The Journey to Writing a Successful Story: a tip book

Swearing?

Every now and then, there's someone who asks about swearing in a novel. They ask for opinions on it and if it's okay.

There are times where you'll get mixed reviews. For example, someone who doesn't swear so much in real life may not feel comfortable with characters cussing.

What a lot of people say (that's including me as well) is to only cuss if it's needed. For instance, if your character is the type that swears in every sentence, then it's fine to do so. If they swear during an argument, that's fine too. It's not cool to swear if it's not needed, you know? Like the character isn't the type of person to do so.

Some people may not even swear with the F-bomb, but using the occasional "damn," "crap," and "hell" may be in there.

Think of me. I don't cuss too often - even at almost nineteen years old. I was raised where my parents wouldn't allow me to cuss, even though my siblings (one is one year older than I, another is about three years older than I, and the last is five years older than I am) were allowed to do so - when I was around six-seven years old, my siblings were taught by my own father on how to say different cuss words in German and Russian. But I wasn't allowed to say "hell" or "screwed," or even "crap." But I grew up not liking the way how it all sounds; it wasn't like Spongebob where it felt tingly on my tongue and I liked the feeling how it rolled out of my mouth. During my high school days, I did start using some cuss words, but nothing like "shit" and the F-bomb. Or "cunt," and so on. My main ones were "damn" and "hell." I rarely used "crap." And even now, it's the same. I have tons of friends and family members who can't go one hour without saying the F-bomb in at least ten sentences in the same paragraph.

But when you're thinking of your character, think of how their personality is like.