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4 Letter Language in Your Writing
I was going to present this in two parts, but here we are coming into the weekend and I know many of you will be busy with family things, or just
sleeping into till noon before heading out for a flat of beer and a pizza. So, I've combined both sets of notes into one and I’m posting them togeth
Don’t Under-do It
Nothing describes your characters as well as the language they use. A large burly man dressed in rags is walking toward you on the sidewalk. Ten
feet away, his dull eyes meet yours and hold there. You think, oh no, and get ready to say, sorry, I don't have any change. When he's just a few feet away, he smiles and says, beautiful day.
The words we use and how we use them say more about us than the clothes we wear. Language is how we express our thoughts and feelings, and it
defines us more than anything else about us.
If you're put all the love, commitment and work into creating real characters in your stories, characters who are believable and surprising, then
you have to go the whole distance and let them talk the way they will.
In children's books, family books, and religious books, the language is going to toned down, not because teenagers, seven year olds and priests
don't swear, but because your characters are created for a very specific audience and they represent the type of person in your reading audience. This is the way you've created them. They'll take the road less
foul-mouthed.
But if you're not writing for a market that excludes four letter words, then you need to look at your characters outside the context of your reading
audience and let them determine how they speak (and through their language, they may even determine your reading audience for you).
I know very few people who don't swear at one time or another. We use strong language when we're mad, when we're disappointed, when we're reaching
orgasm, when we're trying to insult someone, when we crush ours thumbs with a hammer, when we're surprised, when we're frightened, when we're …
It goes on. And many of these times are appropriate for strong language. The same holds true in your stories. You use language that's appropriate
for the situation and for your character in that situation. One woman might say, "Damn!" when she burns herself on the barbeque. Another might say, "Fuck!" around a cigarette dangling from her mouth.
Don't have a biker saying "Oh fudge!" when he comes back to his Harley and notices that somebody's taken a knife to his custom paint job.
I don't even think this is appropriate for comedy.
Let your characters speak the way they want to speak. Don't censor their language with F***! and c--- and &!!&%%$#!@**! You can use
this kind notation to write non-fiction (like Lisa did in an earlier post), but don't use them in your fiction. Real people don't speak in stars, dashes and ampersands. If you use this kind of technique, you take
your readers out of the fictional world that you've made so real for them with your blood and soul characters and force to focus on the fact that all they're doing is reading a story. Let your characters talk the
way they will talk, with without censoring them, and your readers will stay in your story. (Unless, of course, your readers are so offended by the language they leave the world you've created … in which case, they
were never your readers anyway, so to hell with them. They can read Seuss.)
Sometimes beginning writers are shy about using the word fuck. Don't be. It's old hat these days. Used appropriately, it neither startles nor
offends. Used appropriately, it can deliberately startle or offend. It's that versatile. Use it for effect, and use it to define your characters. Does your character say “I fucked so and so …” or “I slept
with so and so …” Both statements say the same thing, but they suggest different attitudes toward sex.
In Heavy Load, the lead female character, Hillary, is a young intelligent woman who has been betrayed by her boyfriend. Her language throughout the
book is mild with the occasional damn. She never uses the word “fuck” (except in a fantasy scene) … but when her boyfriend uses inside information from her to steal her job and then calls her up to try and
make her think everything’s alright between them she says, “Fuck off, Tim.” And hangs up on her. You don’t expect this kind of language from someone like Hillary, so when you hear it, it emphasizes that
something is really out of whack.
The word cunt - considered almost mandatory in British movies and books - is still pretty much verboten in most mainstream North American writing,
which is exactly why it can be a powerful character definer when it’s used appropriately. Want to learn more about this word, watch the Vagina Monologues with Eve Ensler.
But, Don't Overdo It
I used to work as a bartender. One night a customer came to my bar and started talking to me about the rough time he and his brother had experienced
earlier in the day moving a large couch down a narrow stairway. I’ll quote just a small part: “The fucking this was fucking to fucking big for the fucking stairway and we fucking to fucking take the fucking legs
off …” This is exactly the way he talked for 10 minutes. Would I use this in story about him, exactly as is. Probably not. And not because I’d be concerned about my gentle readers’ ears, or consider it
too gross … I mean, this is exactly how he talked. I’d delete about every third or fourth “fucking” because it’s just too damn distracting. The verbal expletive barrage focuses the readers attention on
just one thing … the word, and looses a lot of the meaning of the conversation and the delineation of character in the process. This is where the writer as editor comes in and recreates reality in his or her
likeness and strips away the extraneous detail that distracts from the story the same way F*** and Sh--! would.
Write Mindlessly and Go Right Over the Top in Your First Draft
When it comes to language, don’t let an image of your future readers, an image of your parents or a favorite teacher looking over your back, or
your own sense of what’s right or wrong for yourself stop you from letting your characters use the kind of language that’s appropriate for them. A man saying to his wife, “You fucking bitch” creates a much
clearer picture of an asshole than the passive description: “And then, in front of everyone, Jack verbally abused Janet.”
Write without editing and write fast and furiously, putting in every foul expletive that you think might surge through the dialogue and the
narration. Come back to it later and edit out the stuff that you feel is too far over the top, distracting, inappropriate for your reading audience, but especially, just not right for that particular character.
Again, if you’ve done your work in creating your characters, let them talk the way they will.
Discussions
1. Language is how we express our thoughts and feelings, and it defines us more than anything else about us. Or does clothing or the way we stand or
sit or groom ourselves say more?
2. How do "you" judge when strong language is appropriate or inappropriate?
Writing Exercises
1. Write one short paragraph (just one … short paragraph) using a character with a foul mouth. Spell it all out. Make it bad. (I’m not sure if
it'll get by the filter here, but this exercise is mostly for each of you, so that you can see the effect).
Now, write exactly the same paragraph without the strong language.
The situation: a male or female carpenter with a short temper has just stepped on a large nail on the one day that he or she didn't wear safety
boots.
2. I gave this writing assignment to the students in my Writing Hurts Like Hell workshop at UNB. As a person, you may not like certain language and
you may never use it. As a writer, you do what your characters demand (I'm open for argument on this). This exercise is designed to break the ice between you and strong language.
Write the word that you think is the most repellent word you can think of 20 times. Then write just once, the word you think is the exact opposite.
Read it out loud, preferably to one or more people (in the workshop, each person read aloud to the other students).
Here are two examples from the WHLH workshop (with permission from the writers):
cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt muffin
porch monkey porch monkey porch monkey porch monkey porch monkey porch monkey porch monkey porch monkey porch monkey porch monkey porch monkey porch
monkey porch monkey porch monkey porch monkey porch monkey porch monkey porch monkey porch monkey porch monkey human being
Again, I'm not sure if you'll be able to publish your words in this forum, but try the exercise for yourself.
Have at it …
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