I looked at this, and the list of words she was cutting out of her latest novel because they didn't pass muster. And do you know what word it turns out they did NOT use in our modern sense? BLINKED!! That's right, blinking your eyes was like staring with a half-lidded gaze or something like that. It was not the rapid open and close that we know, and the word for that is one I've never heard of before.
This is disaster! I write characters blinking all the time! It's one of those small bits of body language which can signify a great deal, usually surprise, and I can't see possibly just cutting it out altogether. Never have another character blink again? However will I write?! *gnashes teeth, pulls hair*
I won't even mention all the other words on her list. I keeping thinking about Unequal Affections and wondering if there's time to do a word search on all of them (it's a really long list). I'm sure some could easily be switched for something else, but others would be hard.
All this being said, I think that, while it is right to anxiously try our best to write accurately for the time, ultimately we're writing for a modern audience, and if we don't write in a way they can understand--like if I used that word no one's ever heard of instead of blinked--then we're kind of missing the point of writing the story at all, unless we're merely writing for our own amusement. That's why it's perfectly acceptable to use modernized spellings. Reading a story that uses original spellings is fun, but there's nothing wrong with acknowledging the fact that some spellings have changed over time, and the time we're writing in is right now. Does anyone else have thoughts? What do you do if you have a word you really feel you need, that want in use then, or was used differently, and the regency equivalent is strange enough to modern readers that it will disrupt their reading experience?
This is disaster! I write characters blinking all the time! It's one of those small bits of body language which can signify a great deal, usually surprise, and I can't see possibly just cutting it out altogether. Never have another character blink again? However will I write?! *gnashes teeth, pulls hair*
I won't even mention all the other words on her list. I keeping thinking about Unequal Affections and wondering if there's time to do a word search on all of them (it's a really long list). I'm sure some could easily be switched for something else, but others would be hard.
All this being said, I think that, while it is right to anxiously try our best to write accurately for the time, ultimately we're writing for a modern audience, and if we don't write in a way they can understand--like if I used that word no one's ever heard of instead of blinked--then we're kind of missing the point of writing the story at all, unless we're merely writing for our own amusement. That's why it's perfectly acceptable to use modernized spellings. Reading a story that uses original spellings is fun, but there's nothing wrong with acknowledging the fact that some spellings have changed over time, and the time we're writing in is right now. Does anyone else have thoughts? What do you do if you have a word you really feel you need, that want in use then, or was used differently, and the regency equivalent is strange enough to modern readers that it will disrupt their reading experience?