This is a guest blog post by Jennifer Shirk, author of Kissing Kendall and A Little Bit Cupid.
Hi, all. Jennifer here. I thought it be interesting to talk about the challenges of writing clean fiction in today’s market.
I am a sweet romance author (meaning no sex) and I generally try to keep my books fairly clean as well. Although I do find it hard to strike that balance as an author.
Why? Well, my books are not necessarily for the Christian market–they contain no spiritual message so they have to appeal to a broader secular market–who may or may not care about swearing.
I can appreciate that. I personally do use that language in my everyday talk so why would I feel the need to use it in my writing?
Generally, I don’t.
But there are occasions when I feel the need to keep it a bit “real” and throw some casual swears in–particularly for my heroes. In one of my books, KISSING KENDALL, my hero Brad accidentally hits his thumb with a hammer. I originally had him saying “Ow!”
Well, my editor rejected it with the note saying “He would curse. It’s okay for him to do that.”
Ah, yes, but is really okay? Now, in real life he may have uttered an expletive or two. But I didn’t feel the need to go extreme so to strike a balance, I had him utter a “dammit” which I felt kept it real without getting into the vulgar category.
I usually write nice guy heroes, but occasionally I want to write a tough guy kind of hero. I personally may use a casual swear in his talk to make him appear more of “rough around the edges” kind of man. I tend to use casual swears of hell, heck and damn here and there to make my dialogue and thoughts for my heroes a little more realistic too.
But is it really necessarily? And how “real” is too realistic?
I don’t’ know.
I guess that depends on the person. I’ve had readers say that they noted the casual swears but didn’t mind. I’ve had some that objected. And I’ve had others laugh because it was still too “G” for them.
So you obviously can’t please everyone. 🙂
What about you? Do you mind casual swearing in books you like to read?
Do you think there is a fine balance in fiction with the use of language to keep dialogue more real or do you think it’s not needed at all?