I’m from the American South, so it should be cussin’. Basically, I’m covering profanity here, and am curious to poll writers’ and readers’ thoughts.

Generation X, including yours truly, had a certain amount of profanity ingrained in them from their peers. To us, it wasn’t that big of a deal….the profanity was not usually used in anger and it filled in nicely whatever noun, verb, adjective, or adverb we needed at the time (now, this was with our peers. Not in the classroom, not with parents, not during job interviews, not in our cubicles at whatever menial jobs we were able to find during the recession of the early 1990s.)

Then we had kids.

The only time I’ve let something really fly that I wish I hadn’t since I’ve become a parent (besides the mildest forms of profanity…and a lot of euphemisms) was when I was on the highway recently and suddenly had to swerve to avoid a pick-up truck that was consumed by a raging fire and had flames licking out over my lane. My middle-schooler raised his eyebrows at me; less at the fireball than at my language.

What about in our writing?

I write cozy mysteries and I do know my market pretty well. I use ‘damn’ and ‘hell’ but not often. I would never use any of the four-letter words I used so carelessly 10-15 years ago.

Why use any at all? This is hard for me to answer. Occasionally I just come across a situation that seems to warrant it. Oddly enough, I use it more when a character is in a humorous, but frustrating situation.

I’ve seen many movies and read many thrillers where I found the profanity a tremendous distraction. It was repeated ad nauseum, and I’m no prude. But when I start to flinch, it’s too much. And to what purpose? That’s what I can’t figure out. Why ruin (in my mind) a great movie like Good Will Hunting with overwhelming vulgarities?

So….is there a formula, depending on your genre? How much is too much? What’s the right amount for the effect we’re looking for?

I’ve gotten to that part of the manuscript.

You know the part I’m talking about.  I’ve written the first draft from beginning to end, and now it’s time to make some assessments.

Where am I with word count?  (With my current project, I’m six thousand words short of the contracted number I agreed to write.)

Are my scenes in sequence?  I frequently write scenes out of order (helps with writer’s block), so it’s good to go back for a read-through.

Did I tie up my loose ends?

Did I finish writing each scene? Or did I intend to come back later to finish one—and forget to?

Is my manuscript believable?

Will the reader get an image of each character in their heads?  Or should I spruce up my character descriptions?

Have I described each of my settings? (The town, characters’ houses, various meeting places?) Brief is fine, but non-existent won’t do.

After I do a read-through on my checklist, I move on to the next stage—slicing and dicing.

Sometimes when I’ve got my writer hat on (conferences, signings, publicity things), I’m asked to look over someone’s draft, short story, or manuscript.

If I’ve got the time (and usually I try to make time if it’s something short-ish), I’ll do it. The only thing is—I’m a horrible critiquer.

I really am—I’ve sat in critique groups before and heard people give really sound advice on someone’s WIP and thought, “Gosh, yes. That’s absolutely right. Why didn’t I see that?”

I’m great at proofreading. And I know when something is good or if it needs work. But I just can’t successfully edit anyone’s material but my own.

I read two short stories for someone this week. I realized one was far superior to the other…but couldn’t figure out why.

At some point I realized this failing of mine and banned myself from writing critique groups. During these groups, I’d found myself saying, “I thought this was great!” with absolutely no reason why I thought so. Or really disliking something and thinking, “Ick.” But I’d have no ideas on how not to make it icky.

My favorite way to help aspiring writers is by getting them connected to online help. There’s so much information out there on finding an agent or publisher, on honing your writing skills, on writing a killer query. I hope that I can be more helpful with the links I have.

When friends ask me to help them write a letter to a business or a school, I just write the letter for them. So much easier than trying to tweak theirs!

The funny thing is that my father is an English professor and wonderful at critiquing. So maybe it’s not a genetic thing.

Maybe some writers are just lousy at editing. I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade. Let an agent or an editor who is paid to make someone feel rotten give the bad news. I’m glad to just do a swift proofread and give grammar tips and help making connections online. And after all, maybe the content that I dislike will be more appealing to other readers than it was to me.

I was part of a writers’ conference this past weekend and talked about developing characters for mysteries.

The audience was attentive, the library that hosted the event was gracious, and my topic seemed to go well. People laughed at the right places and even took notes.

But my favorite part of the whole event? Lunch afterwards. We met at the Artist’s Cafe in Newton, NC and had a delicious lunch and a very productive conversation on poisons. I’m on the lookout for different poisons (2 different series) and need something good. I have a great book on poisons, but it was so much more helpful to have the other mystery authors discuss poisons…and for me to listen in.

I think we may have startled the waitress. I was so caught up in the conversation that I didn’t notice, but one of my friends explained to her at one point that we were mystery writers. “Oh,” she said, “that explains a lot!”

I really enjoy my time with other writers, both online and in person. Sometimes writing is such an isolating activity that we forget there are others out there we can make contact with. Sometimes making contacts is good business sense—but other times it just keeps us sane.

Sometimes life happens to a writer and they get behind. Not me, of course! I’d never do that. But some writers do. If you’re one of those writers (poor things), here are some tips I have for catching up on your WIP. I sat in deep thought to come up with these tips, since I never get behind. Especially in the last two weeks. Okay, so maybe I got behind. But I’m almost done with my first draft now (I have a September 1 deadline for the finished product) and here’s how I caught up:

Don’t Google anything. Google will suck your time up like crazy. When you get to the part in your manuscript where you need to make sure the town name you’re mentioning is spelled correctly, just type *** . Later, when you’re caught up, you can do a “find” search for *** and insert the correct information.

When you can’t think of the right word to use, put in ***. Same idea as above. Pretend you’re taking the SAT or some other standardized test—move on to material you do know.

Go somewhere where you feel uncomfortable. If people are looking at you and wondering why the heck you’re pounding away on a keyboard at a park, then you won’t even look up from your monitor–you’ll be so busy ignoring them and focusing on your WIP. Trust me.

This should go without saying, but unplug thyself. Don’t Facebook or Tweet or email or DIGG or blog or…..just write.

Have your parents take your young child for the week. :) (I kept my indentured servant older child here.) Thanks, Mama and Daddy! It was Camp Nana and Papa for my rising third-grader.

Write at the library. This is sort of the same principle as writing where you feel uncomfortable, but with a tinge more excitement. At our local branch, I plug in my USB drive with my WIP on it. I type in my library card number and PIN. And then—there is a countdown clock on the screen, detailing how many minutes I have left (and it only gives 60 minutes.) I have to admit this gives me a nerdy thrill. In fact, I speed-type to see how much I can write in an hour. Such excitement!!!

Hope no one else gets in my predicament, but if you do, give the above tips a try.