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When I write a first draft, it’s usually loaded with swear words.
I don’t mind swearing in posts. Few people do it in this space and some who don’t actually swear in their posts, do in their presentations, which I think is misleading for people who want to book them.
You have to be able to craft your voice and make it as unique as possible, especially when you’re in the crowded social publishing field.
I swear. Get passionate about ridiculous things. And have a general disdain for stupid people.
But you have to watch out for excessive swearing.
If people don’t like certain words, there’s nothing you can do about that. But, if you overuse certain terms, and for weak reasons, it lessens the effect of the word’s use.
From yesterday, when I was explaining why I felt the author of the “Tucker Max Is A Douchebag” blog is an idiot:
“Wikipedia is not supposed to take a position. It’s a fucking encyclopedia!”
Now for a while yesterday, I changed the line to read: “It’s an encyclopedia!”
See? Not as funny. At least, I don’t think it’s as funny without the f-word. There’s a bit more of a punch behind it and an added emphasis in explaining that indeed, encyclopedias are not meant to take a position on a subject.
Actually, if you read A.J. Jacob’s “The Know-It-All” that’s total bullshit when it came to earlier editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica. They were pretty clear on what they liked and didn’t like, but today they’re a bit more distant (and as A.J. points out, way less racist.)
Swear Sparingly
You know my sign off in the videos? “Check early and check often?” Well, “Swear early and swear often” is not the advice to follow in putting your posts together.
It should be the far less catchy “Swear as needed, but not too often.”
Swearing can be viewed as a sign of lazy writing, and I agree with this. It’s way too easy to pump out a post about how I’m developing a general disdain for the elites that live in Chicago (no, that’s not a shot at our president, whom I like very much), and call them a “bunch of fucking jackasses”. But that’s too easy.
Not too mention, it comes off as pretty tacky on my part, and can turn readers away.
So the trick is to pepper your posts with an occasional swear word if you’re going to swear, and hold your fire until you find just the right place for it.
Like, “fucking encyclopedia!” instead of “an encyclopedia!”
