Fucks given: an accounting
1,260 to be exact
On Twitter/X/whatever yesterday, there was a minor kerfuffle over the use of the word “fuck” in fiction. Some (definitely not smut) writers opined that it’s a sign of amateurism, while some (definitely smut) writers reveled gleefully in their flinging of the F-word. A few even gave detailed accounting of the appearance of “fuck” in their books. So what the heck, I’ll play that game; here’s how Cornelia Quick (and her buddy Laz Larue and brother Quentin) stack up.
My fuck-heaviest title is “Throuple”, which contains 55 fucks within 12,070 words. I was a little surprised that it took top billing — I thought that honor would go to “Baby Bump,” which is my raunchiest story, or “A Dip in the Lake,” because the main character Jessie is a talented user of profanity. But upon reflection, Katie has a delightfully foul mouth, too (what can I say, I like writing ladies who swear). Note that “Throuple” is just 99 cents this month, so if you like your swears, now would be a great time to grab it.
The title with the fewest fucks is “Off the Leash,” not because it doesn’t contain any fucking — it does, and it’s pretty intense — but because the narrator, Petra, doesn’t like to swear, even when using her inner voice. We’ll see if Jessie can fix that in “The Contours of Desire,” when the two of them finally meet …
You can see my full list, for a total of 1,260 fucks within 537,913 words across 32 titles, on my Wordpress site here (Substack doesn’t handle embedded spreadsheets well, at least not that I could figure out). On average, 0.23% of my published words are “fuck” or derivatives thereof. Since this isn’t a typical metric, I don’t know how I rank against other erotica writers, or writers in general, but it’s at least interesting to see the distribution of fucks. (Works-in-progress and Medium stories that haven’t appeared in a collection yet aren’t included.)
Note that not every “fuck” is related to fucking. “Fuck” is very versatile word, and I use it in all its colors and moods throughout my work.
