Swearing in short story?

[BeatriceLacey]

It's all in dialogue but should I err on the side of caution and change it? This is the first thing I've written in years and I want to submit it for something. I've looked at previous stories they've published and they don't seem to contain swearing. The editor has plenty of swearing in his books though!

No replies yet?

I know someone who submitted something to a competition and had the person running it ring her up to excoriate her on the ‘bad language’.

I guess it depends what you want most - creative freedom or progression through compromise.

But there are countless other competitions you could consider.

Thanks. I haven't decided what to do yet. Just given it to my teens to read though, they're both autistic so will give me their brutally honest opinions!

Depends on your target audience - some older readers are offended by swearing, while some readers won't even notice it

What swear word is it ?

For me swearing should be appropriate to the character and used sparingly to say something about the character or the situation they're in.
You could also consider whether you can get away with implying swearing without using the actual words.

It was something that interested me when my dc were at the stage of reading Alex Rider and Cherub books and we had a lengthy discussion about it.

Alex Rider, I don't think uses swearing at all, but you do get "Alex swore at his captor" or similar. Cherub uses it liberally, including at times in places where it seems unnecessary.
My dc didn't pick up that Alex Rider didn't use the actual words (at least most of the time-I haven't studied them enough to state none!) but did pick up that Cherub (to use one of their expressions) was a bit like a someone "who'd discovered swearing and wanted to show off that they knew the words so uses them all the time".

There are times in Cherub when I think the action would be not as powerful without the actual words-there's only so often you can say "he swore".
And Cherub is written for older children, which makes a difference.
They're both great sets of books that held all three of my dc's attention-and not many books are liked by all three as they have different tastes.
However the conclusion of my dc was that Cherub books would have been better if it had been dialled back a little on that front.

Obviously I'm talking about children's books, which is a little different too.

I’ve sworn in writing and been published so I think it’s ok! Really depends on appropriate for the genre, character etc. There’s a really great article here about swearing in writing: jerichowriters.com/words-instead-of-fuck/

Talking about competitions yes, there are several competitions currently offered. Just type in "writing competitions 2023" to the search engine

Guess it requires the right mood to even consider submission, but I find that it´s worth a try

I think the most important thing is "is that how your characters speak"? If it is, then that is your answer and if its not and its been added in for impact, then take it out.

I've written short stories before where the character (to my surprise as I don't really swear) came out with a swear word. That was a - if it makes sense - lovely moment as it showed the story was writing itself and I was just recording it. I think if you're in that zone, then the words are valid. My story was published.

Well, does it need to be there? Is it conveying something about the character (is this someone we would expect to be foul-mouthed, or is it surprising?) or the situation (something stressful or infuriating)? Is it all or mostly one character, or is it all very sweaty? Because a dialogue that goes

’Fuck,’ Martin said, as the hammer hit his thumb. ‘Fuck, fuck, FUCK!’

’Get out of my fucking way,’ Anna said, pushing him away from the bench. ‘I’ll do it.’

’Don’t fucking push me!’ Martin glared at her and stood his ground.

‘All right, all right,’ Anna muttered. ‘Keep your fucking hair on.’

will grate.