De swearing the manuscript

Notes on Love & Laundry.

Let me set the scene for you, Love and Laundry readers. Picture this, if you will:

It's spring break, and I'm touring the Great American West with my three kids, my husband, my incredibly supportive sister-in-law Susan, and my brother-in-law Greg. Oh, and their two puppies. And did I mention that we're all in an RV?

So we're in Zion National Park with no Wi-Fi when I notice an email from my editor. But the email won't load, because of the bad Wi-Fi, so all I can see is the subject line:

Call me when you can.

My first thought? That Lake Union decided to return my advance and unpublish my book. This is a not thing that has ever happened anywhere, to any author I know, but this is still my first thought.

My husband helpfully suggests that maybe instead of wringing my hands and pacing inside an RV where there isn't actually room to pace, I should just, you know, call her.

So I do.

And she is delightful, funny and smart, as always. And she points out that in a few places, there is some strong language in my book. This did not bother her, or me, or my agent, or any of the developmental or copy editors who read Friends with Secrets during multiple rounds of edits. But she pointed out that this strong language could pull some readers out of the story. 

So she asks, would I like to keep the curse words in? Or take them out?

I considered her question as I stood in the RV in Zion National Park surrounded by dogs and kids and family members.

I wanted my book to be real and honest and I wanted people to talk the way people really talk, which is why I used some carefully chosen four-letter words. And one of my all-time favorite women's fiction authors, Lianne Moriarty, has the exact same four-letter words in her delightful novels, where they add to the story, not subtract from it.

 But I also didn't want anyone to enjoy the book less because of those words. I wanted it to be a page turner and a laugh out loud escape, a book that keeps you up past your bedtime and makes you smile as you close the cover for the last time.

So I decided to de-swear the manuscript.

But because I was in Zion National Park with no access to email, my editor had to text me every swear word in the manuscript with the page number. I texted back non-swear word substitutions, and she made those changes in the manuscript just days before the book went into production.

So for example, in a few places, and for perfectly good reasons I can't really describe here without giving things away, I wanted to use this very bad word:

mother %#$@ er.

My editor and I debated the options. Should I change it to mother clucker? Mother trucker? Remove it all together? Or change it to "bad ass?"

I changed it to bad ass. Though I was really tempted to go with mother clucker. Which if you think about it, is actually a pretty cute swear word. Kind of like farfegnugen, that German word for "driving pleasure" from those old Volkswagen commercials.

I would also like to point out that I have a fondness for what I like to call classical swearing. The kind of swear words my Grandpa Johnny used. When the tractor got stuck, or someone's cows got out, he'd say, "Dammit to hell," and I think there are situations in life where Dammit to Hell pretty much sums things up.

He also sometimes swore in Norwegian, which we discovered when we travelled to Norway and used our Norwegian vocabulary words on actual Norwegians. (Never say 'Fee-Faun' in Norway, by the way. We thought it meant something like, "Gee whiz," when in fact, it means something very, very different).

So Friends with Secrets now has only a few, carefully selected swear words. There were a couple I had to leave in, because they needed to be there, but overall, very few profanities ended up making the cut after I'd given it more thought.

So that's the story of how my editor and I de-swore the manuscript over text from an RV in the middle of Zion National Park.

I would love to know what you guys think of swearing in books. Do your eyes skip over these words, or do you find them offensive and unnecessary? 

If you've already read Friends with Secrets, was I right to remove these words, or should I have let the foul language flag fly? I will tuck your opinions into my writing brain and take them into consideration as I write the next book. And speaking of books...

Book News

Friends with Secrets is a best seller.

I know. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.

Sometimes we don't allow ourselves to have certain dreams because it will be too painful when those dreams don't come true. It's a way of protecting our heart from disappointment. And sometimes we allow ourselves to dream, but we keep our dreams small and manageable, just in case things don't work out. Disappointment teaches us to stick with bite-sized dreams. Nothing too big and crazy, because surely that will never happen.

I dared to dream about being a published author with a traditional publisher. But my heart didn't allow me to go further. Because I'd just be setting myself up for disappointment, right?

So I hoped a few people would read my book, and I hoped some of those people might like it, and I drew the line there. No dreaming beyond this point.

And now this:

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this possible.

And now I must go water my hibiscus. My daughter and I went to Minnesota over the 4th of July to see my mom, sister, and niece, and I left my flowers in the "care" of my husband and teenage sons. 

But the dog is still very much alive, so that's good :-) 

So from the dog, and I, best wishes for a July filled with long walks, great books and uninterrupted time to read them :-)

Yours,

Christine