[Sticky] *@*&%$^ Language -- A Post from Jody Lynn Nye

Thanks for the reminder Jody!

Thanks for the heads up. 

I have used damn in several stories, but I recall them being minimal or, like you suggested, I got creative with my words.

Thanks @jodylynnnye for the tips. I will be careful on this front.

I've always appreciated "gorram" from Firefly and "smeg" from Red Dwarf.

Posted by: @emlouviere

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I've always appreciated "gorram" from Firefly and "smeg" from Red Dwarf.

Some school-friends of mine, when they were ten, got banned from watching Red Dwarf because they were always telling each other to smeg off...

This is a know your market thing, not just a WotF thing. Some markets want no profanity at all. Some want hopeful or optimistic stories. Some don't want stories with violence, or with certain kinds of violence. And many draw the line at sexual violence. Meanwhile, some only want dark content, and don't want your cheerful optimistic tale. It doesn't matter what it is, really--submitting any content to a market, when they have explicitly said it's the kind of content they don't want, is equivalent to saying I didn't think it was worth reading or following your publication's guidelines, and that's likely going to go exactly as well as you would expect.

(Addendum: I also suspect that this may be why some markets post slightly unusual, slightly specific formatting guidelines. If you don't follow those, they can guess you likely won't have bothered to read or follow the rest of their guidelines either, so they can weed your submission out without even having to spend time on reading it.)

Posted by: @doctorjest

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(Addendum: I also suspect that this may be why some markets post slightly unusual, slightly specific formatting guidelines. If you don't follow those, they can guess you likely won't have bothered to read or follow the rest of their guidelines either, so they can weed your submission out without even having to spend time on reading it.)

Aw man, the hours I've spent removing brown M&Ms from my stories... ?

Creating new words should be fun. He he

Thanks for the reminder, Jody. Sorry you've had to face a few who haven't complied. As creative writers, I'm sure we can find better ways to express ourselves.

I've always used the Granny rule. If I think a word would offend her, it won't be uttered or written.

@storysinger Must not be an Irish granny.

Posted by: @storysinger

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I've always used the Granny rule. If I think a word would offend her, it won't be uttered or written.

You should hear some of the grannies around here. 

Posted by: @pdblake

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Posted by: @storysinger

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I've always used the Granny rule. If I think a word would offend her, it won't be uttered or written.

 

You should hear some of the grannies around here. 

 

I know grannies that would be offended by the word hell, and the were quite of few of those in WotF story I just read.

@pegeen My exact thought - can't be referring to my gran lol

she swore more than anyone 

And now I'm sitting here, trying to remember if I edited out the f-bomb in my story before submitting to WoTF or not (for other markets it is a perfectly acceptable f-bomb that helps illustrate the character I think - but I usually remember to edit any of those out).

Although admittedly I did submit one story I probably shouldn't have entered - it had a lot of 'shit' in it but it was a fundamental thing - probably should have just kept it out of the 'enter in WotF pile' (pile might be a little grandiose a term, perhaps tiny stack would be better).

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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@pegeen My exact thought - can't be referring to my gran lol

she swore more than anyone

My gran was extremely well-spoken, and never swore in front of me once...

I have since been reliably informed that she had a filthy sense of humor, but knew far better than to share it with her grandkids.

Ms. Nye,

I like your forum photo.  It's a kick!  

Posted by: @pdblake

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Posted by: @storysinger

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I've always used the Granny rule. If I think a word would offend her, it won't be uttered or written.

 

You should hear some of the grannies around here. 

 

Heinlein never used swear words, and his career did pretty well.

Posted by: @prestondennett

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Heinlein never used swear words, and his career did pretty well.

Yeah, I feel like a lot of people use swear words because they feel like they have to, instead of only using them when they fit. I always ask myself "does this actually add anything?" If not, it gets cut. You can definitely be successful without them, it's all about knowing your audience. 

I remember my mom telling us we could only use words with their meaning in the dictionary. So I ran around the house screaming that my dog was a b word.

Posted by: @empressed

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I was about to get my mouth washed out

It's cool when a topic gets so many responses. Especially when some of the posts elicit a smile or a memory.

When I got the bar of soap treatment it made me think twice before cussing again.

Thank you for the heads up Jody!

I'll be honest, if my character would drop and F-bomb, I let them drop it. However, I absolutely do not want to offend anyone so I have no problem refraining from here on out. I know my current submission has some, and I apologize -- have the rules been updated? I swear I read through them fretting over whether or not to keep them in then determined it said something to the effect of it being adult and works intended for children were not advised. Either way, I just read them again and so I'm fully aware and from here on out only creative alternatives (I do enjoy creative alternatives). 

Posted by: @doctorjest

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Some school-friends of mine, when they were ten, got banned from watching Red Dwarf because they were always telling each other to smeg off...

I'm glad I saw the warning from Ms. Jody about cuss words. Otherwise, one of my rougher characters might have dropped an F-Bomb. (Now hoping I didn't engage in potty mouth during Q1. Must check.) For V40 Q2 I have 3 Damns. I changed them to Drats, but my reader said it looked stupid saying Drat. So now I have 3 Damns again. That should be OK. It might be fun making up cuss words.

@pegeen I feel like I'm a naughty kid in school ?. Especially because my entry with f-bombs has a totally reasonable atmosphere for making up cuss words ::facepalm:: Glad you got the opportunity to catch them for Q2!

This is one of the reasons I started writing - and one of the reasons I stopped reading because of all the expletives and intimacy in books. I'm all for supporting people that are writing clean books. I think the writing is better when the author can be more creative in other ways than to fall back on the swearing. I like to be 'taken out of real life' and given an adventure - not to continue reading and hearing the garbage I hear all day. 

I tend to go as far as "damn" for WotF. I will be double-checking there are very few instances in future submissions or, even better, aim for something new and make clear it is a future naughty word (though nothing I create will ever be as brilliant as "smeg").

I never thought of the word shit as offensive, since it's something that happens. But I changed it to poop anyway.

I've never seen a use for swearing. Not a personal fan. I'll read the occasional one and not care too much, but there are a couple of books that were ruined for me because of the constant swearing.

I do occasionally chuck a 'damn' into my stories. I think that's all the profanity I incorporate.