Any time you write a story with a historical setting, these simple tools are there to help – so you don’t use the 1970s phrase “warm fuzzies” in a story set in the 1930s, for example, or have Jack the Ripper talking about “adrenaline”, or your 1890s NZ character saying “not all that” (1990s US), or…
I could keep going for a while with other real examples. Bottom line: use the tools.
Originally shared by Karen Conlin
Two indispensable tools for writers and editors:
The Online Etymology Dictionary and Google Ngram Viewer.
Both are great first stops in your research regarding suitable language for your work. Did people in the 1950s use the term “flashback” to refer to memories related to hallucinogens? Was the term “backup” in the sense of “reinforcements” used in the 1600s?
I prefer to use http://etymonline.com for “first use” dates, and the Ngram Viewer for determining “more/most common” usages over time. You may find them useful in other ways.
#twt
Thanks. Nothing better to jarr someone out of the fictional universe they’re exploring, than to notice errors like these. Can’t count the number of times I’ve seen hollywood get this wrong, usually through laziness rather than mistakes. Writers sometimes seem to forget that things change so fast and that phrases – and language generally – can be very different at various points in the past, even fairly recent.
I usually allow leeway for fantasy settings that seem historical, but then you have to watch out for completely different words and phrases. A great example is the odd-fashioned exclamation of “Gadzooks”, which comes from a distortion of god’s hooks, referring to the nails christ was allegedly crucified with. Therefore, any story set before his death or in a world where he definitely never existed should not have the word. Hearing elves storming a castle with cries of Gadzooks would be weird. =]
Thanks. Nothing better to jarr someone out of the fictional universe they’re exploring, than to notice errors like these. Can’t count the number of times I’ve seen hollywood get this wrong, usually through laziness rather than mistakes. Writers sometimes seem to forget that things change so fast and that phrases – and language generally – can be very different at various points in the past, even fairly recent.
I usually allow leeway for fantasy settings that seem historical, but then you have to watch out for completely different words and phrases. A great example is the odd-fashioned exclamation of “Gadzooks”, which comes from a distortion of god’s hooks, referring to the nails christ was allegedly crucified with. Therefore, any story set before his death or in a world where he definitely never existed should not have the word. Hearing elves storming a castle with cries of Gadzooks would be weird. =]
You touch there on one of my pet niggles, which is to see the influence of Christianity in the character names but nowhere else in the setting (in some cases, the setting explicitly doesn’t have Christianity or anything like it). People just don’t think their worldbuilding through sometimes.
You touch there on one of my pet niggles, which is to see the influence of Christianity in the character names but nowhere else in the setting (in some cases, the setting explicitly doesn’t have Christianity or anything like it). People just don’t think their worldbuilding through sometimes.
So true. Another dislike of mine, too. A world full of orcs, goblins, dwarves and elves, populated by humans called john and chris and betty, etc, when every other race has names fitting their surrounding. Its made even worse if only some of them have names that don’t fit. Or characters set in ancient Greece or France with names that did not appear in those places at that time.
So true. Another dislike of mine, too. A world full of orcs, goblins, dwarves and elves, populated by humans called john and chris and betty, etc, when every other race has names fitting their surrounding. Its made even worse if only some of them have names that don’t fit. Or characters set in ancient Greece or France with names that did not appear in those places at that time.