64 NOVEMBER 2019 http://www.writers-online.co.ukCREATIVE WRITING
of underwear, let me lower the tone
still further... Almost nothing will
pinpoint a character so exactly in their
time as the words (and euphemisms)
they use for the smallest room in the
house. In the 1850s the term water
closet (or WC) was coined, but it’s
rarely used in speech today. The word
toilet was originally used in the phrase
‘to do one’s toilet’, (meaning the act
of dressing), and only came into use
meaning lavatory (not often heard
today either), in the latter half of the
20th century. Privy, loo, john, bog, all
have a place – but make sure it’s the
right place... Referring to it at all may
well be a mistake: in a historical novel
you could – as the narrator and only if
you really must! – make some reference
to a character’s absenting herself for
a call of nature, but the character
would never (in polite society at least)
mention it herself. Think Jane Austen:
six long novels, and not a loo in sight.
The same goes for swearwords. Today
they are so ubiquitous that it’s hard to
remember that ladies in particular did
not sprinkle their sentences with four-
letter-words. In 1914, when Bernard
Shaw’s Pygmalion was first staged
in London, and Eliza Doolittle was
scripted to say ‘not bloody likely’, the
Daily Mail speculated that the censor
might forbid the ‘incarnadine adverb’
(now there’s a euphemism to conjure
with). A little later, when I was a child
in the 1950s (a very young child, I’d
like to stress) the strongest expletive
my grandfather ever used was ‘oh pot!’
Though on reflection that might just
have been in front of me...
Some words of course have actually
changed their meaning over time, such
as gay and horrid (who knew the latter
used to mean rough and bristling?), and,
as attitudes have changed, lots of words
have become unacceptable today which
were in common parlance in earlierH
ave you ever read
a historical novel
and been pulled up
short by instances
of anachronistic
vocabulary? Maybe I’m just a grouch
(don’t answer that), but I’ve been
known to shout at a book when I come
across instances of characters using
words and expressions which were out
of vogue (or hadn’t even been invented)
at the time the story takes place. Not
that my shouting does any good...Words, like everything else, go in
and out of fashion. If you’re writing
a period novel, the characters clearly
need to speak in contemporaneous
English, and when I say ‘period’ I don’t
necessarily mean very long ago. Just a
couple of carefully chosen words here
and there can evoke a precise decade- or even year – effectively. Writers
are naturally more conscious of this
than most, and are usually particularly
careful where slang is concerned, as it
changes so quickly: no-one would let a
fictional skinhead say ‘super’, any more
than Little Lord Fauntleroy would
have said ‘fab’, but words in other less
obvious areas go in and out of fashion
too, and this is where many of us
occasionally come unstuck.
Words for items of furniture, for
example, vary greatly from decade to
decade, and conjure up very different
images: nowadays we tend to talk
about sofas, but back in the 1950s most
people sat on settees – and at other
times the word of choice might have
been couch, settle or divan.
Clothes are another obvious example:
are you wearing a gown, a frock, or
a dress? (Men needn’t answer that
question either.) Or maybe just threads?
And liberty-bodices, vests and camisoles
are all roughly the same thing, but
convey very different eras.
And since I’ve brought up the subject
times. When choosing your words
there’s a lot to consider.
How can we avoid literary gaffes of
this sort?
Dictionaries are the obvious first
port of call: the OED will often give
a date for when a word or phrase
first appeared in print, and a slang
dictionary can also be very informative
about when expressions were used. But
a word of warning: if your novel or
story is set in the UK, make sure you
use a British dictionary – American
usage through the ages can be
alarmingly different.
Reading the newspapers from a
particular year is a good way of getting
a feel for the language being used at the
time as well, and reading other novels
of the same period can be helpful – but
do stick to novels which were written
during the time you’re writing about.
Novels set in your chosen period, but
written more recently, may not be
accurate – other people’s research may
not be as conscientious as yours.
If you’re writing about more
recent times, try asking your older or
younger relations. My nonagenarian
father is my most valuable resource
for early 20th century language, and
my grandchildren (after pitying looks,
which I rise above) correct my version
of today’s children’s usage.
And talking of usage, Fowler’s
Modern English Usage should certainly
be on your writer’s bookshelf, as
should a decent thesaurus (for when
your brain goes on strike). In the
writing of this article I looked up loo
in the thesaurus (which gave me a
plethora of synonyms – see above) and
then checked it in Fowler, who gave
chapter and verse on who would use
which of them, and when.
So there you have it: adieu, farewell,
toodle pip, by-eee and may good fortune
be yours.Make sure you choose the right word at the right time with advice from Jan Snook
Just the ticket