As anyone who knows me already knows, I am far from averse to using “strong” language in person or in my writing when I feel the situation warrants it to add humor, emotional emphasis and/or fair warning that would be impossible to add another way. I never swear just for the sake of swearing though; I find that lazy, and after a while excessive use of any word becomes smurfing annoying to me. When I do something, even swearing, I like to do it right and to maximum effect.
Which is precisely why an editorial note I recently received regarding a page from my current story amused the hell(1) out of me: “Hyphenate POS.”(2)
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(1) Let the record show that I didn’t even consider resisting this one.
(2) If you can’t guess the full phrase I used, you’re not old enough to know it.
