I Cringe Every Time I Read or Write a Four-Letter Word
I am at an age where I believe swear words are unnecessary to transmit emotion and a great story.
I was enjoying a well-written and engaging Medium story this morning when I suddenly stopped for a few seconds. It was like a viper hiding in the weeds—the “F” bomb. I stopped and groaned to myself silently. Why?
Part of self-editing is deleting words, sentences, and even paragraphs that don’t advance your story. Shakespeare was correct—” Brevity is the soul of wit.” The use of four-letter words in our culture is so mainstream and omnipresent now that most of us are no longer shocked.
I am not a Puritan. I can cuss with the best of them. But for frick-sake, do these words add so much to our content that they must be sprinkled into our writing like snowflakes in January? To this, I say, “Bullspit.”
I have asked myself many times why this bothers me anymore. My only answer is my age. As a baby boomer, I was taught to be polite in my speech, which I translated into my writing. I cannot deny that I have used such words in a rare Medium story, but even doing so made me pause and question my authenticity.
It is the same feeling I get when a black person, often a rapper, feels like they must litter the “n” word throughout their songs. I have heard many…
