Canon/Fanon and Swearing

[kriadydragon]

A string of comments in a post in writers_lair on language (here, if you're curious about it, though the post itself was on language, not foul language) made me realize something about the use of heavy swearing in fanfic, something that, I thought, was just me but may not be. And now I'm wondering if it is just me or if there's something more to it.

Though I have the characters in fanfic swear, I don't use swear-words myself, and have a heavy dislike for the F-word (especially when it's used to refer to sex). But though I hate the word, it doesn't deter me from reading fanfic - doesn't make me dislike a story or quit reading - and for the most part I do a good job of ignoring it. However, there are some stories where the word will pop up, and it will completely throw me. For a while, I thought it was because of my dislike of the word combined with a moment of extreme intolerance for it. But after reading the comment thread and thinking it over, it made me consider that, perhaps, it was because the use of the word was completely out-of-place for that particular fic.

After thinking about it, I determined that there are two reasons why the use of the F-word would throw me.

1. The majority of the swearing in the story had been light, or the F-word avoided up until a certain point. Then, after that point, it might be used one or two more times, then never used again. Or, used only that one time.

2. The story (at least for me) was very canon to the point of it being a could-have-been-an-episode fic, and the use of the F-word was like splashing red paint on a white wall. I'm not saying that only stories that don't use the F-word can be considered episode-like. However, there is a kind of subconscious bais when reading (at least for me, I don't know about everyone else) that will accept certain stories as more episode-like than others. Stories that don't use heavy swearing are definitely one of them since the show itself doesn't use heavy swears.

It's usually a combination of both one and two when I get so totally thrown I'm actually left a little annoyed. I'm not trying to tell people how they should write, and am definitely not telling people that they shouldn't use heavy swearing - or any level of swearing - in fanfic. There are stories, though, which have left me wondering why the writer opted to use the F-word to begin with. In one story in particular, I felt the use of the word rather immature, as though the writer had put it in either a) in hopes of giving the story a little attitude or darker edge b) because they were going for realistic even though they'd been light about the swearing up until then or c) just put it in for the sake of putting it in. Whatever their reason, its use just didn't fit, and so bothered me.

Since I don't go for heavy swearing, it's not something I really think about in my own stories (except how to lessen the swearing as much as I can). So, for those who do use heavy swearing, is it something to consider more carefully? Yes, people do cuss up storms in real life, military especially. So, if going for realistic, then it doesn't really matter.

However, I feel it can be just as bad a stumbling block as a misspelled word, or the POV shifting from first person to third, or from character to character without warning.  With some stories, it's like the author can't decide if they want to make the story episode-like or realistic, then opt for realistic at the last minute.

Comments

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

I'll use a swear word if I feel the situation dictates it. Now I understand if you don't cuss and respect that... but..a lot of people do if under extreme situations.

I don't like dropping swear words too often but if I feel the situation or mood warrants it..I will because for me, its realistic. Most of the characters I write or have written have military, police or stressful backgrounds...hence I'll let them cuss if it feels the part.

I don't see people saying 'darn or heck' very often in real life. However, I won't use it heavily at all.

Does that make sense?

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I don't like dropping swear words too often but if I feel the situation or mood warrants it..I will because for me, its realistic.

Oh, yeah. I may not cuss in real life but I accept that other people do, so will have swearing in my story if, like you said, the situation warrants it. Certain words, though, I hate using way too much to put them in my stories. I don't care how realistic it would make the fic, I just can't use them. Plus, it's not so much realistic I'm going for, anyways, but canon, and they do cuss in canon, just not heavily.

Your stories are of the kind that don't throw me when words like the F-word are used. There's a hard, dark, intense edge to your fics that, in a way, let me know heavier swear-words will be involved. The F-word will still jolt me, but because of the word itself, not the timing of its use. The fic I mentioned, where I felt the word to be out of place, was rather light - not so much in content but the way it was written. If the story was meant to be dark, then I didn't get that impression. So, combined with the light swearing at the beginning, when they tossed in the F-word, it completely threw me off to the point that it bugged me.

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

I agree about certain words, sometimes I really think about if I should use one or not. I have as you said... used the F-word but I agree the tone of the fic has been darker and I tried to use it sparely.

If I happen upon the F-word or other heavy cussing in a lighter tone fic, I would find it jarring. Even if the fic IS dark, I don't want to read a story where the character cusses up a storm.

In my head if tone dictates a curse word here or there I could put it in canon.......heavy cussing..no, not really.

