  Action/Adventure
This week: Edited by: Vivian  
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I've joined the Action/Adventure editors starting this issue. I enjoy reading works with action and with adventure. Hopefully, you'll ride along with me as I bring my ideas concerning what is needed or not needed to create excellent action/adventure stories and books.
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To cuss or not to cuss
I love mysteries, and they usually have action and adventure. I like Grisham and Jack Higgins and Cussler and so many of the action/adventure writers.
However, more and more of the so called action/adventure material is filled with vulgarities, extreme profanity, and constant swearing. Some so-called writers seem to think the more crude the language, the better. What is especially sad to me is the fact that many women writers seem to try to "out-vulgar" any man writer. Hmmm . . . wonder if any of them ever heard of a dictionary?
I'm not a person who uses profanity personally. I don't like it, but some people and some characters do use it. If I'm going to write believable dialogue, then some times I have to have the character cuss. Even when I do, I am careful not to use God's name in vain, to have excessive usage, or to use anything too vulgar. A pinch of salt adds flavor to food. Too much ruins it. The same is true with profanity in writing. I use little, if any, swearing in my writings, and then only if the character and/or circumstances in the plot calls for it.
I approached three of the best action/adventure writers on the site for their opinions: billwilcox, Holly Jahangiri  , and writetight. I asked them what they thought about using profanity in writing.
billwilcox:
Profanity?
You know how I love to write dialogue. And yet I make a conscious effort not to swear. There are many ways to show that your character has a colorful way of talking without cussing. For example: "Ain't ya gonna show me how ta talk
right? I dunno whatcha mean 'bout it?"
I have read stories that use profanity for no apparent reason other than to just throw it in there. That really turns me off. But if one of my characters has a tendency to cuss because of how he was raised or whatever, then I will include some common everyday words. This doesn't mean that I will have every character speak in this manner, because they are all different people.
Holly Jahangiri :
There are some who get really weird about ANY use of profanity, even when it's appropriate to the character or the situation. I happen to think there's a happy middle ground. REAL people do swear. It's not REAL to write action/adventure where everyone's uber-polite and has on his best party manners. I mean, what do you think a priest would say if he saw a hand-grenade tossed at his feet? A PRIEST might actually start to pray, or think of something that didn't involve swearing, because it's in his nature and training not to swear. But I'd bet a few would say some colorful things, under the circumstances...
A truck driver who didn't swear might be interesting. A schoolmarm who did might be interesting. Swearing gratuitously isn't interesting. But it can make the character more colorful or believable, or emphasize how an extraordinary situation might make a character act OUT of character, and thus be effective.
I absolutely agree that profanity for its own sake is overused. For some characters, it's just a cliché that reinforces a boring stereotype. Then again, your hard-boiled detective probably DOES have a colorful arsenal of epithets.
writetight:
Profanity is like cheap perfume -- it should be used sparingly -- and then only around those accepting of the same.
So we all pretty much agree. Profanity should be used only as necessary in writing and no more. |
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I hope readers will leave comments, questions, suggestions for me.
Enjoy reading and writing exciting action/adventure.
Viv |
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Action/Adventure: October 01, 2008 Issue [#2632]
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