The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now #311 -- Potentially Offensive Word Choices

When you write, are you worried about politically correct 

word choices, such as using the word "Chicks" in a title?

When I'm writing, I'm never worried about offending feminists or malists or little spotted duckists from the planet Howardia. I also extend that to groups based on race or politics or religion or sexual preference or butter-side-up or butter-side-down or whatever else we human beings can come up with to divide us from one another.

Sorry to any of the "-ists" out there, but I just have the write the story the way it needs to be written and let the chips fall where they may.

That's not to say that I ever set out to offend intentionally, but I can't let the story suffer because someone might take something my narrators or characters say at face value and believe that's also the opinion of the author.

I like to think that people are, for the most part, smarter than that (unless they are lobbyists for special interest groups).