Eventually, guilt takes over. After some four years, I've decided to go back into the blogosphere. Some things have changed, and changed rapidly.
For one, in the last ten months, I have self-published eight books. After an inspiring round of helping a student of mine edit an English paper at school, I went home one day and--in three hours--laid out the characters, intended plots, and setting of a police procedural series set on a fictional island off the north coast of Wales. In no time, the DI Gareth Benedict Mysteries were born. I wrote all five novels between May 1 and November 30, 2025, and now I am releasing them 5-6 months apart (#4 is coming out on New Year's Day 2027, the finale will be July 2, 2027). I have taken care to write two short books that serve as Bible studies in a new imprint I began. The Aslockton Bible Studies (named after the birthplace of English reformer Thomas Cranmer) include Jonah: A Gospel Journey and The Monarch's Mandate: Expositions of the Kingdom of God in Mark's Gospel. Two more in that series will come out before February 2027, so stay tuned! In addition, I re-launched the Cameron Ballack Mysteries with The Burning Glow and also self-published Bjarna, the second book in the trilogy of The Merivalkan Chronicles. And mystery writing never ends: I started a new four-part series called the Yellowknife Mysteries, set in the capital city of Canada's Northwest Territories, with Ring of Murder, a book I am extremely proud of.
All this verbiage eventually leads to confronting a situation. Well, it doesn't happen so much in the Merivalkan Chronicles or my Bible study works. But the situation is this, if posed as a question: How much objectionable language or cursing is allowable if you are writing a great story?
Good question! I think that anyone who reads my mysteries will realize I am no prude when it comes to language. These stories will not have mouths washed out with soap. I have my reasons for this. One of those reasons is that when you are holding up a mirror to the earthiness of life--which gets reflected in murder mysteries, whether in St. Louis, Wales, or Canada--I don't think that calls for a whitewash of vocabulary. I don't think my novels should read like the screenplay for The Wolf of Wall Street, but I don't think they need to be children's picture Bibles, either. To accurately show the story's plot and characters, sometimes you may need to let the occasional curse sneak through (hold on...I'll explain what that means below). If one is writing a novel about the trenches of World War I, a soldier just cannot blurt out "Oh, strawberries and cream!" when he fells one of the Kaiser's troops in no man's land or say "Smash my biscuits!" when mustard gas creeps into their vicinity. Such cleanliness of voice would make the story a joke.
On the other hand, I don't think the story or my readers are served well by having profanities on every page. There is a spoilage of the story that comes with a pile of curses in the manuscript. One of the wisest pieces of literary advice I ever got was an offhand remark my wife made about the subject, when Christi said, "I don't think anyone has ever read a book and said, 'I wish there was more cussing in that story'." There are ways to expand your readers' vocabulary without majoring in profane and scatalogical language.
So, where did that leave me? I think it means we apply some wisdom about what will definitely advance the story in a responsible manner, and what is clearly out of bounds. We're talking "What are the limits?", and then think soberly about them. What have I utilized? Obviously, if you read my novels, you'll find a h--- or a d--- on rare occasion in conversation. British fiction like my DI Gareth Benedict series will have a broader range, even the extremely rare moment of using "a--". But my reason for doing so is because if that expression would absolutely fit the moment and the character's disposition for the scene. I can count on one finger the number of times a character in my books has said "S.O.B!" and that was in response to a situation, not calling a person that. The tougher call for me is any use of the Divine name of God. I'm dedicated to the third commandment (second for you Lutherans), and I do vex over conversational use. Sometimes, I've written a variation of it into the dialogue. In The Broken Cross, detective Tori Vaughan, realizing they may not catch the killer in time, blurts out, "Oh, God help us." But my normal mode is to ask myself, "Is this a time when the word choice is absolutely the better term to use?" If your answer to that question is perpetually "Yes", or if you enjoy inserting objectinable or profane language into your text, it's you who has an issue.
This means there are some words always out of bounds for me. I will never use the F-bomb in my stories, or "s---", or "MF". I may be general at times and mention a character emitting a slew of curses, but I won't say what those words are. Then, I believe an author is on safer ground. Also, I will never use the expression "Oh my G--" (I think I have used "Lord" on one or two occasions), nor will I allow any character to utter the words G--d---. No story, in my estimation, is worth that. If you disagree, then your choice is clear: You don't need to read what I write.
My intention is not to construct a theology of cursing in writing, but simply to share that this is a matter that takes great skill to work through. We want a great story; that desire is part of being human. But we should have stories that honor the image of God within ourselves and the characters we experience, as much as possible. And my wife is absolutely correct. No one of good character reads a story and pines for more cuss words embedded therein. There should be glory within the story. That's where we should land.
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