Prince of Spires
Istar
I'm curious about peoples thoughts.
In the first chapter of my novel, the protagonist unearths a mythical creature which has been trapped underground for a thousand years and they go off on an adventure together.
One comment I received was that language would have changed a lot over that 1,000 year period and that they would sound different from one another. I can solve this by going for a form of Elizabethan English for the creature. And, since it's tedious to read (and write) the creature using Elizabethan English for the whole novel, I can handwavium it away after the first chapter or so, saying these creatures learn languages really fast.
One problem is that after a couple of chapters, they unearth a bunch more of these creatures, which would lead to another whole section where we have a group of these creatures talking Elizabethan English.
Now, I'm wondering how much would this bother you? Would you be fine with just ignoring the change in language over the past 1,000 years or would you prefer to see some difference? How much of the Elizabethan English could you tollerate before you stop reading? And would it be jarring to have another section with Elizabethan English roughly at the end of act 1?
In the first chapter of my novel, the protagonist unearths a mythical creature which has been trapped underground for a thousand years and they go off on an adventure together.
One comment I received was that language would have changed a lot over that 1,000 year period and that they would sound different from one another. I can solve this by going for a form of Elizabethan English for the creature. And, since it's tedious to read (and write) the creature using Elizabethan English for the whole novel, I can handwavium it away after the first chapter or so, saying these creatures learn languages really fast.
One problem is that after a couple of chapters, they unearth a bunch more of these creatures, which would lead to another whole section where we have a group of these creatures talking Elizabethan English.
Now, I'm wondering how much would this bother you? Would you be fine with just ignoring the change in language over the past 1,000 years or would you prefer to see some difference? How much of the Elizabethan English could you tollerate before you stop reading? And would it be jarring to have another section with Elizabethan English roughly at the end of act 1?