So, I've been thinking about submitting an excerpt of my Deep Diving story to this blog but they don't accept profanity. I didn't think that was a problem because I don't have characters who swear a lot - sure they swear sometimes, but not heaps.And then I started going through some excerpts. They want an erotic scene. Deep Diving has more than a few of those since it covers 11 days and they pretty much have sex every day. Sometimes Cooper says, "Fuck," during or after sex, so that ruled out two scenes. I narrowed it down to three scenes I was tossing up between.
And then I saw "cunt" and "cock". In erotic writing I wouldn't class them as profanity because I'm not using them as swearing but as a word to describe a body part. But, technically, it's profanity.
So I had to search again. And it wasn't good. Not a lot of swearing but a lot of those profane body parts.
And this is always the problem for me, I really don't like euphemistic words so that narrows down the word choices I have for sexual body parts. And saying "penis" and "vagina" are okay once in a while, but then I start to feel like I'm writing a medical text book, not a story.
So... Profanity or descriptive word? What's your take? And does it bother you when reading erotica and people swear? Do you have words you cringe upon reading/using?
My challenge over the next couple of weeks is going to be to write an erotic sex scene without profanity. And that will be a challenge!!
From one girl who wrote a book about a dodgy vagina to another... ;) I used 'vagina' for a reason, cos as you know in Fairway there was a fair bit of medical mumbo jumbo going on, and it seemed appropriate for that character that she'd use a kind of, clinical term.
ReplyDeleteI've used 'pussy' in one book, but I favour 'cunt' if I have to. Except I don't write erotica and for me, 'cunt' is something that I consider in erotica, rather than contemporary.
I hope you managed to find an except that was suitable. Personally, I think there is a difference between use of the word to describe the body part (cunt) and calling someone a cunt as a term of abuse.
You always ponder the hard questions, don't you!
My iPad has started eating my comments. Sorry, Lily, I replied yesterday but it's gone into cyberspace.
DeleteLOL I'm not sure I ask the hard questions, just the silly things that make me wonder!
I think with your book, dodgy vagina is fine. If you had have said 'dodgy cunt', it could have been mistaken for cursing or swearing ;) I agree that Fairway To Heaven needed vagina to keep the dodgy vagina a medical thing, and something serious.
Thanks for commenting, Lily. I hope you aren't having commenting trouble.
Cate xo