Quote Originally Posted by Monk
I'm going to use a quote from a certain writer. Points to the person who knows who said it.

"If he stepped in Sh*t, then write that. 'He stepped in sh*t.' don't work around it. but also don't make a habit of overusing it."

That's my opinion on this subject.

(censored because it's not needed for me to say the word)
Did it come from Stephen King's On Writing? I'm not at home, so I don't have a copy to check, but I think he said something pretty close to that.

I don't disagree with your statement when it comes to how we write today and the words we use.

Maybe this is the way to look at the issue: does the fact that we use such language in our writing today prove we use it when talk. If so, does the absence of the word in Fifth, Tenth, Sixteenth Century literature mean that people who lived back then didn't use the word (or other profanity, for that matter).

After all, I believe our use of the present word "Damn" is the shortened version of the longer "Damnation."