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Q&A Do we need to make consistent use of archaic English in our poem/novel?

Regardless of what you're writing, if you use an archaic form readers will notice, and if you use an archaic form only once and not everywhere it applies, readers will notice that too. If you're d...

posted 5y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T11:12:02Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43132
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T11:12:02Z (almost 5 years ago)
Regardless of what you're writing, if you use an archaic form readers will notice, and if you use an archaic form only _once_ and not everywhere it applies, readers will notice _that_ too. If you're doing it for effect, you've achieved your goal. This is sometimes the case in poetry. On the other hand, if you're doing it because that one phrase sounds neat but you don't want to dive in to archaic forms more broadly, readers will wonder why you made the decisions you did.

It might be that one character talks this way (perhaps it's an affectation). In that case readers will (rightly) tie the usage to the character. If a character, including the _narrator_, is inconsistent, however, that's likely to stand out in a not-so-good way.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-03-07T15:03:52Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 1