How do I justify using words that make me sick?
Those of us living in the wide world of fiction writing know the power of dialogue. A character’s use of certain words can tell the reader a lot about them. The same is true of world-building and scene-setting and even illustrating the differences between villain and hero. But how the f*** am I supposed to dance on that line?
These days, everything is offensive to at least one segment of the population. I wonder how many people sit and wait to be offended, pitchforks at the ready, eager to twist otherwise benign comments into a rallying cry.
I understand the law of unintended consequences. I understand that we’ve never been freer to communicate that we are today. This freedom opens the door to historically reserved persons who are now able to lash out from the safety of their mobile devices.
That is NOT what I’m talking about.
What is really bothering me is the moral decision I face when attempting to craft emotionally charged historical fiction.
My protagonist grew up in pre-Civil War South Carolina. Slavery was, shall we say, prominent. Which means, what we modern readers consider to be pejorative terms ran rampant. Some of those terms were intentionally offensive in 1840’s South Carolina, of…
