Trans-atlantic narrative voice
Sep. 1st, 2008 09:29 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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just_writingHi all,
Quiet around here, huh? But I have a dilemma and I' really like to hear your thoughts.
I'm writing what I hope will become a novel. It's made up of two intertwining stories, one of which starts in the United States and the other in England, bot in the mid-late 19th century. It's told in the third person, so the narrative voice is reasonably neutral, although I'm trying to keep it in keeping with the time. But I'm not sure what to do about the language divide. For example, when the story is following the American character in California, should I refer to autumn (I'm English, so that's my natural inclination) or to fall, since that's appropriate to the setting? If I refer to lucifers rather than matches, is that going to sound anachronistic because it's a piece of English slang rather than American? I'm not talking about the characters themselves using those terms here, but about the third-person narration.
What do you think?
Quiet around here, huh? But I have a dilemma and I' really like to hear your thoughts.
I'm writing what I hope will become a novel. It's made up of two intertwining stories, one of which starts in the United States and the other in England, bot in the mid-late 19th century. It's told in the third person, so the narrative voice is reasonably neutral, although I'm trying to keep it in keeping with the time. But I'm not sure what to do about the language divide. For example, when the story is following the American character in California, should I refer to autumn (I'm English, so that's my natural inclination) or to fall, since that's appropriate to the setting? If I refer to lucifers rather than matches, is that going to sound anachronistic because it's a piece of English slang rather than American? I'm not talking about the characters themselves using those terms here, but about the third-person narration.
What do you think?
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-01 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-01 10:19 pm (UTC)The other thing which would be a nice touch would be maintaining appropriate spelling for the two separate strands; thus 'the colours of autumn' becomes 'the colors of fall'.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-01 10:28 pm (UTC)