by Bobbie Christmas
Q: My fiancée thinks I should change my main character to a woman, because doing so would make my novel more marketable. What say you?
A: Marketability is something to consider. Women do purchase more books than men, and women tend to buy books with strong female protagonists. Few writers can authentically write from the point of view of a person from a different culture or sexual orientation, though. If you do not feel confident writing from the perspective of the opposite sex, the book will reflect that lack of knowledge and be less marketable, not more marketable.
While others may give you marketing or story ideas, use caution with any suggestion. Always follow your writer’s gut. We all do some things instinctively, and we do them for strong reasons. We tend to write from our own perspective, culture, and sexual orientation, for example, because we know those things best.
I’m a woman, so I write from a woman’s point of view. The one time I tried to write from a male perspective, the men in my critique circle pointed out serious flaws in the thoughts and actions of my male character. Few of us understand the opposite sex or other cultures. Stick with what you know.
Q: America is often called a melting pot, and its blend of cultures is reflected in American English as well. A survey of the thousand most frequently used words in English revealed that only about sixty percent of them had Old English origins. The other forty percent came from foreign sources.
In my writing I want to incorporate other cultures as well as words that came from other cultures. Can you please give me some examples of English borrowings from other languages, like French, Latin, Greek, Native American Languages, Spanish, German, Scandinavian Languages, Italian, South Asian Languages (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka), Yiddish, Dutch, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, or Russian?
A: While I am an editor, your question is one for a specialist in etymology, the study of the origins of words and how they arrived at their current form and meaning. I’ve read some great columns written by etymologists, and one of the best put his columns together into a book, The Word Detective by Evan Morris (Algonquin Books, 2000). His playful writing style keeps the subject anything but boring. You’ll find things like the fact that the word pedigree originated from the French pie de grue, which translates to crane’s foot. I’m sure you wonder how that term relates to the American usage of pedigree, so you’ll have to buy the book and look it up.
The Oxford English Dictionary is the ultimate source for English words and their origins, but the book is gargantuan and expensive. It’s available on CD as well as print. I found a resource on the internet that lets you search the Oxford English Dictionary for free, though.
Q: How can I make my history book more interesting? Can you comment on interpretive sense for historical writing?
A: History books become interesting when they include interesting stories and show the interplay among personalities, countries, cultures, and times. Contrast and conflict add interest to writing of any kind. To show conflict and contrast, the author might personally interpret events, use conflicting historical “facts,” rely on the opinions of others in the same era, or even use the opinions or interpretations of historians today, especially in light of the outcome.
Culture clashes and differing religious beliefs have often led to wars, and when I took history classes, I found the required textbooks boring, because they focused more on battles and wars than on the reasons behind the conflicts. Resurrect how cultural conflicts lead to war, and the information grows more interesting. Any time you can include actual conversations or quotations of importance from historical documents, they too aid readers in understanding and enjoying the content. In my opinion, the best history books are written if they were action-packed novels full of interesting characters, conversations, cultures, and conflict, which may explain the popularity of historical fiction.
Bobbie Christmas, book editor, author of Write In Style: Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing, and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com. Read more Ask the Book Doctor questions and answers at www.zebraeditor.com.
