Writing Historical Dialect

with guest Vickie McDonough.

 Howdy folks! I’m excited to return to Seekerville and visit all of you nice people. I have a cold sarsaparilla here to wet my whistle, and I’m settling in to stay for a bit.

For those who don’t know me, I’m best known for writing historical romances set in the Old West, but I have been known to dabble in contemporary writing. As of this October, I will have 34 books and novellas that have been released, and only three of those are contemporaries. My latest contemporary is Rancher Under Fire, a Love Inspired Suspense, which releases Sept 2nd.

Today, I thought we’d talk about few random things that will help you create good historical dialogue. As with science fiction and fantasy writers, the historical author must create a believable world for their characters to live in, and a big part of that world is how your characters talk and communicate. To engage the reader, you must bring the time period to life with interesting dialogue.

1. Remember that your reader wasn’t born a hundred years ago. 

The majority of your dialogue should be speech your reader can easily understand. Give your characters a unique word or two that belongs only to them, but don’t go overboard. Sprinkle in words from the past to add the flavor of the time, like you would lightly season your supper.

Here’s a line from The County Fair Bride, which will release next summer and is part of the 12 Brides of Summer Collection.

“Miss Willard, how nice to see you again. Might I inquire after your father?”

Today’s version: “Prudy, it’s great to see you again. How’s your dad doing?”

See the difference? Historical dialogue is often more formal, such as in using a person’s surname instead of their first name. The flow is a bit stiffer at times with a more formal cadence, especially for wealthier characters with a high status in society and a good education. The manners and customs of a historical era governed how the people would speak and behave. In a historical, dialogue is one of the most powerful tools to use, both to create the setting and to establish the characters.

 2. Avoid overuse of dialect.

 Does anyone remember the Red Neck Reading Test?

M R Ducks
           M R Not
           M R Too
           C M Wangs

 Translation:

      M R Ducks = Them Are Ducks
      M R Not = Them Are Not
      M R Too = Them Are Too
      C M Wangs = See Them Wings

Here’s a link if you want to read the silly whole thing: http://jokes.edigg.com/Redneck/Reading_Test.shtml

  Let me just say, do not write like this! I’m sure you wouldn’t, but I don’t want you to think I’m endorsing it. I just goes to show you that you can take dialect way too far.

 Okay, I’ll confess that I’m a g-dropper. I write a lot of westerns with cowboys and sometimes hick characters, and I tend to drop a “g” on the end of some verbs. Some sources say not to do that, but I like it and think it gives the reader a better sense of the character’s drawl. Don’t drop the “g” on every –ing verb though. That would be overkill. Be selective with any dialect you use.

3. Watch for anachronisms: What is that? Something or someone not in its correct historical or chronological time. I once read a historical set in the 1880s where the hero was carving a toy truck for a child. Yikes! He can’t carve something that hasn’t been invented yet. Keeping with the topic, words that are common to us often slip into our writing, and we never stop to think they weren’t around at the time our story takes place. Take the word, “nursing” as in “nursing an infant.” According to http://etymonline.com/ this term dates to the 1530s. If you write Biblical fiction or stories in the Early Middle Ages, you’d be inaccurate if you used that term. “Electrifying” is another word you must be cautious of in historicals.

Here’s a goof I got called out on by my editor while she was editing Song of the Prairie, which just released:

Aaron mentally smacked himself upside the head.

I changed it to: Aaron inwardly chastised himself.

The second version doesn’t have quite the visual impact that the first one does, but my editor was correct in saying it sounded too modern.

Here’s another site you might find helpful in determining when a word was used: https://books.google.com/ngrams

I asked a couple of writer friends for tips to pass on to you. 

Here’s one from Connie Stevens—the author, not the actress:

Nothing will yank me out of a story faster than a character in a 19th century story saying something like, “No way” or “I’m out of here.” Even many phrases that were used in the 18th and 19th centuries carry a different connotation in the 21st century, so we must be careful to stay in the period with dialogue.

For example: the term “out of pocket” was originally used in the late 1600s to mean someone was broke—out of money. It later grew to mean having to pay for something out of my own pocket or to label “out-of-pocket expenses.” Today, “out of pocket” can mean a person is going to be out of the office. So even if the phrase is essentially correct, it can sound contemporary.

Angie Breidenbach says:

Using words of the time period. It helps to read books published during the time you're writing. Read letters and journals too. I love the old newspapers!! Hilarious stuff in those and very much written as the spoken word, gossipy, in most of them. Look at the ads too. The way ads are phrased is very conversational in old newspapers and magazines :)

From Amanda Cabot:

In general, I advise authors to use more formality in dialogue. That means fewer contractions and fewer sentence fragments. I also like to substitute "four and twenty" for "twenty-four," since it adds an historical flavor to the story without being overwhelming.

