Swearing, Slang and Characters
A little problem I ran into not so long ago, as I was introducing a character in my novel: what to do with those that are, technically speaking, “people from the street”, and who’re supposed to talk in slang at best, and with much swearing at worst? A street urchin raised to be a thief in a medieval-fantasy town setting sure wouldn’t talk like a noblewoman, nor a beggar like a king (unless they’re exceptions resulting from social descension, and in this case, they need to remain just that—exceptions).I don’t want to fill entire dialogues with cursing, as it is is rude and not especially pleasant to read anyway, but it is also evident to me that not every character in my book can talk in a nice manner, not when they’re from a social origin that wouldn’t fit this at all. Same problem with slang, which very nature is to make it less understandable to “those who don’t get it”. Simply looking at nowadays’ slang, always changing, is a good enough proof of this. The slang I used to talk at school ten years ago isn’t the same 16-years old talk today, and for them, I’d probably be considered and old schmuck already. This is why I can’t focus too much on detailed slang, else the readers would just not understand my characters’ speech patterns. “Immersion” sure doesn’t mean “being left clueless”.So what to do? I’ve been mulling over a few solutions, although I haven’t settled on any for the moment, and am still left pondering:
- Remove cursing and slang altogether. Easy hack. As writers, sure we can do better than that.
- Replace actual curse words by actions, such as “he swore” and other descriptive ways of introducing dialogue (which I don’t do too often, since there’s a limit about how often characters can sigh, moan, swear and whine. And speak softly, too). I’m not sure of how this would wrap up on the long term.
- Add a glossary of the slang terms used in my book. I saw this in Emile Zola’s L’Assommoir when I was in high school: a complete list of XIXth century slang words used in the story was given at the end of the book. It was instructing, yet it also disrupted my reading a little, I admit.
- Use “light” swearing. I’m not 100% sure when it comes to English words, so pardon me if my example isn’t terribly good: I suppose that “darn” would be less rude than “damn”, and things like that. Of course, it shouldn’t be abused; dropping one here and there probably does the trick as well, or even better, than having a character swear every two sentences.
- Create swear words. Whether this can work or not is probably determined by the word “sounding” like a swearword, and by its ability to let the reader imagine “what it could mean”.
- For slang: use the same method, albeit a little differently. Either pick current slang words that are neutral/general enough to be familiar language rather than real slang, or create expressions based on existing words. For instance, we have a slang word meaning “to eat” that looks a lot like the word for “burnt fat” (as in “there’s a smell of burnt fat here”); therefore, it’s not terribly hard to understand.
Any other possible solutions here? I know that the easiest thing to do would probably be to avoid creating characters who swear a lot, but the world isn’t perfect, and if all protagonists in a book systematically had the same social origin, it’d quickly get stereotypical or boring—or both.
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Jennifer
okay I don’t know if this will be of any help but…What era is this novel taking place in? And where are the street ‘urchins’ from?I never like reading ‘lots’ of swearing. I don’t mind it here and there especially when it’s called for in the character…but I’d try to minimizeCreating words: Now depending on the characters age, time period and other such factors…well you could but I think you’ll get the response (depending on the words you chose) that I get to this day. And yes I have to go tell my story 🙂 When I was young I said a ‘BAD’ word once! And the result was I got my mouth washed out with soap (trust me I never forgot that moment…and to this day don’t swear–I think I was scarred for life :)) Anyway my parents told me to make up my own words but never to swear (I was like 8 at the time) So I made up words…the first was chocolate covered grasshoppers — which quickly became fudgehoppers (because c.c.g was was to long to say) I moved on to fugdebuckets (no idea where that came from) and then to fiddlesticks. To this day those three words still pop out of my mouth. And everyone time someone hears them they burst out laughing…which is why I’m leary of creating your own words (ofcourse it depends on the setting and time period and a million other things)Okay I have more to say but since I’ve just gone on for longer than you probably care to read I’ll come back and say it a little later 🙂 After you’ve digested this mini novel!
Cavan
My advice: It depends entirely on the tonality of your novel. If you’re writing something that tends towards darkness and grittiness, then swear. Don’t sugarcoat anything. Some of my favourite books, after all, have been somewhat unpleasant to read, simply by their intensity and swearing, like it or not, is a product of intensity.If your story is something lighter and more upbeat, I’d go with the “light” swearing option. Frankly, I know of no one who is offended by “darn” and no one but hyperconservative types who are offended by “damn”.
Jennifer
Like Cavan’s advice. I think we agree it depends on the novel (tone, setting…)
Yzabel
Jennifer — Now that’s a funny story. I can imagine how these created words may seem funny to other people :DThe setting is… well, there are two actually. A lot of the story is based on the clash of two worlds, one that is, let’s say, similar to WWII Western Europe, and the other that is closer to a Renaissance setting, with strong Church/Science conflicts and a wide rift between the people and the nobility. It’d take ages to describe all of this in detail, and I feel ashamed at making such comparisons to go faster and not write a whole novel about it here. In any case, some of my characters are not of high social origin. One of them is a technician who was forced out of school at 12 to go work at the factory–intelligent guy, but education in language really isn’t one of his strong points. Another is a young woman who’s been recruited by a Thieves Guild when she was a child. In themselves, they don’t necessarily “have to swear”, but I imagine them as using slang way more than nice language–and none of these two is especially talented at keeping quiet when someone crosses them, so at times they indeed could have opportunities for a good old swearing.In any case… maybe I’ll indeed think twice before creating words, after the story you told 😀
Yzabel
Cavan, this is good to know for my personal education in English. Sometimes it’s very hard for me to realize what words can truly offend people, and what words I can use.Good point on the story’s atmosphere, too. I don’t intend on writing for a “young” audience (I’m not mentally equipped to understand and write for children and teenagers anyway ;)), yet I’m also not in favor of cursing just for the sake of it or to “shock” the readers (I know of a few French authors, among others, who do that, and aren’t shy on the swearing/heavy sex-related words, but personnally, I don’t feel like it really brings a lot to the story, except for the PR coup). Anyway, I see your point. I suppose this is left to personal appreciation–or that I can keep the hard swearwords for very intense scenes, and go the “lighter” road for others, when it’s more about sketching an atmosphere. I don’t think my story is terribly “dark”, but it’s not very light either.