Writers and the F Word

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First of all I have nothing against the F word. Used properly (so to speak) it can lend a certain energy to what you’re writing, whether fiction or non-fiction.

But the other day I was checking an edited essay of mine that’s going to appear in an anthology coming out in a few months and I found that somehow the F word had been inserted in a place where there had been no F word. As in “fucking nuts”. And it didn’t work. I was fascinated about how wrong it felt.

And here’s why: I and many of my dear friends periodically announce that we’re going fucking nuts. Quite often in fact. So when you feel like you’re really going nuts (and using the word ‘nuts’ not ‘insane’ because that’s the tone you want, serious but slightly slangy), the word ‘fucking’ in front of it somehow diminishes the seriousness of how you’re feeling. I found this so interesting! To have been writing all these years and using the F word in God knows how many essays and fictional scenes and to suddenly make this discovery.

Isn’t this is why we love being writers – words matter, each one has weight; and we never cease to be amazed by the infinite ways they can be put together.

 

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