Swearing is feeble-minded
When I was in Grade 6, a very cute and flirty boy in my class, Chris Duncan, would chase me at recess in an attempt to pull my bra-strap and snap it across my back. Usually, I loved the attention. One particular day, however, my impatience with our non-evolving relationship got the better of me.
“Snap!”
I turned to Chris and swore at him. He immediately swore back at me loudly; to preserve his machismo, and perhaps cover his embarrassment at my newfound rejection of our habitual adolescent play.
Unfortunately for Chris, the teacher on Yard Duty heard him, and hauled the both of us in to see our classroom teacher. Chris was sternly reprimanded, and told to apologize. He also had to write lines. I’ll never forget the sentence that our teacher, Mr. Barker gave to Chris to copy out by hand 100 times; missing the rest of that recess, and all of the long one at lunchtime too.
On the board it said: “Swearing is feeble-minded.”
As I was being released for the remainder of the recess, my sense of guilt kicked in. I confessed that I had been swearing at Chris too. Subsequently, I also had to write the lines. The upside was that I got to spend the next two recesses alone with Chris Duncan; the downside was that I had no idea what “feeble-minded” meant.
When the teacher left the room, the first thing I did was grab a dictionary to look it up, and there was irony in the definition I found: “Lacking in clear judgment; displaying less than average intelligence” or simply grabbing at a common, but not necessarily elevated adjective.
For those of you who know me, I still love to swear, and will occasionally do so in conversation, and also in my writing. That said, Mr. Barker’s lesson wasn’t lost on me then, and as a writer, it still isn’t lost on me.
Sometimes, we reach for the easy word. We get lazy. We grab a word that is common, just to wrap up our message quickly and haphazardly. There’s no harm in this occasionally, but if we get into the habit of mental apathy, then our power of expression becomes very commonplace unremarkable, and unmemorable.
In my book, Beautiful Humans There’s Nothing Wrong With You; Encouragement for the Soul the final chapter is about creating awareness around our level of negative self-talk and changing it. I ask readers to cultivate a practice of delivering self-loving messages to themselves on the regular. Instead of naming the chapter the highly predictable “Self-Talk and Self-Love Practices”, the chapter is actually called, “The Lion-Tamer vs. The Open-Armed Mama”.
Which title is more fun? Creates curiosity? Makes the reader want to read more?
Don’t forget, Writers, that you can each create your own world. You are decorating the house that you are inviting readers into. Yes, yes, I love clarity too, but I also love imagination.
Say it your way.
We’re all sick of love songs that end lines with “rain” and “again” or “do” and “you”. How many times have you heard an easy rhyme and grown bored of it?
Watch for repetition in your writing.
You can actually use the “Find” function in Word if you suspect that you’re overusing a term or expression, and this will present an actual count for you. It doesn’t get any plainer than that! As always, read your writing aloud. This is a superb way to trip on the rocks that threaten your flow. And finally, don’t be shy about keeping the thesaurus open on your computer. Use it! Not only will this expand your vocabulary, but it will add some spice.
In the meantime, perhaps leave the expletives behind, and remember that there are over 50 Inuit words for snow. (Maybe for you, snow is an expletive too??)
Enjoy your craft, Writers, and talk soon.
Warmly,
Marcy
