Showing posts with label foul language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label foul language. Show all posts

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Let's Talk About the 'F' Word In Books

Warning: Lots of 'F' words in this post. 

Let's talk about the 'F' word. Mainly, a writer's use of the 'F' word in a book. 




Now, before I get too deep in this post, I am a writer that has used the word "fuck" in a book. Several of my characters use it throughout the book in times of anger, frustration, and even friendly barbs at each other. That being said, I get it. I get why you would use the word in your writing, especially if you're trying to portray a character a certain way. 

That being said....

There is such a thing as too much "fuck". 

I refuse to out the book because it hasn't been published yet and I am reading an advanced copy so there may be changes before it finally goes to print but I am currently reading a book that had 15 'F' words on the first page. The first fucking page. (See, that's a legitimate use.) And then I turned the page. And there were 15 more. 

Listen, I have a foul mouth sometimes. In the almost 4 years that my husband and I have been married he's threatened to invoke a swear jar, wash my mouth out with soap, and put hot sauce on my tongue about a million times like my grandmother used to do when I was a kid. I promise you, nothing is going to work. Sometimes it just feels good to cuss. But I don't get that same good feeling when my eyeballs are assaulted with f-bombs every other sentence. 

After a while it just becomes exhausting. The writer is trying to portray this character as a big, scary bad-ass and he's just coming off as a little boy who is trying to get out as many cuss words as he can before his mom comes back in the room. 


To me, it takes away from the actual story. I'm so distracted by all of the weirdly placed 'F' words that I can't focus on the characters and what's going on with them. All I'm thinking about is how ridiculous someone would sound actually using all of those 'F' words the way the author wrote them. "I think I want a hamfuckingburger with french fucking fries and a fucking coke and don't you skimp on the mayofuckingaise you fucking burger flipfuckinger"  (Okay, so that's not actually a quote from any book, thank goodness, but you get the idea!) 

If you must use cuss words in your books, that's okay! Just make sure that they're actually necessary. If there are so many cuss words in your writing that those words outnumber regular words, you should probably try eliminating some. Maybe try reading it out loud and seeing how it sounds? 

Maybe it's just me? 

Does this bother anyone else or am I just being a pansy? 











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Saturday, March 21, 2015

REVIEW: Glenn Hates Books - Glenn Conley




Recently I was approached by Glenn to review my book, The Letters and when he mentioned his book, I agreed to review it. I must say I was more at ease with agreeing to review his book than I was to let him review mine. And the reviews in this book (and the ones on his blog/Goodreads) are precisely the reason why I was scared to let him review my book. 

Glenn claims to hate books. If you read just his one-star reviews, you might really believe that he is telling the truth. He's not, though. I'm on to him. Glenn doesn't hate books. He actually really likes and that's why he's so damn critical of what is put in front of him. His attitude towards books starts changing in his three-star reviews and by the five-star reviews, Glenn's affection for books really shines through. He loves 'em. 

I will say these reviews are not for the faint of heart, though. Or for anyone offended by foul language or jokes that can be a homophobic or make light of sexual assault. I honestly cannot say that I found all of Glenn's jokes funny but I didn't take them to heart, either. Yes, he's crass and abrasive but his tone is full of humor. You can tell that he doesn't really want to "ass-rape" an author but you can feel his frustration at how amazingly awful the author has managed to write the book. If Gordon Ramsey and a sailor were to have a love child and that love child grew up to review books, it would be Glenn. That is the best way I can describe his reviews. He gets incredibly frustrated with how much a book sucks and lets them have it. Which, being completely honest, some authors really need a review that scathing. 

"Brutally Honest Book Reviews" is not a lie. It tells you everything you need to know about this book before you even open it. And yet, I was still surprised by just how brutally honest they were. And that is why Glenn is now on my list of Go-To reviewers when I'm interested in a book. If he says it sucks, I'm probably not going to waste my time reading it. You can also use his book to play a drinking game. Take a drink every time you see the word 'fuck' and you should be good and schnockered before you ever even get to the three-star reviews! 

Check his book out on Amazon




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