Well, I think number one, and I tell my students this when I do writing workshops, be intentional. If it’s your intention, if it’s the character’s intention, if it’s your intention as the writer to use profanity, then you got to be authentic. We’re not just throwing around words for the sake of being cool or for acceptance and applause and appreciation; we’re doing it because of authentication.
It’s authentic. And for me, you know, this story was as authentic as it could be, and there was no need to add things to make it more acceptable in terms of whether it was edgy or more urban fiction. It just is what it is, you know. I mean there’s Neruda in the book. There’s Gene Sharp in the book. There’s Dr. King in the book.
And yes, there’s Jay Z and Lil Wayne in the book, you know, because it’s real. And how do I know it’s real? Because it’s me, you know. So, that’s important. And so just to sort of add one more little note about being authentic, because I’m a poet, there were some scenes in there where I wanted to write some real love, flowery and my editor sent me a note saying you can’t do that. This is not that book.
This is not how you set up that book and so you can’t now go from this sort of mood, this tone, and now give me some tonight I write the saddest lines. You can’t do that, Kwame. And so she was right because what she was saying is that’s not being authentic.
