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sabremeisterHave just been browsing the NaNoWriMo forums - specifically, the Fantasy forum, reading the thread "Explict Content / Fade to Black"
I've got a couple of sexual scenes that don't leave a lot to the imagination, and was thinking I could re-write them a little to be less graphic but just as impact-y, and was hoping the thread might be of some help. It wasn't - it's people comparing what sort of thing they put in their writing, and how they do it, in the categories of swearing, sex, and violence.
And what struck me, was that the Americans (even the adults in their 30s+) call swearing "cussing" or "cursing", and all the Brits (don't think I've seen any Europeans) call it "swearing".
"Cussing" is a childish, prudish, sheltered-life-flower-fairies-are-real way of saying "cursing". "Cursing" is "May your head shrivel like a prune and your testicles drop off". Swearing is "What the fuck is that?", "About bloody time!", "Bugger off!" and so on. If you're going to discuss it, call it by the proper name, please. If you're in a biology class learning about reproduction, no-one says "the wanger is inserted into the slit," they say "the penis is inserted into the vagina."
I've got a couple of sexual scenes that don't leave a lot to the imagination, and was thinking I could re-write them a little to be less graphic but just as impact-y, and was hoping the thread might be of some help. It wasn't - it's people comparing what sort of thing they put in their writing, and how they do it, in the categories of swearing, sex, and violence.
And what struck me, was that the Americans (even the adults in their 30s+) call swearing "cussing" or "cursing", and all the Brits (don't think I've seen any Europeans) call it "swearing".
"Cussing" is a childish, prudish, sheltered-life-flower-fairies-are-real way of saying "cursing". "Cursing" is "May your head shrivel like a prune and your testicles drop off". Swearing is "What the fuck is that?", "About bloody time!", "Bugger off!" and so on. If you're going to discuss it, call it by the proper name, please. If you're in a biology class learning about reproduction, no-one says "the wanger is inserted into the slit," they say "the penis is inserted into the vagina."
