#RebelliousWriting: *scrubs YA MC's mouth out with soap*

Gray over at Writing is Life has started a thing, guys. And if you haven't heard about it yet, I'm proud to present to you: The #RebelliousWriting movement

YA is full of rubbish we really don't want to read about.

Media presents immoral behaviour to teens as normal; teens think it must be normal; media says "see? that's realistic! it's how they are! they need more!!". It's a vicious cycle.  

As YA readers, we need better. As teen writers, we can do better. Let's push back.


Today I'm writing about swearing in novels - why it's unnecessary, or if not, how to get around it. (Side note: does anyone know how YA compares to adult fiction for rates/intensity of swearing?? because YA is. so. bad.)

To start with, a dictionary definition:

Swear (v): use obscene or blasphemous language; use a profane or indecent word in anger etc.

I've grown up surrounded by people who don't swear, but as far as I can tell, these are the reasons for swearing (feel free to correct me):
1. To blaspheme God, address some obscenity to Him, or similar.
2. To abuse someone by calling them obscene words.
3. To shock listeners by the vulgarity.
4. To be 'cool'.
5. As an intensifier.
6. Because they simply don't realise they're saying it anymore [and mean next-to-nothing by it].

Now let's look at novels - specifically the characters, the readers, and the author.


Good guys first. Are any of those six actual good reasons for your good-guy characters to swear? (In my opinion, no.)

Why does your (supposedly good!) character need to say that word?

A reason we're often given is that they're in great pain/danger/stress, and it's realistic for them to swear.

I don't agree.


Let me tell you about my dad. He's a hardworking and loving Christian. At various times, he has: cut the tip off a finger (more than once), been kicked by a bad-tempered cow, blasted air into a cut with a compressor (his whole arm swelled up and it felt/sounded like bubble wrap when we poked it), burnt himself in various ways, watched a nurse dig around in his wrist with tweezers for a shard of metal ("Here it i- nope, that's a tendon"), and set his jeans on fire while welding (no joke).

At no time have I ever heard him swear.

So when people say people tell me their characters need to swear to be realistic? I just wonder why they can't write good characters. Sure, people struggle. That's how we are, and your characters should struggle too (with different things, depending on their strengths and weaknesses). But have them trying to do the right thing, please?? Maybe have them biting their lip to keep bad words coming out?

If a character swears because he's broken his leg, isn't he actually abusing God for letting that happen?? Or else he's simply using that word as an intensifier, which seems to me unnecessarily profane, and quite dangerous morally.

Children and teens will (sadly) encounter bad language. They may be tempted to copy it. This is realistic to portray in fiction, especially if your character is a young person whose 'friends' are leading her astray into rebellion. As long as you show this is wrong, I think it could be appropriate to do something like this:

Filled with heat, Jess spat out a phrase she'd heard Mack use - often, and to great effect.
Her mother's face cracked.
"No- I didn't mean-" Jess sucked in a breath, the cold shame and horror which flowed off her mother filling her gut.

This isn't swearing "to make the character realistic"; this is part of a larger theme, rebellion against parents. (Which is also ungodly and we see far too much of it, okay? Dunno about you, but I couldn't bear to break my loving parents hearts. We can be teenagers without being rebellious; our characters can too. Possible future #RebelliousWriting post.) You'll also notice I did not actually swear in my example; I'll talk about that after going over your other characters:


Bad guys. Yes. Realistically, the villains - or the bad kids at school - will swear. We don't swear because we're Christians, children of God, but obviously people without those beliefs won't be inhibited by the moral code that comes with them.

I understand if you feel your bad guys would swear. But.

Consider your readers.  Are they 'bad guys'? Possibly. Probably not. Probably they're just struggling with the world's lies, like all of us. Help them out here.  Don't reinforce the world's lies of what's acceptable and normal! Your readers don't need you to feed them bad language.

Where your villains insist it's necessary/in character for them to swear, try saying exactly that: "[X] swore." That's simple, helps us to know that's a bad guy, and doesn't extend the wrong vocabulary. Plus, it's a nice short sentence that will add variation to your sentence structure! ;)

You can use other phrases. "Said a bad word". "Said something my mother'd take a bar of soap to my mouth for". "Abused his gods" (for fantasy). "Cursed him and his family line and the day he was born". Anything like that.

"Mr Villain swore hard enough to strip paint, and Charrie flinched."

Also, consider your own soul. Your writing affects you as much as it affects any reader -- maybe more, because you study it, labour over it, spend your life on it. (Audrey Caylin wrote a post which discussed that a bit: {STORIES ARE POWERFUL}.) If you put bad language in your novel, you're hurting yourself as well as your readers.


And if an author is relying on swear words to make their characters/story "interesting"? That's completely lazy writing.

Just letting you know: as a reader, I have no problem with 'regular' characters not swearing, and writers leaving the villains' swear words out. Say "He swore", and I won't complain it's unrealistic, and I will be able to tell that's a bad guy, and that will be one tick for you on my checklist for whether I'll recommend your book!


Did this post make sense? What do you think about swearing and all that stuff in YA? Readers + writers - I'd love to hear your opinion! And are you getting involved with the #RebelliousWriting movement? (hint: you should!)