I’m going to make a confession here.
I swear.
A LOT.
Like a sailor in fact. My family is full of Actual Navy Sailors (for realz!), and I learned from the best. They are inventive and come up with new and exciting combinations of ways to offend other people.
I also play video games.
A lot.
And I swear so badly during them that your ears would blister.
This is why we do NOT have a Let’s Play YouTube channel like my husband wants. Because that channel would need to be child friendly per YouTube’s rules, and I swear way, WAY, WAY too much for that.
But, Renee, you say. Why aren’t I seeing it on your blog or in your fiction?
And that’s a good question.
I write Clean and Sweet Young Adult fiction for one thing. What is Clean and Sweet?
- No sex
- No swearing
- No drugs
- No gratuitous violence or gore
I want my writing to be accessible to any age child, teen, or adult who wants to read it. I want parents to be able to look at my blurb and easily know that –insert thing they’re offended by here– will or will NOT be in my novel.
(Yes, I know that most Young Adult readers are adults.)
And, honestly, I feel that there’s no place for swearing in my fiction. If I can’t write as strong of a story without swearing, then I’m really NOT THAT GOOD at my job.
Next question: Am I a Prude?
HA.
Oh, that’s funny.
No, not at all. I happily read any combination of swearing, erotic fiction, gore, the works. I did NOT attach my goodreads account to this page for a reason!
But for me and what I enjoy writing, there’s no swearing.
I’m not comfortable writing sex scenes.
I know nothing about drugs.
I don’t enjoy writing extreme violence or gory scenes.
It’s pretty straightforward, laid out like that.
What are you comfortable writing? What boundaries have you set up for your online ‘face’. Inquiring minds want to know!
