Annath
New Member
Okay, as a Christian author, this has been bugging me. I'm writing a story that takes place in a rather dark setting, that leads to a lot of dark dialogue. For this reason, there are times when I feel like my characters, very few of which represent typical, nice, church-going types, would likely swear. Thing is, I'm trying to keep this audience appropriate, namely, fellow Christian readers.
It's just that, having characters like teenagers who were just beaten and excommunicated, street-hardened cops who come upon a dire situation, and weary street thugs saying things like "darn!" or "crap." just sounds silly and out of place.
So I suppose that my question, aimed at other writers, is, do you think it is appropriate to include swearing where it might realistically be used? An example is this. I'm writing a dark, Watchmen-esque superhero story in which most of the superhumans discover their powers in traumatic "activations." One of the characters, a seventeen year old girl, discovers that she has the ability to stun people with bright flashes of light and loud noises(think military flash-bang) when she is attacked by a man who intends to rape her. She successfully fends him off when she uses her power for the first time, completely by accident. In doing so she causes him to go through a second story window and he dies in the fall. Police respond to an alarm triggered in the fight, and find her in the aftermath.
Now, I don't think that having villains randomly dropping f-bombs or strewing it throughout the dialogue is a good idea, but realistically, people swear. Do you think it would be appropriate to accept and include this, or is there a better way of obfuscating it?
It's just that, having characters like teenagers who were just beaten and excommunicated, street-hardened cops who come upon a dire situation, and weary street thugs saying things like "darn!" or "crap." just sounds silly and out of place.
So I suppose that my question, aimed at other writers, is, do you think it is appropriate to include swearing where it might realistically be used? An example is this. I'm writing a dark, Watchmen-esque superhero story in which most of the superhumans discover their powers in traumatic "activations." One of the characters, a seventeen year old girl, discovers that she has the ability to stun people with bright flashes of light and loud noises(think military flash-bang) when she is attacked by a man who intends to rape her. She successfully fends him off when she uses her power for the first time, completely by accident. In doing so she causes him to go through a second story window and he dies in the fall. Police respond to an alarm triggered in the fight, and find her in the aftermath.
I feel like the point at which I have "[Word of exasperation]" would be a point where a cop, who is likely tired and under a lot of stress and has just discovered a dead man and a panic stricken girl, might swear.In between my sobs I saw the door across from me in the empty apartment burst open. Two police officers charge into the room, weapons drawn. They moved toward me, but upon seeing my torn clothes and disheveled state, they lowered their guns and walked toward me slowly.
“Ma'am, are you okay?” One of them said in a diplomatic voice. Someone must've heard my shouting. I slowly shook my head no, and looked down. They both came out onto the fire escape and looked down at what I was looking at.
The officer's tone quickly changed from diplomatic to weary.
“[Word of exasperation].”
Now, I don't think that having villains randomly dropping f-bombs or strewing it throughout the dialogue is a good idea, but realistically, people swear. Do you think it would be appropriate to accept and include this, or is there a better way of obfuscating it?