| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
dani22
NewBee
Joined: 23 Dec 2009
Posts: 2
|
 Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 12:54 am Post subject: Would a well bred young lady say "quit mucking about?&q |
 |
|
Hi! I'm starting my very first WIP and I have a few questions, if anyone can help...
Here is a part of my WIP. I want to know if I can say something better than "mucking about" and "bossy shrew":
She wrinkled her nose. "What an awkward conversation that would be…"Excuse me my lord, but would you please stop mucking about and marry me?" They both laughed. "He’ll no doubt label me a bossy shrew from that moment on."
Also, what do you think about the names Gabrielle, Lucas, Annabelle, Winston, Evaline, Damien and Amelia for characters in a book that's supposed to be taking place in 1803?
Thanks!
|
|
| Back to top |
|
Courtney Milan
Wicked Wit
Joined: 16 Sep 2006
Posts: 397
Location: pacific northwest
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 3:49 pm Post subject: Re: Would a well bred young lady say "quit mucking abou |
|
|
| dani22 wrote: |
| Here is a part of my WIP. I want to know if I can say something better than "mucking about" and "bossy shrew" |
The answer is "no," not because the words are inappropriate for a young lady to say, but because those are not words that any person would say in 1803.
The Oxford English Dictionary dates "mucking about" in the sense of "To spoil by interfering or meddling with; to tinker or tamper with. Occas. trans.: to interfere with." from 1928, and "To create unnecessary problems for (a person); to waste the time of, esp. by disrupting plans or activities" from 1951.
Shrew is okay, but "bossy" is both American and too late (1882). ("Boss" is the US term; the Brits used "master").
Fun, huh? |
|
| Back to top |
|
dani22
NewBee
Joined: 23 Dec 2009
Posts: 2
|
|
| Back to top |
|
peggylouise
NewBee
Joined: 27 Mar 2010
Posts: 6
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 11:24 am Post subject: How Your Character Speaks |
|
|
I am new to the board and have never written a historical romance but I have written a coming-of-age novel and here's what I offer about what your characters say. First of all, hats off to the reader who checked the Oxford English Dictionary for the origins of the word "mucking". Perhaps when a writer writes historical romance you have to be that accurate (truly, I don't know).
But as I am writing, I think of pulling a reader into the world that I am creating. That's what a novel does and all you have to do as a writer is to be able to back up what your characters say by their histories, their reasoned thinking, their wacky emotions, and what they want next. Out-of-era language and concepts and who knows what else are moved back in time to give a story possibilities. When I read your sentence about a young woman saying "mucking about", I was immediately interested in what she said before and what she'll say next. You've got a winner there.
I read historical novels and romances decades ago and couldn't put them down, but I read them at a time when women couldn't really make choices about their own lives, or at least nobody was writing books about women who did. What is so much fun about reading Julia Quinn is that her protagonists think about what they want and go for it. Phillipa Gregory has written a book with a protagonist who flips castles. The concepts of female freedom and do-it-yourself home remodels are new, but two women had the sense to put these concepts into historical romances.
I vote "yes" on "mucking about".
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
