What.The.Actual.F*@&

THE “F” WORD AND OTHERS…

In the last few years it seems we have been getting bombarded with words that, for any number of reasons we are not supposed to say.  They may fall under the category of profanity or offensive or politically incorrect.  As a general rule, most people are sensitive to these words and try to avoid them in their daily language for fear of offending someone or being seen as insensitive.

Notice I said, “most people.”  That does not include entertainers and writers.  Do we not fall into the category of “most people” as well?  Glad you asked.  How many times have you seen a blurb on the morning news about some Hollywood star, athlete or other notable who, during a monologue or awards ceremony or interview “dropped the ‘f’ bomb?”  It’s getting to be about as newsworthy as Congress voting along party lines.  We just expect it to happen.

But that’s them and we are us.  As writers what is our obligation to the reader to protect them from words they may not like?  In my humble opinion…. none whatsoever.  The first day of my screenwriting class I tell my students that during the course of the class I will probably insult, embarrass or offend them and I usually do.  But I also say that in most cases, it’s a character in something we’re working on that says or does those things.

The two classic non-verbalized words today are the “F” word and the “N” word.  If you have a character who hits his thumb with a hammer, you will lose your reader if he looks at his bleeding thumb and says, “Oh F word, I hit my thumb.”  Imagine a scene where a bunch of men are dresses in sheets.  One of them shouts, “Who do we not like?”  The rest, after asking someone to hold their beer, join in with, “We don’t like the “N” words.  Or the “J” words.”  I could go on but you get the point.

If your character needs to say something, let him or her say it.  If it’s not strictly for shock value your reader will understand.  I was trying to make this point in a class one day when a lady asked me not to keep using the “N” word.  I assured her I was not and did not use it but it was my character who was saying it.  She got up to walk out and several of her classmates came to my defense and she stayed.

Offensive words have been around since the beginning of time in one way or another.  What may be offensive to one person is just normal speech to another.  There are cultural, religious and now even sexual connotations of words that we may not realize.  I have a program on my computer that I use when I finish a novel to check for all sorts of things.  One is for profanity.

I recently completed a novel where part of it takes place in Viet Nam.  Against my better judgement, I referred to Saigon as Ho Chi Min City.  My program came back and told me I should change it to Prostitute Chi Min City.

I told my system to get “F” worded.