What Won't You Write?

[Rath Darkblade]

Please note the word "gratuitously". I doubt anyone would care if I got the clothes or rivers slightly wrong. But if I wrote an Iceland with coconut trees and all-year sunny weather, where people roam free in the altogether, live in harmony with nature, and join hands and sing the Kumbayah ... then, I think, questions might be raised.

 

[deweyfisher]

Romance as a genre/driving plot point. As a side plot or the setup to some reveal, maybe, but most of the time I don't feel like it's necessary to enhance anything.

 

[Naomasa298]

Please note the word "gratuitously". I doubt anyone would care if I got the clothes or rivers slightly wrong. But if I wrote an Iceland with coconut trees and all-year sunny weather, where people roam free in the altogether, live in harmony with nature, and join hands and sing the Kumbayah ... then, I think, questions might be raised.

The question remains the same with or without the word.

Would they care?

If you wrote Iceland with coconut trees, that's not getting it gratuitously wrong. That's deliberately getting it wrong, or writing satire.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmm. What would you call "gratuitously wrong", then? I'm curious.

Maybe, while the other 11th-century Vikings were wearing fur and leather etc., one of them - a rough, tough Viking warrior called Sven - could wear a leisure suit. And dance like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. (I mean, where would anyone find polyester back then?)

If I wanted it to be satire, I could have a lawyer in a pinstripe suit would pop out of nowhere and serve him a writ for performing moves that are copyright to Travolta. Meanwhile, the other Vikings would shrug, go off to a nearby cafe, and eat spam.

But since I'm trying to write historical fiction ... let's just amicably agree to disagree.

(Yes, "Viking" is a job description. I used it as a short-cut for "Norse-era Icelandic people").

 

[DLC]

'Viking' was a job description.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

'Viking' was a job description.

Yes, it was. Post cheerfully edited!