When Swearing Seems Forced or Obligatory or Not

[matt0044]

A lot of Fanfiction has swearing and plenty of them have swearing that seems forced. Like a fic based on a kids series that adds swearing for the sake of it. I personally don't make my characters swear for the heck of it unless they're angry, stressed or if the mood calls for it.

Personally, I'd like to see a fanfic that has a character that doesn't swear on purpose as part of his/her personality.

What do you think?

 

[CrackFox]

Like a really prudish character? It's probably been done.
Swearing doesn't offend me in the slightest. I think swear words are very useful tools to an author.
They can be used to help express feelings of frustration and even joy. Some people add them simply because it makes
the character of the dialogue seem cooler. Whatever the reason, they serve a purpose I suppose, and if they don't offend you,
why would you have a problem with them being overused....

 

[LightningTopaz]

It does has its place, and when done well, it can really make an emotional scene shine. The key is knowing if the situation warrants it.

 

[Kyuuketsuki]

I kind of lack in that area. My characters never swear, causing in some very weird situations in which the villain was mocked, humiliated, defeated, and about to be killed, but they still don't curse. The villain in question was the type that would get angry at everything, and use radical methods, so all of her appearances were weird.

 

[Data_Error]

I would use it once, maybe twice per chapter. More or less depending on your rating, target audience and subject matter. Be judicious about it - too much swearing and it can lose its effect or (as noted) feel forced. Basically, if it's not necessary, avoid it. Usually, your story can easily do just as well while using more pleasant language.

 

[Arc Blader]

The TVTropes page on the Precision F Strike seems to sum my thoughts on this up quite nicely.

 

[Glitchipedia]

I don't use profanity for the sake of it, or because it's edgy/cool. I throw it in because it's realistic. You'd be surprised how common swearing is, particularly strong swearing. I've heard plenty of F-bombs being dropped in places you might not expect, like, for instance, a grocery store.

All the same, I do try to regulate how strongly/often certain characters swear. For example, my RP character Colin Sonan tends to stick to fairly frequent, yet milder curses, while only occasionally dropping an S-bomb and rarely an F-bomb. On the other hand, my other character Joanie Aimes swears strongly and gratuitously, though her case may be justified since she grew up in a bad neighborhood to begin with. Finally, there's Jim Gai, who doesn't swear at all because it's not professional.

So yeah, it all depends on the particular characters, really. Though I may occasionally spice up the narration this way as well—after all, I'm human too, not just a repository.

 

[voidcritter]

I think of it this way--if it feels right for the moment and the character and it's not too over-the-top, it's okay. Any other instance it's probably best to not swear.

I mean, I imagine someone like Professor Oak would be pretty well-spoken and probably wouldn't swear; I can imagine Agatha using words that were probably inappropriate in her younger days, but have lost much of their impact now (though she definitely makes them sound nasty by being Agatha). Silver I can see swearing to try to sound cool and tough, but it comes out sounding forced and weird, and Proton swears regularly.

That's going by gameverse characterization, so uh.

Most of the time you'll find that swearing isn't really necessary, but there are a few rare instances where it's better to swear. An example is in the second Phoenix Wright game, where you meet a guy who has driven his ex-girlfriend to suicide for the sake of hurting someone else, hired an assassin to kill that guy, and then arranges for your sidekick to be kidnapped so he can force you to get him off scot-free. He's pretty much one of the most evil characters in the entire series.

What does the player character say to this man?

"You scoundrel!"

And it just kind of ruins the moment and make what would otherwise be a horrifying revelation kind of funny. This is a game that already has mild swearing in it, so "you bastard" wouldn't be too much to ask.

 

[Cabaret]

Depends on the character. Situation as well. For example:

Nurse Joy: Would you like your f-ing pokemon back now?

No. That's wrong. But this:

man: You just shattered my f-ing windshield! Look at your choices!

Is right.

 

[Neoshadowwolf]

I personally don't make my characters swear for the heck of it unless they're angry, stressed or if the mood calls for it.

This would be the ideal approach. As for making swearing part of a character's personality... well, it really is dependent on the personality. A more gentle character may swear very rarely or not at all while a rougher character may do it frequently. The rougher character does it more often because s/he tends to be in a foul mood more frequently. This is just a generalization, not meant to characterize stereotypes.

I do understand what you are saying though. Swearing doesn't offend me personally but I do see how it can have a character lose appeal from overuse. Whenever a character just swears when the current situation doesn't necessarily call for it, it just sounds like it has been scripted and it loses a touch of realism behind it therefore becoming stale. It will usually be more appropriate in a tenser situation.

To be using swearing casually in order to define a personality, you would need to be careful not use it too much. Relatively, a character who rarely swears except in more intense situations tend to be more realistic.

