So half of my WIP is a man. (cop, ex-military, non-religious)
And half of my WIP is a Mennonite. Mhhmm..I made her Mennonite this morning. German Baptist was so similar that it the only difference mattered to me and confused all readers everywhere. Now she wears a lot of florals. That's a different post.
Both people live inside me, so yeah...I don't have a problem switching back and forth. (go ahead and commit me now)
But, there is the way a man *like this one* speaks in reality and the way you make him speak in fiction. In reality, fuck is verb, noun, preposition, adjective, term of endearment, modifier, article, dangling particle...okay I was making up shit on the last one.
I've been around enough people to know how to speak like that. And they say people who curse aren't creative. *rolls eyes*
But you can't say that stuff in fiction. And when every word counts, I have to be careful not to use fuck as a placeholder, which I'm wont...want? waunt? -is that even a word?- which I tend to do.
I never studied the use of fuck so much in my life.
I don't have this problem with the Mennonite. Cursing is a big.effin.deal in a community like that. It's like they have label makers for people and as soon as you let an f-bomb slip (or taking God's name in vain, they are about equal) then the label maker spits out one entitled "wayward sinner" and it gets stuck on your forehead until you've done at least fifty years of penance. (not penance, that's Catholic, but you know...until you bake enough pie and do enough laundry to make up for it, which is essentially penance)
But even then they won't forget. They'll just end the story with "but that was awhile ago and she's not the same person."
Fudgeballs. That's one I say a lot as a substitute for the f-word. It sounds dirty and yummy all at once. I've given it over to the Mennonite to use as she wanders in territory where she wants to curse (because she knows she can, and she's an adult) but where it still feels strange leaving her tongue and she's still looking over her shoulder for a broad chested lady in a black apron with a label to stick on her forehead.
Yeah.
Because that's how awesome my book is. So awesome it's got fudgeballs and fuckery.
Paste your ms into a wordle cloud (it's wordle[dot]net), and see how big the curse words come out if you think you're overusing anything.
ReplyDeleteI did this for (what I thought was) my f-bomb laden UF, and was suprised that the only curse that showed up was damn, and it was pretty small. I guess I only feel like I write fuck too much, simply because I don't say the word in my 'real' life. Who knows.
But you pretty much win for life with 'it's got fudgeballs and fuckery'. That so awesome I can't stand it LMAO :)
~ll, wayward (presbyterian) sinner
That's such a good idea. I used wordle once and then promptly forgot about it. But yeah, definitely would come in handy for a situation like this. *tucks away for further use*
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't say it often in real life (kids and all). But people around me say it so much that I don't even hear it anymore.