[karri-kln1671.livejournal.com]

It's exceedingly rare for me to curse in real life, consequently, I tend not to swear a lot in fiction. That said, my first fandom was Tour of Duty (Vietnam, in case you're unfamiliar) and in a few of the of the stories I wrote for that the GIs use language that I'm not terribly fond of, but it sounded and felt wrong to leave it out, so... Even my beta, who's more conservative than I am, thought it was necessary in order for the reader not to get knocked out of the story by the absurdity of replacing the foul language with something more mild (I'd taken out the bad language for her beta version, so she wouldn't have to read the naughty words.)

That isn't so much the case with SGA. Most of the time it's simple enough to replace naughty words with Crap! and even when a stronger one is called for, milder words than the F-word suffice, so heavy swearing usually turns me off a bit in SGA fanfic. On the otherhand, too mild swearing does the same. I'm good with Crap! and Shoot! but too many darns, goshes, and hecks coming out of John's mouth just gets silly.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Heh, when I first started in fanfic, I refused to use swears. I still don't like having to use swears, but have become resigned to using them. Although I will try to be as mild as I can. I feel no reason to go hard-core and heavy, especially since the show does just fine without the hard-core words (though some may disagree.) "Freakin'" and "Friggin" may not be quite as powerful as the F-word, but I find they still manage to convey what it is I'm trying to convey.

What I can't stand is excessive swearing, where there's swearing in every sentence or paragraph, and the F-word is used five to ten times in a single page. Yes, there are a lot of people who will curse a blue streak, but trying to achieve that in a piece of fiction (not just within dialogue but throughout) can make the story difficult to read. Not just for people not used to excessive swearing, I think, but also people who are used to it. I feel, and this is just my opinion, that if a story is going to have a lot of swearing, then the majority of it should be confined to dialogue. Having it excessively throughout has a way of ruining the flow, IMO.

[sholio]

I'm pretty sure that the amount of swearing in my fiction (fanfic and original) has dropped off over the years. Re-reading some of my older stuff, I'm surprised at how much more swearing there is than I remember putting in there. (Ironically, I think I actually curse more now -- I blame my husband for that -- but maybe I'm just more aware of it.)

Like I mentioned in the thread you linked to, the amount of swearing that I'll use in a story has a lot to do with the amount of "realism" that I'm aiming for in that story. But even my lighter stories will often include some sporadic swearing here and there ... I think it simply depends on what feels appropriate to me for the character and the situation. You can easily overdo the cursing, but there are times when using pseudo-swearing ("oh darn") adds a feeling of levity or lightness to a scene that you really don't want. There are a lot of situations where I think John, for example, would use lighter swear words if he uses anything at all, but if he's just seen Genii soldiers shoot down some of his men, "Darn you effing jerks" is probably not going to strike the right tone. *g* Thinking of the show itself, the scene in Doppelganger when he calls the crystal entity a son of a bitch after it kills Rodney -- there's a lot of impact to that, because it isn't something that you'd normally hear him say on the show, but under the circumstances it's hard to imagine him not swearing.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

You can easily overdo the cursing, but there are times when using pseudo-swearing ("oh darn") adds a feeling of levity or lightness to a scene that you really don't want.

So it's about balance. The problem I had with the mentioned story (and other stories) is that the right balance wasn't achieved. I probably would have been less annoyed by the use of the F-word if they had either used it earlier on in the story, or included another heavy swear like sh*t. For the most part, as I recall, it was mostly just a lot of damn and hell, and not that often. Which, to me, is light swearing. So when the F-word popped up, it was a little like hearing it being said on a PG movie.

Like I mentioned in the thread you linked to, the amount of swearing that I'll use in a story has a lot to do with the amount of "realism" that I'm aiming for in that story.

I've found myself being more aware of that, not just with how much swearing I use but also which swears I use. If I can get away with it in the quieter fics, I'll try to have no swearing. In the larger, action/adventure works then it all comes down to which swears to use and when. Since I don't use the F-word, B*st*rd and SOB are my bigger swears that I reserve for the more poignant, emotion-heavy scenes. And the more heavy scenes I have, the more I will use those words. So some stories will have more swearing than others, and some won't have any swearing since it isn't necessary for that particular fic.

[sholio]

Yeah ... I think that anything is more evident in contrast to what's around it. One reason not to overuse swear words is that they will have lost their impact when you get to that big dramatic scene.

The most effective use of cursing in a fictional scene that I can think of is in the YA book Watership Down. Throughout the book we're introduced to various words in the rabbit language, including their word for dung, but it's always used in a very matter-of-fact sort of way; there's no indication that rabbits even think of swearing. And then there's a scene near the end where the main bad guy offers one of the main characters (who's pretty much on his last legs at that point) an opportunity to switch sides and he tells him to "eat sh*t" (in their language) -- and it's so effective; it stops you in your tracks, without being actually vulgar at all, because it's the only time in the whole book that that particular word is used that way.