Most editors of fiction (and probably at least a good portion of nonfiction editors, too) have had at least a few unusual expletives come across our desks. But if you start to feel like your latest style sheet would be bleeped on network television, you might need a style guide that covers more inventive swearing than Merriam-Webster and the Chicago Manual of Style are equipped to handle. You might need something like Cursing with Style: A Dicktionary of Expletives, available now, by Guild member Erika M. Weinert.

Content Warning: Since the subject matter is all about swear words and how to use them, this blog post contains significant amounts of adult language, as well as some slurs. We are discussing the words and their uses in a professional context, but if you don’t want to see words that would be censored on network television, consider skipping this blog post.