Point Four was my favorite. xD
I found this post helpful and interesting, thank you!
A while ago I watched a Doris Day movie called: “Love Me or Leave Me”. It was very good, emotional, and heartbreaking. The guy in the story is an absolute jerk and is HORRIBLE to Doris! There’s no question that this guy is messed up, but not once in the movie does he swear. The movie was made in the good old days when it wasn’t nice to swear in movies. The message came across of how the character was even without one cuss word.
Thank you so much for this article! I appreciate the time you put into it, it is very helpful. I would never consider putting cussing in my stories, but I hadn’t really thought about why it would be wrong until reading this.
I agree. I don’t like cussing in books, and have often thought that if it was necessary for a character in one of my books to be so vulgar, I would write something like, “He swore,” or “He cussed under his breath,” or “She then said a very unladylike word that made my ears burn.” As a reader, I find it odd that while I dislike cussing in books, I am occasionally willing to read an old book or classic with some cussing in it for the story’s sake, but if I find one bad word in a modern novel it’s back to the bookstore no-two-ways-about-it! I would be horrified if anyone even knew it was in my possession! The only explanation I can come up with is that the older fiction novels that I enjoy tend to employ cussing in a way that makes more sense than the modern novels do. In the old ones, it’s a soldier, a cowboy, or a fellow from a black background. With the newer novels however, not so much. I once read a fairy-tale that I really liked…that is, until near the end, when the princess cussed! The PRINCESS people! Not the prince, not the bad guys, just the PRINCESS. It was in such poor taste, that it left the bad taste in my mouth. Cute story. I sent it back. It was a shame really, but it quite spoiled the innocence of the whole thing.
Hi! I’m new to your blog, as I found this post via Pintrest.
I really appreciated what you had to say, especially as I struggled with this exact same issue during one intense scene in my novel-in-progress. I finally concluded that I wanted my mom to be able to read and be proud of it…and I knew she wouldn’t be happy about filthy language. I completely agree that cussing is lazy – in real life as well as in novels – and as the ‘shock value’ of certain words wears off through constant use, people are forced to come up with increasingly vulgar expressions in order to get their point across. It’s lazy speaking and lazy writing and some people should just sit down with a dictionary and a thesaurus and expand their vocabulary a little bit.
ANYWAY.
I’m curious to hear other people’s thoughts about ‘made up’ cusswords (referencing the ‘Dragon’s Teeth example above), and implied cusswords (‘What the…’ ‘He swore’ etc.). I’ve utilized the ‘Dragon’s Teeth’ method and the ‘he swore’ method quite a bit in my novel, but I’ve been hesitant to use the short-cut sentence method. Why? Because when I’m reading a book that utilizes that technique, my mind automatically fills in the blank. So even though the author was able to keep her pretty white hands clean, we all KNOW what she was thinking when she typed that sentence, and unless we’re extremely sheltered, our minds are all going to jump ahead and fill in that tempting little blank. It seems to me that she should have just typed out the word and been honest about where she wanted her readers’ minds to go.
Again, lovely article, and I’d be interested to hear what others have to say on this subject.
Great article! I know I always say that, but I mean it. My favorite was point four!
One of the examples of the ‘dragon’s teeth’ tactic in literature that I really liked was Trumpkin from C. S. Lewis’s Prince Caspian. His odd, eccentric exclamations of ‘Beards and Bedsteads!’ etc. are characteristic and make people laugh.
Good article! Definitely a subject that needs to be addressed. 🙂
In the situation in the article … the character, Jeremiah. The one who was raised by professional cuss-ers. I’d say, for how to write him, whenever he’s about to swear, one could just cut off the sentence there and say “he swore”. That’s usually what I do for that sort of thing. 🙂
Ok, but what about all us normal, non Christians, or at least those of you who understand that people in real life swear? It’s completely unrealistic to write a whole novel without swearing, because that’s just what people do. If my character swears (not cusses, because I hate that word with a seething passion), it’s because that happens to be in-character for him.
People do a lot of things in real life we often avoid going into graphic detail on. You can show a character swearing without actually having to fill your story with profanity. Not going to say one should never include swearing in their story, but there are a lot of reasons not to.
Thanks so much for this article! While I would never put swear words in my writing it was really great to see some concrete reasons as to why that’s not ok. (Other than the obvious fact that swearing is definitely un-biblical. I mean, we don’t see people in the Bible swearing, and they were definitely… in rough situations. XD)
I have started wiring a supernatural thriller that involves battling demons. I am debating the use of profanity in it. In a lot of stories I read, the antagonists are what I call candy cane bad guys. Yes, they do bad things, but in conversations, they sound just like the good guys.
I have been a Christian for 15 years. Before that, my friends and myself used profanity in almost every sentence. We did not think about it. It just came naturally. Even now, I work with people that use swear words like pronouns, and see nothing wrong with it.I say something about it, and they use them even more, and laugh about it.
So to me, this is the real world Satan rules. Writing a novel with out the demons or bad guys not using profanity would be unrealistic, and the story would be affected by it.
I am praying about it. I may not write a novel at all. It would be nice to live in a world where profanity was not prevalent, but it is not the world I live in.
In one of my stories, a character has a bit of a language problem, but I NEVER mention what he specifically says. My characters usually have their own made-up things, like “What on Flynn’s good Grid?” (In the case of my Tron fanfic)