Prude Or Crude – Swearing for the sake of swearing

I never really noticed how much foul language there is on television and the radio until I had a child. One that listens carefully and repeats new words back with glee – usually at the most inopportune time possible. Do I swear? Well . . . yeah. I’ll admit to a curse word or two in times of great crisis, pain, frustration, or surprise. Can I string together sentences without swearing? Well . . . yeah. A fact I am actually consciously working on at this point because of afore-mentioned glee of new words.

Then I started writing my Young Adult novel and spent some time listening to teens and pre-teens. I heard a lot of slang which I really don’t want to incorporate into my writing as it changes with the blink of an eye. I heard a lot of swearing. Not in the inebriating and yet terrifying way that I learned to cuss, saying the words seemingly boldly while my eyes scanned for adults. No, what I heard was foul language, without regard for who was around, in the almost bored manner of asking for a refill.

So do I include swear words in my work? I have to admit that if the situation calls for it (and some really do) then there might be a crap or a hell and every now and then there is a damn (but it’s rare). There are no f-bombs or any of the other “really dirty” words. Does it make me a prude? Not at all – everyone’s writing is shaped by their personality in some way or another and this is just something I decided on long ago. Will my target audience want to read my book without a lot of cursing? If the story and the characters are good enough they’ll probably never notice. How many curse words do you remember reading in Harry Potter?

PJacks