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distilled down to the very best and most appropriate, given the needs of the story.

SPARSE USE OF PROFANITY. If the characters and dialogue in the story are believable without profanity, there's no problem. But will all of your characters be believable if they never use profanity, even in situations where its use seems natural? Maybe a compromise is in order. Why not use profanity only in those few situations that are most important to the story? This approach has a potential benefit: if you seldom use profanity in your writing, it will stand out more when you actually do.

SUMMARIZED PROFANITY. By summarized profanity, I mean the use of phrases such as, "he cussed," and "she cursed," and "he cut loose with a string of expletives." If a writer is trying to limit or avoid the outright use of foul language, but the needs of the story call for it, the use of summary may be an acceptable compromise. In fact, summary may very well serve the story better than interrupting the action with dialogue or distracting the reader with specific curse words.

SANITIZED PROFANITY. Another alternative is to use "sanitized" profanity, sugar-coated substitutes. "Fiddle-De-Dee" might have worked just fine for Scarlet O'Hara in Gone With the Wind. In the Harry Potter novels, "mudblood" is a derogatory term. "Frack" is the f-word in the television series Battlestar Galactica. On the other hand, "Oh, Fudge!" "Shoot!" and "Darn it!" just won't cut it for some characters. And let's face it, sometimes the words manure, dung, or poop just don't communicate the emotion being portrayed in the story.

As a novelist, I've weighed the costs and benefits of using profanity in my writing. These are my personal guidelines:

* The younger the intended reader, the harder it is to justify using any profanity at all;

* I won't use liberal amounts of profanity in my writing; in fact, I'll use profanity only reluctantly where I believe the benefits outweigh the costs; and

* I'll use sanitized cussing where appropriate and summarized profanity where it serves the story best.

Writing is largely about making choices, and choices have consequences. Sometimes agonizing over those decisions can be a distraction to making progress in writing. Hopefully, this article has helped you establish your own guidelines for the use of profanity. "Now, gosh dang it, let's get back to writing!"

Learn more about this author, Mike Klaassen.
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