Dan Hudson asked David Putnam:

I have always loved thriller fiction. Today Christopher Swann, Peter Heller, John Grisham are my favorites. What is your opinion of the vulgarity in the books today ? At seventy-seven years of age, spending many years in the U.S. Navy, admitting I have used a few of them myself, am not opposed to it, in the proper place. Do you feel authors must use this to sell books, or is it just what society is today ?

David Putnam Writing today is the same as it has always been. A story is first and foremost about the Fictive Dream. The author strives to drop the reader into this dream and make the rest of the world disappear. To do this Voice is the big Kahuna in writing, its the "everything" in writing. And for me voice is comprised of three components, Language and syntax, point of view, and attitude/emotion (the one most often left out by novelist authors). What I try to do is avoid "speed bumps," that knock the reader out of the fictive dream. And there are a great many to avoid. But one of them is the use of language. I personally don't believe vulgarity to be a necessity to creating a colorful character. There's truly no need for it. When I read a book and come across one its like fingernails on a chalkboard. And if an author does use one, they should use it sparingly because otherwise it looses its power. The same with exclamation points there is no need to use them if your writing is strong and stands on its own.
Hope this answers your question. :-)
d.

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