Profanity. One of the biggest obstacles in my writing. For the sake of realism, I say. I want my characters' voices to ring true, yet at the same time I don't want parents or a school board banning it, or feeling as though I have forced it on myself. Nor do I want to use it unnecessarily and upset my readers.
Sometimes, I think it doesn't matter. With all the sex, drugs, and cursing that we're exposed to in everyday life, a scene or two in a book isn't going to kill them. But then I remember that the reason so many people read in the first place is to escape from all that.
So what should you do? Stephen King's On Writing and numerous other How-To-Write books will tell you that staying true to your character is essential. If the character is raised in a household that taught no manners, you can't have him speaking with 3rd grade insults. Unless he is in 3rd grade. Some characters brought it in conservative households will say things that would make a nun blush. No matter what, stay true to your character.
However, one way to get around it is saying it without saying it.
In the Newberry Honor Book Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, there's a scene where one of the characters curses but the letters are dashed out. F----! You know exactly what she says but you haven't read it. This is a great way to say it without saying it. The downside, however, is that it breaks the fourth wall which will pull the readers from the story and back to the person writing it. Perhaps, if the story is narrated by a younger person, who finds cursing bad, it'll pass. If you're writing for a certain group, say a religious one, this also will probably be more acceptable.
You can also have a character whisper an insult that makes a teacher turn scarlet red and with a stutter send them to the Principal's office. The reaction to an unspoken insult can also do the job quite nicely. This way, the readers imagination fills in the blank with their own profanity.
Lastly, you can use another language or create your own slang. This way when a reader comes across it, it won't make them cringe as much as if they read the current slang equivalent. However, this also means that it won't have the same effect when one character says it to another.
As always, read a wide range of literature and try to target some of the books that have been banned because of the language. Also, think about how you felt when books held questionable scenes. Were you so put off that you set the book down, or was it easily dismissed? While I agree on keeping true to your character, you should also be true to yourself. Never put out something that you'd later regret.
Good Luck Writing.
Sometimes beginning authors, such as myself, forget to include the other senses in our writing. Sight is simple, we cannot imagine reading a book that doesn't include this. ( Although, I'd love to try a book done in first person narrative about a blind character!) But the other four, Hearing, Feeling, Taste and Scent, may often be left out. Here's some advice from Catherine Woolley's Writing For Children that will help you decide when to include these other sensations. Don't let the title mislead you! There's great information in here for all types of writers.
Hearing- When wanting to create a certain mood, the sense of hearing is especially useful. Think of the sounds you recall from childhood or any happy period. The fair, the movie theater, the park, or a secret garden. When creating a suspenseful or creepy mood, minimize Sight and maximize Hearing. It a truth universally acknowledged that what we can't see frightens us, so make sure to take advantage of this in your writing!
Feeling- Describe how your characters feel the heat of a boiler room, let them feel the icy splash of a spring creek, or the itchy crawling of ants, or the rough texture of asphalt as it grinds off skin during a fall.
Taste and Scent- Woolley advises that authors "use smell and taste to the hilt" Our sense of smell is the most nostalgic.summer's onion smelling grass, smokey fragrance of barbecued chicken, the trace of fireworks in the night air. Every character eats, don't forget to let your readers also have a taste. Sipping sweet hot cocoa, the tangy taste of an orange. One I particularly liked was "bacon strips that felt like pieces of salty leather on his tongue", which is both feeling and taste. Often some scents and tastes can be interchangeable, food can taste smokey and the air can smell sweet.
If done correctly, the readers will experience these things with the character and feel as though they've been silently following alongside the whole time. Also make sure you don't overdo it. If a character drinks something out of the ordinary, an elixir of some sort, you don't have to describe it every time, once or twice should be enough especially if the first description is strong.
When writing, I notice that certain music helps the words flow more smoothly from my head. Rarely its soundtrack movies, but most of the time it's not even music I'm listening to. The most helpful track on my MP3 player or computer is the sound of thunder and rain. It's so relaxing, and if I get a good candle burning (I adore First Rain from Pier1), then I can slip right into the setting of my novel. Sometimes I crank the AC up real high to give myself a chill. It probably sounds a bit crazy but I think it's a thousand times more engaging writing when you're surrounded by the setting than when you're just sitting on your bed, typing on your laptop. I'm not exactly sure if reading with the soundtrack is as engaging or harmful. What do you do, if anything, to create atmosphere when you're reading/writing?
Have you ever asked yourself, "why does my work sound so bad?" More than likely it's a couple of problems. But as I was searching the net for someone to tell me why my books sounded so sucky, I found a huge hint. VERBS! My verbs were dulling my work. Specifically, the TO BE verb and mediocre verbs, MOVE, WALK, OPEN, SMILE, RAN.
Instead of using an adverb to describe a plain verb, use a stronger to improve your prose.
He quickly ran inside = He dashed inside
A smile was on her face = A smile stretched across her face.
The room was full of shoes = Shoes cluttered the room.
Sometimes sentences may need to be rearranged for a better vision.
All right! Now, back to editing!
Without a doubt, interior book designs done by professionals look amazing. One tip I learned is that books' interior text is justified and many self published authors don't copy this into their own formatting. This has been a problem for me. I've been working on editing my book and when I copy and past it into the template, the words are sometimes stretched to fit the justified format. It doesn't look professional at all. Does anyone know a quick way to fix this?
