Background: I'm working on a large project that takes place in the 18th and 19th centuries -- the times of writers such as Dickens, John Melville, etc. -- and within this story there's a newspaper, and I want to make it sound old; I want to convince the reader that the newspaper was written during the times of the previously mentioned. So, I was wondering if you guys have any idea of how old writing and prose was structured. (I don't want to have to rely on using archaic words to try to make my writing sound old, and I don't want to make it sound like Shakespeare with all his thou's and thine's and words that end with -eth.)
To understan Dickens , you need to understan his audence . The stories were published in instalments , like a weekly TV program. The books in some cases have been edited a bit , but you can still see the taking up the story from the last instalment and ending with a cliffhanger . Readers liked nostalger . His stories were mostly set about about 50 years earlier . Everything is idealised and exaggerated , so the cruel were very cruel , the poor were very poor and the ugly were ugly . With this in mind , I would sugest you read some Dickens and try to rewrite it using your own version of the stories .
You could search the newspaper achieves to see how stories were written back then. Google for the ten oldest American newspapers and then see if they have achieves you can review for ideas.
Needed to script, recently, a news (reel) article in the style of 40s British Pathe. Subjected myself to a 4hr youtube playlist of such past releases and immersed nr meditative said self under over ear headphones for the listening. Felt like I’d pulled it off come the end of those hours. Figuring over-familiarising yourself with article after article of Charlie D, guess a form of rote (with notes), will endow you with the off the cuff skills to write Dickensesque. Or shortcut it (cheat): swap ad/verbs, adjectives, and nouns in the frame of one of his journo-pieces. Credit him in footnotes if you feel guilty.
That's what I was going to suggest as well. Old newspapers are very easy to access online. Just read some articles in these papers that are similar to what you want, and copy the style. I would definitely draw on papers that came from the country (and part of the country) that's relevant to your story, though. Don't use a paper printed in San Francisco to generate the kind of style that would have appeared in a London paper of the same time period. Or even one from New York. Try googling: 19th century newspaper archives These papers from Melville's and Dickens's time wouldn't sound like Shakespeare, by the way!
This is just one of those things I don't think you can fake. You'll have to read pieces from the period you want to emulate. I don't think any tricks or advice would help until you're familiar with the language and tone.
I'd like to add: this will likely bear additional fruit, inspiring plot and environment ideas based on previously unknown elements in that world that get revealed in the vintage newspapers. I love to throw out pricing jokes. "Half a penny for a loaf of bread. Do they think I'm made of money!"
Whatever you do, don't go by old films. I highly doubt people ever spoke that way. I would love to find out that my grandfather walked around in the 1930's calling everybody chum and asking incredulously, "Say, what goes on here?" in a Cagney voice, but I don't think he did. Due to the ludicrous dialog in their modern-at-the-time movies, I wouldn't trust their interpretations of the 19th century either.
I think you're a little out there. Shakespeare was writing in the 16th and early 17th centuries, not the 19th. I'll echo the above. Find newspaper cuttings online and read them, as well as reading works from those periods. Dickens' language is entirely modern in its construction. The vocabulary and sentence structure is a little different, but any modern reader can understand it, unlike Shakespeare.
Having said that, especially for genre pieces, wouldn't we *want* to employ the inaccuracies? I know there are historical purists out there who prefer accuracy in period works, but it does represent a style.
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. I know I'm using one of the only half-sane actors in that particular flick to make my joke, but really, accuracy or style, I wouldn't follow the example either way.