 

[Ivysaur]

I go to high school, where we use the word "fuck" as much as the word "hi". I don't find an overuse of swear words unrealistic at all; a lack of swearing is more unrealistic to me. Depending on the kind of world you're going for and the kind of characters you're using, you may not have a need to use swear words too often. But if you're going for a more realistic tone, swear words are going to come up sooner or later, and in my opinion, you shouldn't shy away from using them.

 

[Legacy]

In my opinion it totally depends on the character. In Pocket Monsters, Milo's friend Andy is a highschool aged teen who is very loud and has the type of personality where he uses the f-word in his exclaimations just like a lot of teenagers in our world.

So yeah, for a lot of characters, it would seem out of place to just throw in swear words, but if the character fits it, I don't think it's a problem.

 

[Drakon]

Being as Life of the Legendaries is a crack fic, there is going to be quite a bit of swearing.

But there is a spectrum, ranging from Arceus who rarely if ever swears to Shaymin who uses "fuck" like it's a comma.

And speaking of lack swearing being jarring, Poké Wars had that problem in the very early installments. No one ever swears, even if say, a bunch of enraged Fearow come after your blood. Luckily, it gets better with occasional swearing dropped in as appropriate.

 

[Giovanni Sakaki]

Also some characters are more likely to swear than others, and in different ways. For example a Team Rocket member might be a lot more foul-mouthed than let's say, Delia.

 

[AceTrainer14]

I only include swearing if it suits the character's personality (e.g. Vanessa in Galactic) or during a particularly emotional scene/fight scene (e.g. Kris in Kris vs Gold). I see nothing wrong with swearing personally, and in modern society swearing is becoming more and more common and it's really only more religious people or parents who don't dare have their little darlings hear bad words that have issues with it.

 

[Agent Gryphon]

I do agree when swearing in many media does feel forced, or just doesn't seem to fit a character. Sure if a sweet, innocent girl ends up saying the F once and it's because she just found out her boyfriend's dead or she got shot then it makes sense, but if she uses the F word like a dozen time for no reason at it, just seems forced then anything else.

I think it also depends on characters themselves. Like the one above, or a real evil person isn't going to be careful what he says. If he's planning to bomb a bank or an airport, he's really not going to have a dialogue sounding censored and out of character for him. And the timing as well, sometimes regardless of the character it does call for a swear, like mentioned in the first part if you are getting killed or someone you know just died, you are most likely to swear without even realizing it.

Despite the rating of this one story I have suggests, my characters hardly swear unless there's a reason for it. In the beginning a few of the characters would swear alot which resulted in another character scolding them, they would mostly swear if they were furious or really upset about something as well.

 

[Gama]

Like a really prudish character? It's probably been done.
Swearing doesn't offend me in the slightest. I think swear words are very useful tools to an author.
They can be used to help express feelings of frustration and even joy. Some people add them simply because it makes
the character of the dialogue seem cooler. Whatever the reason, they serve a purpose I suppose, and if they don't offend you,
why would you have a problem with them being overused....

I think you kind of answer your own question here... Why, if they are not offended, would someone have an issue with swearing being overused? Because it's overused. I, and I'm sure most people, take issue with writing for reasons other than it being offensive.

If something is overused... You should use it less. If they're being used appropriately and for a reason then great but I don't know how you can defend using anything too much...



Anyway, I think the guide to when you should and shouldn't use swear words is as simple as this - think about them as normal words and use them whenever they come up. Although, as a general rule, I would say don't use swear words in a third person narrative because it makes you (as the writer) look a bit stupid. I suppose it can be difficult to treat swear words as normal words if you have issues with that, so I would say just re-read your dialogue to see if it sounds natural with or without swear words.

 

[Kayi Rowling]

Swearing...

Unless it comes in the form used in My Immortal ("WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU MOTHERFUKERS!" It was....... Dumbledore!), which is plain obligatory and out-of-nowhere swearing, I think it should be OK.

If it's justified by the setting, the character's personality, or the emotion of the scene, it tends not to count as forced swearing.

The TVTropes page on the Precision F Strike seems to sum my thoughts on this up quite nicely.

The Precision F Strike is quite neat, honestly But then, some authors fall off the other end, with the Cluster F Bomb, which is the much-mentioned-in-this-thread overuse of swearing. For more instances in swearing, I recommend these tropes, that should watch their language!

 

[Radio Free Derry]

The characters I write use expletives approprate to their age. My ten-year-old characters wouldn't use words like "fuck," whereas my teenage characters would because that's a fairly common word for teenagers to use.

 

[Miar]

....
Took the words out of my mouth, Jabber.

My characters were 10, so they didn't (When one did, everyone else was shocked). But the people they fought were generally older, so they sometimes used the precision F strike (just never that word itself).

In other writing, I try to avoid it completely, or keep it minimal like in that one.