legmuscle

Ze Spy Page 6

Added 2025-04-07 13:00:10 +0000 UTC

Ze Spy makes more sacrifices for freedom and democracy, and all while not using swears: just because you're stripping down in enemy territory doesn't give you permission to have a potty mouth.

Some readers (those brave few who take time read the captions, anyway 😉) may notice that I avoid using swear words in my work and might be curious why this is, given the nature of my subject matter. There's a couple of reasons for it, the first being that I want the ENF in my stories to seem like it's not supposed to be happening: as though you tuned in to an episode of Charlie's Angels or Wonder Woman and suddenly everyone's kit is off. I think that it enhances the embarrassment if it seems like the characters were planning for a completely different kind of story and now THIS is happening. I also think it adds to the humour that there's all this obviously rated R stuff is happening, but everything else is super wholesome. What can I say? It amuses me.

The final reason is that in writing, especially comedy writing (which I'm technically doing) I find swears to be a bit of a crutch. That's not to say I'm some kind of prude that blanches at the sound of a naughty word, when swearing is employed well and used creatively it can be genuinely hilarious. I do find, though, when it's is overused it can get monotonous and can sometimes make the final work sound like a bit puerile.

And of course this just applies to me, if you're doing creative work and want your characters to cuss like sailors, have at it! Everyone's got their own story to tell. But for me, I tend to keep the language clean.