I wrote this scene where a girl wakes up after a night of fun and the guy in her bed, she assumes is dead. She calls her friend who comes over. She used the “F” once, maybe twice. I felt very self-conscious. Then, worst of all, I had to read it out to the rest of the class (it wasn’t maybe as bad as the gay love scene I read out loud, but that’s for the earlier craft lesson).

At any rate, I was so nervous (why??? It’s not like I’ve said the word before). So I read my story. People laughed out loud, deep belly laughs — the story was funny. What I remember most, is Pat’s comment. She said, just what Bill has said here. The scene never would have worked if I had used a limp word (gosh, shoot). The only way the scene worked was with the little “F” word (one of 13 cuss words as my son has informed me).

But, I still feel like my mother is standing over me when I use it in my writing, wagging her finger and giving me that “I can’t believe you used THAT word” look. BUT I STILL USE IT!!!

This sort of reminds me of the use of names in dialogue. I think writers tend to have characters refer to each other by name far more frequently than we refer to each other by name in real life.

But gosh, I’ve heard some people get a real stick up their you-know when an author has profanity in their book. Sheesh. What’s the big deal? It’s not like they haven’t heard it before. It’s just a word!