Writing Swear Words

Writing swear words.

Yesterday I discussed my reticence to use swear words too often. I do use them but try to do so sparingly.

I use them in my writing. One of the main themes I try to work into all my books is that the hero is not always clean and sober. Sometimes the hero is an average person thrust into the position of being counted upon. I happen to think very highly of the “average person”. They may drink too much, smoke things they shouldn’t, weigh more than is healthy and they may use bad words.

The editor I was working on with my last book “The Gavaskar Field” balked at some swear words I’d used. HIs thinking was that I might cut myself off from younger readers. I target my writing to adults but I do not want to be seen as promoting bad language.

However some characters do swear. I chose to leave some standard four letter words on the lips of some of my characters but for some I changed their language. 

Max Gavaskar the heroin of my book is a sweet and naive young woman. I gave her some cute swear words. “kakka poon” is an Estonian phrase. My wife made up another word “owangadangle”. I’ve given that to Max as well.

I chose several Hindi swear words since my story claims India and China have a stronger influence on society than they do now. I gave those words to smart people. While the less educated use more standard swearing.

In this way I have a set of swear words for each character. Much like in real life. Only in writing the words make up the person where in real life it is the opposite.