Grammar, Style, and, My Editor

I have several wonderful reviews on Circles, many in fact. However, some really bother me. They state my editor did not do his job in the grammar department. Indeed, he did! He polished it well. What threw him was my ‘style’ of writing.

My story takes place nearly five-hundred years ago and the language was very different no matter what dialect you spoke. I did my best to use words that would describe how the dialect might have gone—if it was in English, which it is not. Many, many words simply do not translate and I state this in my books.

No one knew what a ‘horse’ was let alone stallion, mare, foal, mane, bridle, and much more. I used ‘neck hair’ something they might have said to refer to a mane. I tried to show how some words could be understood to mean something else. I also used passive writing, a reflection of today’s still use in much of the Native world, such as my own grandparents used.

My story includes many sentences that sound incorrect to today’s ear. In the early to mid 1800′s, several hundred years later than my own story, many dialects mingled, and in many cases, some of it sounded Shakespearean. I have book from the 1800′s and some are hard to understand. My writing may confuse some, but has also delighted others. They told me so.

I even had one review say the author would gladly ‘correct’ my writing for free just to see it done properly. Who is to say what it right? I have some books where the grammar was actually bad and the book still received great reviews, and I could not get past the first chapter. Were the reviews from family? They had to be. Mine, not a one, came from a family member. I wanted to clear this up and declare my editor-not guilty.