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Revisiting the Right Stuff
Brace yourself. This is definitely one publisher's opinion
piece. If you're an author over the age of 50, then you'll
understand the points in this article, but if you're younger
than 50, you may not have a clue or be able to relate to
anything said here. ::Sigh::
Revisiting the right stuff. What is the right
stuff?
There was a time when our vocabularies were more widely used in
our writing. (I do not speak of five dollar words here, but
common words used to vary sentences.) However, many of the
books today reflect a disease I call Hollywood-itis. This
disease encompasses using profanity in every other word of
dialogue, or nearly so. Even many of our cartoons use
inappropriate language and thus have become much less funny and
some of them downright distasteful. Most of our current TV
commercials are appallingly stupid, insulting anyone with even
one side of their brain working and the other side dead. There
is such a thing as producing something so stupid it's really
not funny. It's pathetic. Have I ever purchased anything after
watching one of those idiotic commercials? No. Never.
Many of the book signings and conferences I attend and
participate in become great forums for hearing what the buying
public wants. I constantly hear from people buying books that
they are sick to death of filthy language, among other things.
Many ask me about such content in my books before they'll buy
and I don't blame them for asking. I'm glad they do. Many of
them tell some of the books they've bought are not only
offensive, but distracting. It yanks them right out of the
story.
"Oh, but our culture has changed," some of you shout at me.
"Our dialogue wouldn't sound real unless we incorporate trash
language into our writing."
Nonsense.
Clear, concise writing and wordsmithing does not depend on
profanity for its success.
"You are moralizing!" someone just shouted at me. I can hear
you. Call it what you want. The fact is liberal profanity in
any written work lacks class and intellect in the rendering.
Good writers get their point across without the heavy overuse
of it. You have only to read the classics to know the truth of
this. They are still classics. Gee, I wonder why? Does it
really take a genius to figure this out?
I once received a young adult submission that was so chock full
of profanity, which is the way many young people speak today,
that I insisted the author make revisions or it wouldn't be
acceptable for publication in my company. Her argument was that
the dialogue wouldn't sound real. Again I say nonsense. Do you
mean to tell me that if a young person is reading a book full
of exciting, active words showing them a story they're really
getting into, that they miss hearing the filth? If it's a good
book, chances are those young readers won't miss what's not
there, but they will read and enjoy what IS there. If they
can't enjoy a book without that sort of language, then what
does that say for their upbringing, their mindset and
education? Not a great deal to recommend it, I'd say. How much
of that stuff are they hearing at home? This has become another
facet of the breakdown of our education in America. But that's
a whole other article.
Authors, you have the opportunity to "Revisit the Right Stuff"
in your books. Show readers how really talented you are at
crafting a wonderful, memorable book that won't have to be
packaged in a plain brown wrapper and hidden from your children
or your grandmother. Encourage all your author friends to use
active verbs and engaging scenes in their works. Encourage all
authors you know into getting back to CLASS writing. If you're
showing anger, show it, don't shout it at the reader in the
form of disgusting profanity to get your point across. Give
your characters enough dialogue and animation to show us they
are angry or in a rage. In today's environment, this is a
challenge to many of you. Step up to it. Show us your right
stuff.
The Exceptions
I envision a lot of tongues in cheeks out there at this point,
so let me further clarify. When I speak of disgusting
profanity, I am not talking about the occasional damn or hell
used in dialogue. Those expletives do not conjure up demeaning
or sexual images in a reader's mind and they are as common as
apple pie. A helpmate to blowing off steam. One still does not
have to use expletives, but these are far less distracting and
offensive to a reader than some of the other profane words,
which I will not mention here for obvious reasons. You've all
heard and read them.
On the other side of the coin are authors and readers who tell
me they are not bothered by foul language in books. Fine, but
there are far more people who are, and why should we authors
not try to write our very best for them instead of turning them
off reading altogether? I've seen this happen too many times
and it's heartbreaking; it's also damaging to the industry as a
whole. People won't buy books, if they no longer read for the
sheer want of quality books.
I'm not saying books have to be syrupy sweet. Not by any means.
In certain suspense and thrillers, profane words occasionally
spoken by the villain or antagonist can be sometimes tolerated,
even by the most prudish reader, because those awful characters
would most likely speak that way. But the key word here is
occasionally. It is unnecessary to overuse foul language, even
in our dastardly characters. Hone your vocabulary, instead, to
draw your villain well without all that. However, your heroes
and heroines will rarely use profanity or they won't sound like
heroes and heroines.
One of the exceptions might be if a hero is about to be shot
full of holes. He wouldn't say "Oh, shucky darn," would he? No,
so let's be realistic here. In my thriller NIGHT FREEZE, the
word my main character uses as an expletive appears only once
in the entire book, and it's not the "F" word. Even my
extremely warped serial killer comes across as one scary dude
without my using a lot of profanity. A challenge to write
indeed, but it can be done. As a publisher and senior editor I
long to see higher quality writing that took some real thought,
some real blood, sweat and tears To make it the right
stuff.
by Lee Emory - 10th October 2008
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Lee Emory is an author of ten novels, numerous short stories
and articles, who is also a professional editor for 40 years.
She is the owner of/Senior Editor for Treble Heart Books
Publishing. Lee teaches writing workshops and speaks at
numerous writers' conferences. Visit http://www.trebleheartbooks.com
or email leeemory@earthlink.net to learn
more.
Article Source:
www.creativewriter.me.uk
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