Should writers use profanity in fiction? Does it weaken the story, or add a li'l spice of realism to character dialogue? That's what the Crü explores in this week's workshop on creative writing.

Like anything in the toolbox, profanity can wind up being used as a crutch or a shortcut. We discuss how to avoid it if you'd prefer not to use it; sprinkle it in like smoked sea salt on a good chocolate chip cookie; or invent in-universe swears to snag the best of both worlds (think the holy mother-forking shirtballs of The Good Place or fraking in Firefly).

And, of course, we share our own stories based around our prompt from Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: Limehouse. In Britain in the early part of the 20th century, a verb meaning 'to use coarse abusive language, especially in a political speech'. The usage arose from a notably acerbic speech which the LIBERAL Politician David Lloyd George made in Limehouse (then a particularly rough part of East London) on 30 July 1909, in which he attacked the aristocracy, financial magnates, etc.

And, as promised, here's Wanda Sykes as Harriet Tubman (nsfw dialogue).

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