I read some books, saw quite some movies, so-called "costume dramas", and I love them. Recently, I saw a TV series called "Lark Rise to Candleford", and the characters had such a delightful language. Instead of "Get me upstairs", they for example would say something like this: "Would you kindly lend me an arm and accompany me upstairs?" We, in our modern times, say quicker what we want but it sounds so much nicer and polite in those novels, movies or TV series about former times. When I attempt to write a 18th or 19th century dialog, I always fall back into our modern pattern. Do you got any advice to become better at this?
Ultimately, read more. The more you do, the more you will becone familiar with it. Read books actually written in those centuries rather than contemporary writers. TV and movies are not always the best research material.
^ Yep. What Nao said. Immerse yourself in Victorian novels and movies, but probably reading will get you more into it. Then when you go to write you should be able to channel it.
Just so. You are the writer, which means you are an actor, director, producer, set director... Define your characters, see them, literally be them, research everything about them and their world. Stand up in front of the mirror and speak their words in their voice. You are an actor.
And be aware that some words and phrases that are now so common that they're taken for granted are actually newcomers to the language. For example, "hello" didn't come into use as a greeting until the popularization of the telephone. Before that, it was "good day" or "good morrow" or the like.
Although "Hallo" existed as an expression of surprise. Holmes says this at least once in the Hound of the Baskervilles. Also, other words have changed their meaning. A well known pair are gay (meaning merry) and queer (meaning strange).
