Language, Please

If you grew up in the ‘80s, you probably remember that every movie had a cornucopia of cussing in it. Revisiting some of those movies is eye-opening. I remember showing Back to the Future to our oldest several years back and being alarmed at a) more swearing than I remembered and b) that I didn’t remember. Which brings us to our topic today. Those of you who’ve read my books might have noticed that I don’t throw in a lot of colorful language. In fact, other than Next Time, I don’t believe I’ve used swearing, either for my characters or in the narrative. Why did I do so in Next Time? Because it’s set in Boston, and everybody in Boston swears. In case you’re from Boston and just took offense, I’m kidding. Mostly. Anyway, the next question people will ask is if I’m a prude who wears Pilgrim clothing. Good grief, no. The real reason I keep my books “clean”? Because I want people of all ages to read them. If I do throw in a good swear word, it should have shock value, an impact. Yes, there are settings where that’s the way people communicate. Can you imagine The Sopranos without swearing? My goal, and maybe I’ll continue this in another column, is to direct the focus of you as a reader to that moment, the words on the page, the setting, the character’s thoughts and actions and speech. I don’t want to do anything to take you out of that moment.