« | Blog Home | »

Clothes Make the Writer?

For some reason, I remember times in my life by what I used to wear then. Not even by my favorite outfit, necessarily–just something I particularly remember having worn at any given time. When I think of high school, for example, I instantly think of gray tights, a gray pleated skirt, and a pale pink cardigan sweater. (Preppy was in during my high school years). When I think of college, I think of Doc Martins and jeans and a purple cotton crewneck shirt from J. Crew. I can go all the way back to nursery school that way. (A blue corduroy jumper with an appliqued apple on the skirt).

And I’m the same way with books. There’s Scarlet’s famous green velvet dress in Gone with the Wind, of course. But the Anne of Green Gables series . . . Jane Eyre . . .Georgette Heyer’s regencies . . . so many of my favorite books, when I close my eyes and think of them, I instantly remember the clothes.

So given all this, you would think, wouldn’t you, that I would leap at the chance to dress my own characters? But no. I dread having to describe what people are wearing. For some reason–and I have no idea why it should be–the instant I have to invent a gown or a piece of jewelry, my imagination goes completely blank and the words stagger and stumble and refuse to come. The funny thing is that I want to enjoy writing in the clothes. I was practically born with medieval princess dress-up fantasies. I love paging through costume books, gorgeously colored picture books on Celtic and Saxon jewelry. And yet the sad fact remains that I am far more comfortable describing a sword fight than one of Isolde’s gowns.

I’m a huge admirer of Bernard Cornwell’s books. He’s an amazing writer with an incredible way of evoking a past that lives and breathes. And yet reading his novels I’m always struck by the fact that Bernard Cornwell, master of the so-real-you-can-smell-the-sweat-and-blood battle scene seems to have a lot more fun than I do describing women characters’ jewelry and clothes.

Is it only me, or does that seem somehow slightly wrong?

This entry was posted Saturday, June 20th, 2009 at 10:48 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Clothes Make the Writer?”

  1. Marie Burton Says:
    June 21st, 2009 at 5:52 pm

    I have not read any of his books, they keep popping up on my radar but I have heard that he has a lot of cursing in the books. What do you think?


  2. Anna Elliott Says:
    June 21st, 2009 at 6:05 pm

    Bernard Cornwell’s characters do tend to curse a lot. Though for myself I don’t find it gratuitous at all, just true to the characters he’s writing and illustrative of the type of people they are. After all, in real life some people curse and some don’t. I don’t–my husband teases me mercilessly because if I’m trying to tell a joke involving even a mild obscenity I will stutter and stammer and try to think of a clean synonym and generally completely wreck the delivery. But fiction would be (really!) boring if all the characters were like me. And I will also say that Bernard Cornwell’s curses are incredibly creative. Read his latest, Agincourt, and you will see instantly what I mean!



Leave a Reply


Anna Elliott's blog is proudly powered by WordPress.
RSS icon Entries (RSS) and RSS icon Comments (RSS).


"...Anna Elliott has fashioned a worthy addition to the Arthurian and Trystan and Isolde cycles... This Isolde steps out from myth to become a living, breathing woman and one whose journey is heroic." -- Margaret George, author of Helen of Troy


Book cover picture
Book cover picture
Book cover picture
Book cover picture
Book cover picture
Book cover picture
Book cover picture
Book cover picture