Ways to deal with your characters swearing in your story:
- include the swearing in the dialogue
- say "he cursed", "she swore", etc.
- don't have them swear
Ways not to deal with your characters swearing in your story:
- uncharacteristic minced oaths (gosh, heck, darn, etc.). There's nothing wrong with using gosh and heck. It's more of a characterisation thing. For example, if you have an immoral character who gleefully breaks the law, their religion doesn't see cussing as wrong, etc, they'd probably use pretty rough profanity (fuck, shit, cunt, etc.). But if your character is innocent, has strict religious code, has high morals etc. then yeah, definitely use them.
- censoring your own dialogue (please don't write @!# in the middle of your dialogue unless you make graphic novel/comic books)
Furthermore, giving them unique swears or phrases is great for making it more real. If you're not particularly fond of swearing in dialogue (or in dialogue description), you can make something mundane read like a swear.
"You and Aunt Laura," he says, staring at her. She flushes. Aunt Laura ran away to the circus at 25, four years after it left town.
Or just add "X swears" to dialogue for a completely normal word.
"Crumpets," they swear. It's vulgar, they know, but watching the last horse vault over the fence merited a little vocal vulgarity.
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