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Expletives can tell a reader a lot about a character and a story. Use them wisely, and they can strengthen the overall depth and impact of your tale. Use them poorly, and they can turn off readers more quickly than improper semicolon-use. Here are three things to remember when dealing with expletives.
Expletives have power.
If you go 75k words without swearing and then suddenly drop an F-bomb, your reader will react. If that’s what you want, perfect! If not, sprinkle some more curse words throughout the narrative to soften the blow. Pay attention to cursing within narration. This is especially true for stories written in third person. Expletives outside of dialogue are particularly noticeable and particularly strong. Depending on the context, they may have a negative impact on the way the work is read. So just check them out, put yourself in the reader’s frame of mind, and decide whether they evoke the emotional response you’re going for. Use expletives to define your characters. What is your protagonist’s expletive of choice? What does she scream when she stubs her toe? What about when he gets angry? Maybe your character doesn’t cuss at all. (Good gravy!) Either way, the reader learns something about your character.
How do you use expletives to strengthen your work (or do you)?
10 Comments
12/12/2016 07:04:13 pm
I rarely you cuss words when writing. 12/17/2016 09:54:53 am
I don't have any rule against using expletives in my writing. I'll use whatever words I need to to tell my story. However, it typically works out that using some other word or turn of phrase does a better job than a conventional expletive. 1/25/2017 09:31:42 pm
Funny, but for me it depends on what the character wants to say. If they say it I have to write it down. Cussing is never planned, just recorded. 2/2/2017 11:16:03 am
Thanks for the post! Like so many things in creative efforts, a deliberate decision for well-thought out reasons seems to be the best approach. Your advice on that makes perfect sense to me. I'm pondering an f-bomb my character uses when she's in the midst of a mom-guilt moment. The more I think about her, the word happens early in the manuscript, but never again. I think that fits with your thought of underscoring just how bad the moment is. What are your thoughts?
Caroline
4/18/2017 07:30:31 pm
What about genres? Is it ever a great idea to use curse words in YA? 9/6/2017 12:26:31 pm
The language in my novel "The Fraternity" is cleaner than reality just because otherwise it would have been distracting. (Accurately capturing all the F's in fraternity-house dialogue probably would have added ten pages to the book.) "Trombone Answers" is set in the main character's high school years, and the f-bombs are dropped rarely but (I believe) effectively.
Justin Knight
8/25/2019 03:32:13 pm
I'm almost done my first draft and there is some swearing in it. This has made me decide to go over when they've been used and if I need curse words in those places. 3/25/2020 05:56:02 pm
I very rarely use swearing in my stories. When I do, it's quite deliberate and you know the characters mean it. Leave a Reply. |
Victoria GriffinAuthor & Editor 
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