What bugs me is that these people, who are writing historical fiction, don't take the couple of minutes to check readily available facts.
There's clearly a mechanism at work that has nothing to do with availability of sources.
The other day, a SF author was called out over [misuse of term]. And apologised and promised to do better next time, which is great... but it took me less than five minutes to find out how inappropriate that term had been, and there Is. No. Excuse. At least none that I will accept, homework-eating dogs nonwithstanding.
The longer I write the more I realise just how much research I need to put in in order to write well; and that's *with* a history/geography degree in the background.
As for the language thing - I am trying to not use words/concepts that are anachronistic - serial monogamy should never turn up in a historical novel - but sometimes that's a judgement call. (I am happy to have assassins, for instance regardless of the word origin, because I don't have a better word for 'someone who collects money and kills people in return' - and 'hired killer' is a lot _more_ anachronistic than assassin.
This writer also kept shifting the date.
What are a few years between friends? (Braveheart, looking at you.)
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Date: 2012-12-01 09:22 pm (UTC)There's clearly a mechanism at work that has nothing to do with availability of sources.
The other day, a SF author was called out over [misuse of term]. And apologised and promised to do better next time, which is great... but it took me less than five minutes to find out how inappropriate that term had been, and there Is. No. Excuse. At least none that I will accept, homework-eating dogs nonwithstanding.
The longer I write the more I realise just how much research I need to put in in order to write well; and that's *with* a history/geography degree in the background.
As for the language thing - I am trying to not use words/concepts that are anachronistic - serial monogamy should never turn up in a historical novel - but sometimes that's a judgement call. (I am happy to have assassins, for instance regardless of the word origin, because I don't have a better word for 'someone who collects money and kills people in return' - and 'hired killer' is a lot _more_ anachronistic than assassin.
This writer also kept shifting the date.
What are a few years between friends? (Braveheart, looking at you.)