Margaret Brownley offers two resources I haven’t heard of before: My favorite dialogue resources are I Hear America Talking and Listening to America by Stuart Berg Flexner. These books are well-organized and fun to read. For example if you look up the word courtship you’ll find pages of the popular terms used throughout the years starting from the 18th century (bill and coo) to the roaring twenties (dating).

That’s some excellent advice from well-published authors. I hope you found something you could use. Before I close, I want to leave you with some other resources to help with writing dialogue and dialect.

Other Resources:

http://www.idiomsite.com

The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms book.

Here’s an interesting dialect map if you can make sense of it and read the tiny font: http://aschmann.net/AmEng/#SmallMap

This is a cool site that lets you listen to audio recordings of people from all 50 states so that you can hear their dialect: http://www.dialectsarchive.com/united-states-of-america

Dialect Survey: http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/states.html

I LOVE! this site. Each state has a long list of words with different pronunciations, and it shows the percentage of people from that state who say the word each way. In the example below, 87.76% of Oklahomans say “ant” for the word “aunt.” (How do you pronounce the word?)


1. aunt
    a. [ ] as in "ah"        (6.12%)
    b. [ ] as in "ant"        (87.76%)
    c. [ ] as in "caught"        (2.04%)

 Farewell, y’all, and may God bless your writing. Be sure to share your pet peeves when it comes to dialect. Two commenters will win a copy of Song of the Prairie. 

(Winners announced in the Weekend Edition.)
  
Song of the Prairie
 

 
 Janie Dunn's life changes when, at the request of her dying cousin, she flees with her cousin's newborn son to protect him from his abusive father. She moves to Kansas, but things take a dire change when her brother is killed. Is a marriage of convenience to kindhearted Aaron Harper the answer to her problems? Is Kansas far enough away from New York that they are safe from the baby's father?









      

Bestselling author Vickie McDonough grew up wanting to marry a rancher, but instead she married a computer geek who is scared of horses. She now lives out her dreams in her fictional stories about ranchers, cowboys, lawmen, and others living in the Old West during the 1800s. Vickie is the award-winning author of over thirty published books and novellas. Her books include the fun and feisty Texas Boardinghouse Brides series, and End of the Trail, which was the OWFI 2013 Best Fiction Novel winner. Whispers on the Prairie was a Romantic Times Recommended Inspirational Book for July 2013.

Vickie has been married thirty-eight years, is the mother of four grown sons, one of whom is married, and she is grandma to a precocious eight-year-old girl. When she’s not writing, Vickie enjoys reading, antiquing, watching movies, and traveling. To learn more about Vickie’s books or to sign up for her newsletter, visit her website: www.vickiemcdonough.com

What’s Holding You Back from Succeeding in Your Writing?

Vickie McDonough

As I’ve progressed from a green-as-they-come newbie writer to one with several published novellas to published short novels to trade fiction, it’s always amazed me that at every level of writing, I’ve faced fears. Fears that I was stupid to attempt to write a book. Fears that I’d never get published. Fears that now that I’ve sold a book on a partial, that I wouldn’t be able to finish it by deadline. What I hope to show you in this article is that you’re not alone if you have writing-related fears. Writing is such an insecure career. There are no guarantees that you will sell a book, and just because you sold one book that doesn’t mean you’ll sell another one. Fears are something that every writer faces at one time or another in their career.

Isaiah 41:10 says: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. 
I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

As a Christian writing fiction, we don’t have to travel this road alone. Our God promises to strengthen and help us, to hold us up when we are weak or tired. God’s word tells us to not be afraid, for He is with us. And if God be for us, who can be against us?

So, what’s holding you back? Is your beginning too slow? Does your middle sag? Do you fear success? That seems an odd thing to fear, but it’s a very real concern for many writers.

Now that you’ve finished your book, are you afraid to let others read it? Afraid to send it to an agent? To a publishing house? Or have you sold a book, but are afraid you can’t make the deadline?

I’ve attended a number of writers’ conferences and heard big-name authors express that in every level of writing they had fears. I queried some and got quotes, hoping that hearing from other authors will help you see that you’re not alone in your fears.

Here’s what Robin Lee Hatcher had to say: “My #1 fear usually hits me about half way through the novel when I start muttering, "I don't have enough story. I don't have enough story. I'm lost. I don't know where I'm going. I don't have enough story." I'm a pantser (NOP: No Outline Person), so this fear feels very real at the time. However, it helps that I recognize I do this with every book, so I can remind myself that I felt this way with the last book and it turned out all right. Thus it will turn out all right this time too.”

