Tuesday 20 September 2011

Swearing in Books

I had an e-mail this morning from a reader who said he was a big fan of my books, which was nice of course. But he also pointed out that the characters in the Death Force series used the word ‘sodding’ all the time, and it got a bit repetitive.

He’s right, of course. They do, and it is.

There is a reason, however. They are soldiers. In real life it would be fu%£kig this and f!c£king that. And for some reason, I don’t think swearing works very well in books. I don’t have anything against it in real life, and it can work fine in films, but I print it somehow falls flat.

So I use sodding instead.

But maybe that doesn’t quite work either? 

1 comment:

  1. Totally agree..No need for it..Hundreds of thousands don't use it in everyday speech, why should we be forced to read it in a book.If publishers won't stop it,they could devise some system of grading to warn us how much is in the book..

    ReplyDelete