Aaargh!
I am so frustrated. Today I was writing a scene with my heroine with head in a freezer, skirt up to her knickers, and discovering, too late, that she’s being observed by some bloke she’s never met.
How do I describe the length of her skirt? My natural inclination is to describe it as six inches above her knee, but then I went to school before decimalisation. No British woman under the age of 35 would say that. Or think it. My daughter, who falls within that category, doesn’t “get” inches, feet or yards. She thinks in metres as would my heroine.
But a large part of my audience is in America, where metres are some meaningless foreign concept and I might as well be writing in French. Well, obviously, metres are … French.
I come up against this again and again. Inches v centimetres. Metres v yards. And trying to make it work for all my readers. Mostly, I find a way of writing round it, but sometimes
I Just Want To Bang My Head Against My Desk!
12 comments:
What about saying that he was thinking that his hand would fit perfectly between her knee and the hem of her skirt.
I don't know. That's all I've got.
Good luck!
Liz, you are such a great writer, I'm sure you'll come up with something fantastic!
But the picture I got in my head was; it's her POV, and she's feeling the whoosh of cold air sliding down the way too exposed backs of her thighs and she's thinking she probably looked a sight in her sister's short skirt...
Best of luck with that. ms
Could you call it a mini skirt, Liz? Minis tend to barely graze the top of the thigh whether they're a dress or a skirt. You could google it in google images to see if you think the length is right (although be prepared because I got more than I bargained for when I did that just now).
I agree with the above but I believe Liz is trying to get across the fact that six inches above the knee is a reasonable length of material until the inevitable bending-over-the-freezer incident. Personally, considering your requirement for comprehension across different countries and age gaps, I would try to avoid literal measurements completely and aim for a more descriptive explanation.
I'm not sure, this is a tricky one, but I think measurement in inches still does work in certain contexts, particularly with clothing. For example, with shoes, people will still say "they have a 3 inch heel", and would never think to say "they have a 7 1/2 cm heel" instead. When shoe shopping on the internet I have noticed that most websites still give the heel measurement in inches. Not sure this helps with the skirt problem, although as a 31 year old British woman, I know that I (and my friends) would understand the measurement in inches!
Ummm a modern conundrum me thinks! I would go with feet and inches - especially if the book is going to be on sale in the US. Like the other commentators you could describe how a normal skirt suddenly becomes something totally off the hot scale and how the hero gets hot under the collar just imagining it riding higher! Caroline x
The dd has just pointed out that her generation can cope with inches, because they use it for bra sizes. It's feet they have problems with!
Hello, I found your blog in the nomination on ecollege and wandered over. In regards to the skirt I would probably say she'd wished she'd worn a longer skirt that day.. but sounds like your going with the inches. I'm looking forward to following your blog. Off to read your other posts. :-)
How about describing where the skirt falls on her legs, like mid-thigh or whatever?
Good to meet you, Diane.
In the end I didn't mention inches or centimetres. I switched to hero viewpoint and then had my heroine self-consciously running her hands down the back of her skirt.
Whatever works. :)
Bluestalking - since she's got her head in bottom of a freezer, not much of her leg is covered!
It was enormous fun talking this through with you all. Thanks again for all the input. :)
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