Have swear words become meaningless? My meter on swear words

I’ve been busy writing my fiction as of late. This week, rewriting the first page of my novel (“Misconception: Search for Love”) for literally the 100^th time. (1st draft it was rewritten for a month everyday a couple times each day and now I'm in draft seven) I find reading something over and over again makes the words lose their meaning. I feel like the definition of crazy; doing something over and over again expecting a different result.

That reminds me of something my sister told me when we were kids and in the state of frustration I am in it feels quite appropriate. She said, “Swear words are only for special occasions.” I’m not sure where she heard this but of course I repeated it to my Girl Scout troupe and the leader laughed.

I think it holds true that the more a swear words is said the more it losses it’s meaning. Of course, like I made so apparent above, I used swear words. I'm not proud of it and of course don't use them in front of kids. That’s a no no. But there are certain swear words that are of a different caliber than others.

Damn, often said as “Damn it” is tied with shit or crap as the lowest severity, yet you never use it on a person. I don’t think your computer would mind being sent to hell but your boss might. Yes, that’s what damn means; “go to hell” and that’s really mean. Remember swearing shouldn’t be about getting a rise out of someone, otherwise you’re really in trouble, it’s about venting frustration.

“Shit” or “crap”, used when late or the day is just going badly, it’s never used to describe a person—that’s just rude. Remember, it’s people’s behavior we don’t like not them we don’t like.

“Sucks”, as in “that sucks”, although it can be used in a conversation with young girlfriends to describe someone’s bad luck, it’s usually not appropriate to use at a nice dinner or around older people. I think teens use it more than young adults and I wonder/want to believe there’s a correlation with maturity and using the word.

“Fuck”, the worst of this short list of words, this is used to emotionally jar someone/make them understand you’re REALLY mad. Although, today it might not do so much for a lot of people I get emotional whiplash when people use it every other word and I also have no idea what they are saying.

Something, I think my parents used to say or perhaps I came up with it is; you need to be more creative with your language. I believe that. I’m sure the book “The terrible no good bad day” wouldn't have sold so many copies if it was titled, “The shitty day” and not only because it’s a children’s book (“hey where’s the poopy diapers”). So perhaps next time instead of saying "I’m having a shitty day" you could say "I’m having a no good terrible bad day" or to gloss it up, “my day challenged me in ways that made me want to scream.”