It's the little things
Sometimes, when you're reading a book set in another country, it's the little things that you notice the most. For instance, I'm reading "Brittle Shadows", a novel set in Australia by an Australian. This sentence really struck me:
[She was] wondering what it would take to convince her dour-faced taxi driver to adjust the air conditioning to something less than Antarctic.Antarctic?
Well, sure. That's what they're next to, after all.
But I doubt it would ever have occurred to me to put that word in if I were writing an Australian character...
Labels: miscellaneous, writing
2 Comments:
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At 8:52 PM, January 25, 2011
Barry Leiba had this to say...
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At 8:17 AM, January 26, 2011
Mark P had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->Indeed... just as when American writers try to do Brits, and they stock an arsenal of "other side of the pond" phrases, but don't know it all well enough to get it right.
It is, indeed, the little things.
And thus the writerly advice to write what you know.
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