Convincing writing is, as many have pointed out, in the details. And when you’re talking fantasy, science-fiction, cyberpunk, or steampunk, it’s even more important.
You don’t feel transported into another world if people do the same things they do here, unless you’re gung-ho about some sort of detail-by-detail allegory. While I do believe writers’ individual hopes and dreams do tend to bleed into their works, I don’t think novels on a “this-for-that” basis work too well.
So here’s one of the things I’ve been facing. My novel takes place in a world like our own, but not our own. It’s like Victorian England and North America, but it’s not. String theory and alternate worlds aside, this is often more difficult than it sounds. The creativity dial of cultural uniquity goes to eleven, you see, but if I turn it up the entire way, there’s always the risk of alienating the only people who will ever read it: the ones in this very world.
Because I have some Western inspirations in my book, I’ve had to consider swears a great deal. (As a funny little aside, I wrote my first few novels about Billy the Kid, and my own hero: Destiny Desert. When my dad stumbled on to my half-written manuscript and discovered I’d used a host of swears he thought were much too crass for my twelve-year old self, he was rather upset. I forgot what the stakes were, but they were quite high, and prompted me to write a three-page defense about the historical validity of said cowboys using swear words… I couldn’t very well dispute history, now could I?) But I don’t necessarily want them to use the same swears that are in our world… some writers, like Greg Keyes do a great job of this (scaet, which I love). Heck, even Battlestar Galactica does a fabulous job of this (frack!).
But, it can come off very badly. Fricatives are such that they often mean bad things, not because they were designed that way, but because they sound that way. So why mess with it too much?
Ah, I just don’t know. Some authors pull from the real world, delving into medieval and Renaissance language to come up with alternatives. Others go way out there, and pull from their own universe. I guess there’s something to say for calling it like it is…
I suppose I still have some thinking to do.
The Aldersgate Cycle 
April 17, 2008 at 2:22 pm
When you know your cosmology, your spiritual template, swears become easier. Shakespeare’s “God’s bodkin” is a good example (makes me giggle every time, but was surely scandalous on the Elizabethan stage). When you use “gods” and “hells” they make the point while alluding to the split worlds. Swears should build on the setting, characters and universe you are creating. Something scandalous to Cora might not be so for Professor. Brick’s ideas of what a swear is will most assuredly change from the beginning of the book to the end.
April 17, 2008 at 4:22 pm
A very good point. Except I’m dealing with distant religion–for the most part, in the Territories, religion hasn’t been practiced for at least two-hundred years, not with any seriousness or validity. Which is why I tend to migrate toward “piss” and that sort of thing 🙂