Award winning author of more than 60 novels, http://www.robinleehatcher.com/

Margaret Daley, author of 75 books said she has a “Fear of never selling another book. Fear of coming up dry on ideas.”

Trail of Lies, Love Inspired Suspense, http://www.margaretdaley.com/

Ann Shorey, author of The Dawn of a Dream stated:

“My biggest fear, whenever I start a new book, is that I can't do it again. Not physically unable, but mentally. Can I write another story?

The Lord enables me as I peck away at the keyboard. It's like the Israelites having to step into the Jordan before the waters stopped flowing”

http://www.annshorey.com/

A few weeks ago, someone on one of the loops I’m on put out a call for writers to state their fears in relationship to their writing. I sat down and quickly penned her a note similar to this one:

When I first started writing, I feared I wasn’t any good. I was embarrassed to even tell people I was writing a book. I feared I’d never sell and that I was wasting my time and money on writing classes and attending conferences. Then I sold a novella and feared the editor would hate it and would send it back with major rewrites. I also feared I’d never sell a long book. But I did, then I was afraid I couldn’t finish it, that it moved too slow, that it was too far-fetched of a story. That readers wouldn’t like it. That it wouldn’t sell well. That I wouldn’t make my deadline. I was drowning in my fears and not trusting in God to guide me down this path that He set me on.

Let me tell you that I’m not normally a fearful woman. I raised four boys, and that’s not something for a lily-livered woman. When I was 12, I begged and pleaded until my parents caved in and bought me a horse. I loved it and rode it all over town—usually by myself. I bought a motorcycle when I was 14 (with babysitting money) and rode it all over town, alone. I’m not a sissy and have done many gutsy things. But writing terrified me. It is more of a mental battle than a physical one, and I find mental battles harder to conquer.

Let’s hear from some more authors:

“Striving to write your absolute best is a wonderful thing, but I have held on to a manuscript for years, fearful it wasn't good enough, I hadn't researched enough, etc. I am still sitting on that manuscript until this summer, where I will pull it out and rework it yet again. And then? Who knows.

B.K. Jackson, http://www.bkjackson.blogspot.com/

"Before you're published, you fear never getting a contract. Once that contract comes, you fear disappointing editors and readers. Then comes the fear that the next book won't be as good as the previous one. Or the fear that there won't be another contract. Fears can be all-consuming in this business, if you allow them to take root. Ultimately all of this is in God's hands, and if our God is for us, whom - or what - shall we fear?"

Kathleen Y’Barbo, Anna Finch and the Hired Gun, http://www.kathleenybarbo.com/

Here’s a comment from an author eagerly awaiting the release of her first book this May:

The biggest fears I've faced are sort of related—fear of rejection (both from editor and from readers) and fear of failure, that my "best" won't be good enough. I don't know that these have been overcome totally, but having a strong critique partner who "encouraged" (pushed) me to submit, plus a husband who encouraged me as I finished and submitted Marrying Miss Marshal was a big help in overcoming those fears. I'm still praying that God will remove these fears completely!

Lacy Williams, Marrying Miss Marshal, Love Inspired Historical:
It's not the not getting published that worries me, but rather that I haven't heard God right when I felt called to write. I worry that I'm not in His will and am wasting my time when He wants me doing something else. How I deal with it? I pray everyday that if this isn't His desire for my life that He will show me in a way that I will know it is Him. But I know my timing isn't His timing, so I can't say if I'm not published by such and such a date then I know I'm not supposed to. So far God hasn't closed any doors for me, but He has opened many. I just have to trust Him that He will guide me down the path I am go. And many times my crit partner has to give me a pep talk to remind me of this. http://www.lacyjwilliams.com/

Debbie Lynne Costello
My greatest fear probably stems from my perfectionist tendencies and fall into the "fear of success" category, I guess. Will I disappoint my editors so that they won't want to buy from me again—because of the writing, because of a missed deadline, because of miscommunication, poor sales . . . any number of reasons. That readers will discover I'm a fraud after reading one of my books and never want to read another. That I will burn bridges. That I won't take full advantage of the opportunities presented to me.

