No blog post last week, the family and I were in Disneyland which was a fantastic experience as always. Despite spring break attendance and heat we really enjoyed ourselves. But I’ll save discussion of Disneyland for another time. It’s a place that holds a special significance for me so I have no doubt it will come up again.

I’ve been doing some serious contemplation about my own writing in relation to another author that you have no doubt heard of, Brandon Sanderson. In the event that I some day manage to gain any sort of notoriety, I anticipate comparisons will almost certainly be drawn between Mr. Sanderson and myself and I’d like to touch on that subject now.

Before we go further, I want to make it clear that I do not anticipate ever being compared on Sanderson in a manner that indicates we are the same caliber of author. I took a class from Sanderson while I was attending BYU and just listening to him speak… it made me feel like he could forget more about storytelling than I will ever know. That compels me to try harder and hopefully someday I can produce a work that is as technically proficient as what Sanderson writes.

No, if comparisons are ever drawn between the two of us, it would be because we’re both LDS authors and I know already that we will handle profanity very differently.

For those not familiar with LDS/Mormon culture, profanity is largely frowned upon. Essentially we don’t believe in using language that is not wholesome–it’s all part of trying to be clean in thought, word and deed.

When I read Mistborn for the first time, I was about halfway through when I realized something Sanderson was doing that was incredibly clever. He had created a world and as part of the world he had created profanity that served the purpose of establishing his fantasy world yet didn’t violate any personal creeds. Sanderson not only neatly bypasses any need for him to write using language that he may find distasteful, but does so in a way that increases the validity and the immersion in his story. Genius.

What does this have to do with me, you may ask? Well while I applaud Sanderson for his incredible work, this technique isn’t always effective. Shortly after Mistborn, I read Steelheart, a novel that takes place in a near future type setting. Sanderson adopts the same strategy, inventing profanity, but while it worked in a fantasy setting, it fell flat in Steelheart for me. My suspension of disbelief fell apart as grown men only a few years in the future were using words like, “Sparks!” instead of a simple, “Damn!”

Now, I recognize that  Steelheart is a YA novel–and profanity as a rule is generally kept at a minimum in that genre, but it still didn’t work for me.

My own work differs drastically in genre from Sanderson’s preferred genre of epic fantasy. Penumbra (and other works I don’t know if I can disclose yet) is urban fantasy. That means it takes place in a relatively modern setting. It’s characters are the type of people that you meet and see on the street every day. I believe that when I write in a modern setting I’m taking it upon myself to emulate the people of our world as closely as I can. That means that I will be writing characters that don’t share my views, that use language I do not use and perform acts that I wouldn’t perform.

I make this distinction because I know, already, that criticism will eventually be leveled at me for profanity in my work–despite my attempts at minimizing it as much as I can. So I want to pre-preemptively answer that criticism and state that I don’t condone the use of profanity any more than I condone murder, drug use or sexual conduct. But because I don’t do these things, doesn’t mean that they aren’t done. And I’m striving to write stories that reflect the world around us. And so for the sake of writing work that is authentic as possible, I must to an extant include these things.

I have plans to write a couple of YA books/series. In fact, I started one last week that I haven’t come up with a name for and when I write within the confines of that genre, I’ll be adjusting the way things are handled.

The idea of stretching the boundaries of genre is an interesting concept I’d like to consider and write up later. But in the meantime I hope this lays to rest any concerns that readers may have at some point in my hopeful career.