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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

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Stepping tentatively back in time

4/5/2013

2 Comments

 
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I do love the way fiction can take me to unexpected places, not just as a reader, but as a writer, too.  A couple of weeks ago, I was surprised to find inspiration for a short story in Margaret Thatcher's funeral.  Now I'm hanging out with mediaeval nuns.  I'm greatly enjoying the company, but I feel a terrible fraud, seeing as I'm totally unqualified as a historian.  I think I've got an O level in history, but that would've been on the industrial revolution and, even as someone who believes my computer works by magic, it's hard to imagine the lives of people in a pre-mechanistic age.    Except, I remind myself, in some parts of the world life is still like that, and I have had the privilege of passing through some such communities and catching a glimpse of what it's like to live without running water or electricity.  So maybe I've got more to draw on than I thought.
Nevertheless, not having previously delved into history any further back than my parents' childhoods, it is quite a different experience for me having to constantly check my facts (and, if it weren't for the internet, it would be far too arduous a task for one short story).    For example, I knew not to have my nuns growing potatoes (although spuds were on my mind having just, belatedly, planted mine in the garden), but what other vegetables that we now take for granted would not be available in the Middle Ages?
Fact checking was fairly straightforward, however, but what about the language?  My dictionary does give a rough date for when various words were introduced, but how authentic did I have to be?    How authentic was I capable of being, without immersing myself in contemporaneous documents for a couple of months?
Where I stumbled most was with verbs as metaphor, or muscular verbs.    I balked at using the word drive to indicate motivation or compulsion, because of its automatic association with motor transport for modern readers, even though I'm sure the word would have served equally well in the Middle Ages for driving cattle.
I don't think this issue is unique to historical fiction, more an extreme case of something we need to think about in all our writing.  Have we got the facts right, or near enough that they won't derail the story, and is the language consistent with the character and setting?    Or perhaps I'm just trying to cover myself for straying into territory where I have no right to be?
Interesting also how the blog leads me to the unexpected, not just the fun stuff I find on other people's, but what I choose to post.  In other words, I hadn't expected to do this one, but the other two I mentioned last time (on identity as a writer and on blogging) need a little more polishing and there's bank holiday sunshine promised here in England, so I'll give them a bit more time to ripen.
Meanwhile, whether or not you have delved into historical fiction, as a reader or a writer, please share your views.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
2 Comments
geoff
7/5/2013 04:24:43 am

Your post makes me think about the changing meanings of words, especially in the hands of the young. Gay (from lively, through homosexual to pathetic) or sick (ill to brilliant). The constant changes fascinate me even though my use tends to date me immediately. The 'gay' example is a curious one. For my parents it was 'hijacked' by the 'gay' community to their disgust which reflected as much their cultural and generational homophobia; for me, with my middling, left leaning Londoner's view on doing things 'right' my children's use of gay to me feeble or pathetic jarred with my self image as a tolerant modern man who felt somehow it was being disrespectful to that same community. If I (re)learnt one thing from my children it was to let words go; like children they need lives of their own and to be allowed to breathe. However such tolerance needs careful handling. The growth in the use of the word 'bitch' and 'bitches' and 'n****r' (see, I can't even bring myself to type it in a private posting) causes me discomfort. Their use in some sort of post modern, ironic 'we don't really mean it, we're just being grown up' sort of way is a cop out and ignores their historical and cultural context. But then again, years ago as a student I was stunned by the film Lenny with Dustin Hoffman as Lenny Bruce and his battles with the local police in, I think, Alabama over the use of language, trying to recapture the power of words from those oppressing with them. I'm not really sure where this ramble is going. Time for a coffee...

Reply
Annecdotist
8/5/2013 02:52:53 am

Interesting comments, Geoff, and makes me think that the hardest voice of all for me to pull off as a writer is the yoof. They just keep changing the rules.
That said, I think I'm more sympathetic to your parents than your kids regarding the word gay. Yes, they had to lose their homophobia, but being shamed every time they forgot the word had another meaning wouldn't necessarily be the best way. And yes the job of the kids is to overthrow the previous generation and, not to question individual motives, I do think there's something quite troubling in the ether when a word that can be a source of pride for many but still drives some teenagers to suicide takes on another meaning as (even a mild) put-down. I'd shy away from the n-word and pejorative words for women for the same reason – it takes an awful long time for a negative to turn into a positive. The only one of your examples where I think the youngsters can be proud of the way they've got us oldies discombobulated is sick meaning good – that is quite amusing.
Again isn't that the good thing about writing, as long as the language is appropriate in the context, you can forget all the taboos and don't worry about offending people. Quite liberating really.

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