If I let myself, I could wallow in fear. . .but I choose to plunge forward in faith, that everything will turn out okay. I have come to believe fear never completely disappears but that doesn't mean I have to let it defeat me. I move forward in spite of the fear.
http://www.debbielynnecostello.com/ & http://www.theswordandspirit.blogspot.com/

Darlene Franklin, Bridge to Love

Don’t allow your fears to become an excuse that keeps you from succeeding in writing. The key to conquering fears is to recognize them, then give them to God, and press on knowing that He is with you, strengthening you each step of the way. Philippians 4:12b-13 says, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” http://darlenefranklinwrites.blogspot.com/

So, tell me, what is it that you fear most about writing? How is it keeping you from succeeding?

In the black box is a small saying that I found at one of the first writers’ conferences I attended, and it has continued to encourage me to stretch my limits.

Vickie McDonough is an award-winning author of 23 books and novellas. Her books have won the Inspirational Reader's Choice Contest, Texas Gold, the ACFW Noble Theme contest, and she has been a multi-year finalist in ACFW’s BOTY/Carol Awards. Vickie is the author of the fun and feisty Texas Boardinghouse Brides series from Barbour Publishing. Including her April 1st release Finally A Bride.

Watch for her new books from Moody Press, Texas Trails: A Morgan Family series, in which she partners with Susan Page Davis and Darlene Franklin to write a 6-book series that spans 50 years of the Morgan family. The first three books release this fall. Also, next year brings the release of another new series from Guidepost Books, Whispers on the Prairie, set in 1870s Kansas. Vickie hopes readers will find her stories An Adventure into Romance. http://www.vickiemcdonough.com/

Leave a comment to get your name in the drawing for a copy of Finally a Bride.

DEVELOPING CHARACTERS

I’ve often been asked how I create the characters in my books and generally respond, “That’s a tough question.”

It’s tough, because a character will start as a tiny idea, then grow, and develop as I spend more time thinking about him or her. They sometimes develop because of the plot. Say my character is a marshal—this is probably a good time to mention I write mostly historicals. A marshal is brave, tough, not afraid to put his life on the line, so it’s safe to assume he’s probably an Alpha male. Tall, strong, self-reliant, and a protector of the innocent. Can you imagine a Beta male as a marshal? Think computer geek with a gun. It reminds me of that old Don Knotts’ movie called The Shakiest Gun in the West.

I’m not saying you couldn’t have a Beta male as a marshal, but that would be a whole different type of story, probably about a man learning to conquer his fears to protect the people he cares for.

Some writers use character sheets with long list of questions to develop their characters, while others use tests like the Myers-Briggs or The Four Temperaments. What I’ve found that works best for me is a book called The Complete Writers Guide to Heroes and Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes by Tami D. Cowden, Caro LaFever, and Sue Viders.

Author Tami Cowden states, “These archetypes are not the inventions of my coauthors and me – they have existed for millennia. All we did was name and describe them, and then gather examples from an assortment of cultural media.

Heroes and Heroines describes 8 male and 8 female archetypes.

Heroes:
The Chief
The Bad Boy
The Best Friend
The Charmer
The Lost Soul
The Professor
The Swashbuckler
The Warrior

The book gives a complete description of each archetype, including their strengths and weaknesses, which I’ve found extremely helpful in developing 3-D characters. The Warrior is an archetype I’ve used for several of my heroes, such as Luke Davis in The Anonymous Bride. Here’s a brief description of the Warrior archetype:

The WARRIOR: a noble champion, he acts with honor. This man is the reluctant rescuer or the knight in shining armor. He's noble, tenacious, relentless, and he always sticks up for the underdog. If you need a protector, he’s your guy. He doesn’t buckle under the rules and he doesn’t go along just to get along. Think Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry, Russell Crowe in Gladiator, Mel Gibson in Braveheart.

You can see how this type of archetype would work well for a marshal, a determined rancher, or a detective.

Heroines:

The Boss
The Seductress
The Spunky Kid
The Waif
The Free Spirit
The Librarian
The Crusader
The Nurturer

An archetype I often use for a heroine—think of Jack (Jacqueline) in The Anonymous Bride—is The Spunky Kid. (For those of you who’ve read my book and are saying, Jack’s not the heroine—just wait until the third book, Finally A Bride, comes out next April)

The SPUNKY KID: gutsy and true, she is loyal to the end. She is a favorite of many writers, and for good reason. You can’t help but root for her. She’s the girl with moxie. She’s not looking to be at the top of the heap; she just wants to be in her own little niche. She’s the team player, the one who is always ready to lend a hand. Think Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle, Melanie Griffith in Working Girl, Mary Tyler Moore in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act, Fiona in Shrek.

So, after I’ve thought about my storyline and what my characters will be facing during the story, their character begins to take shape. I begin to see what kind of person they will be, and I determine which archetype they are.

Another aspect of Heroes and Heroines I love is that it shows you toward the end of the book how the different male and female archetypes will clash and mesh. This is fabulous info! Let me show you how I used this to plot a book I ‘m still writing called Gabriel’s Atonement.

Gabriel is a gambler, and he’s a Chief archetype. He’s knows what he wants and goes after it. He’s decisive and can read people well. On the negative side, he’s stubborn, usually unsympathetic, and has learned to get what he wants by using the System rather than being a rule-breaker. He is well-liked among his peers, but he doesn’t have a close friend. If challenged, he tends to be amused rather than angered.

Enter Leah, my heroine, who is—no surprise here—a Spunky Kid. She’s a single mother with a young child, a rebellious teen sister, and a grandfather who is ailing to care for. She is reliable and supportive of others and never looks for a handout. Her gutsy perseverance makes up for her lack of experience.

So…Gabriel accidently killed Leah’s husband. When he discovers the dead man has a wife and young son, he seeks to return the money he fairly won from the man, to ease his guilty conscience. Leah doesn’t believe her no-account husband had any money and refuses Gabe’s help. He’s determined to help her whether the stubborn woman whether she wants him to or not. Enter conflict.

He believes work (gambling) is important, where she believes in God and family. But, when the chips are down, The Chief and Spunky Kid are there for each other. He realizes she is someone he can depend on, while she discovers he’s a man who follows through when others don’t. A grudging respect develops. He learns she can’t be bullied into doing anything she doesn’t feel is right, while her positive outlook on life and her humor bring laughter into his world for the first time in a long while.

I could go on, but I hope you’ve caught a glimpse of how using archetypes can help you develop your characters. The key is knowing why your characters do what they do. What motivates them?

Leave a comment to get your name in the drawing for a copy of my current book:
Second Chance Brides, book two in my Texas Boardinghouse Brides series, is now available. Second Chance Brides tells the story of two rejected mail-order brides who are stranded in Texas without any means of support. They must find a job—not an easy task for a woman in a small town—or find another man to marry.

And I'm in a Christmas novella collection--in bookstores now--called Christmas Mail Order Brides

Bio: Award-winning author Vickie McDonough has lived in Oklahoma all her life, except for a year when she and her husband lived on a kibbutz in Israel. Vickie has had 18 books and novellas published, and historical Christian romance is her favorite genre to read and write.
Vickie is currently the ACFW treasurer, and a founding member of WIN, an ACFW chapter in Tulsa, OK. She is a member of RWA, CAN, Women Writing the West, and OWFI.
She is a wife of thirty-four years, mother of four grown sons and grandma to a feisty four-year-old girl.
When she’s not writing, Vickie enjoys reading, gardening, watching movies, and traveling. To learn more about Vickie’s books, visit her website: http://www.vickiemcdonough.com/

Writing Contests~ My Story by Vickie McDonough

Writing contests can be both beneficial to a young writer and hurtful, depending on the judge that you happen to get.
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Early on in my writing career, I started doing contests so that I could get feedback on my writing.
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Was my story great? Did it stink? Yes, and yes. It all depended on the judge’s opinion. You’ve heard judging is selective, and that is so true. One of my stories got a 99 from one judge and a 77 from another in the same contest. So what does that mean? I’m an 88? I’ll admit the results can be confusing at times.

When you receive a contest entry back, you have to remember that it is just one person’s opinion, especially if you receive a low score. But, do look at the judge’s comments with an open mind and see if there is truth in them. Learn from them, but don’t let a low score cause you to quit writing. Keep entering, and learning, and improving.

Before I was published, I knew I wanted to target Heartsong and Steeple Hill because I liked writing shorter books. So, I’d enter the contests where the final judges were editors from those two houses. I was more than willing to pay $25 to have one of those editors look at my story, but the trick was, I had to final.

I surprisingly won the first two contests I entered, the TARA First Impressions and ACRW’s(now ACFW) Noble Theme. The year after winning the Noble Theme, the editor/judge offered me a contract for Sooner or Later, my first novel length book, at the ACRW conference in front of a huge group of my peers. That was nerve wracking and exciting!

I truly feel that entering contests led to my being published. You need to carefully consider how a contest can help you and target the ones that could potentially move your writing career forward.
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To get your name in the drawing for a copy of The Anonymous Bride leave a comment about writing contests. They're the heart of what inspired us to start Seekerville so, love'em, hate'em, learned from 'em, never been near 'em. Tell us anything. Uh....just remember that what you say will live for all eternity online. But with that in mind...tell us anything.