Mara, Daughter of the Nile: Writing with Timeless Prose

In my experience, it’s pretty easy to guess the era a book is from. Whether it’s a Victorian classic or a modern YA adventure, a lot of times you don’t have to look at the copyright page to tell around what date it was written and published. For a lot of works, their time period just bleeds through the page because of the writing.

And while it’s good to know the industry’s standards and what can help your book be easily readable for your audience, letting the time period you write in drastically effect the tone and style of your work can also come with some pretty significant drawbacks, especially if you’re writing a historical novel or a book set in a different world. The reality is that classics often endure long after industry standards have changed and will be hindered by a style that is too much defined by the cultural moment in which they were written. 

One of the best examples of this principle is found in the historical novel Mara, Daughter of the Nile. So this week, I’m sharing four tips I learned from that book and how you can write a book with timeless prose.

Mara, Daughter of the Nile

Mara is a seventeen-year-old slave living in ancient Egypt as it teeters on the brink of rebellion. Although she longs for adventure away from the drudgery of her everyday life, she has little realistic hope for a better life. But her world is turned upside down overnight when she is sold to a new master and sent to work as a spy for Queen Hatshepsut. Relishing both her position of wealth as well as the danger and risk that comes with her position, she quickly becomes a valuable asset to the Queen’s cause. But her unique position as an interpreter cannot be ignored by the resistance, and it isn’t long before she is coerced into leaking information for the rebellion. With no personal allegiance toward either party, Mara hardly manages to stay alive while walking a narrow tightrope as a double spy, balancing the interests of two opposing powers and enjoying the benefits of playing to the interests of each. 

But eventually her luck runs out. When her duplicity is discovered, everything she’s earned is at risk — from the comfort of a wealthy lifestyle to the heart of the young nobleman she loves. At a moment’s notice, she loses everything, and the rebellion is thrown into chaos in her wake. Queen Hatshepsut’s grip tightens on Egypt, and their chance of overthrowing her tyranny drops from slim to none. 

Everything Mara cares about depends on a risky gamble she must take, not only for her own sake, but for all of Egypt’s.

Writing with A Timeless Style

When I first read this book, I genuinely couldn’t place it. Although it was written in the 1950’s, it could just as easily have been published a hundred years before or just a few years ago. The timeless nature of the prose preserved the book’s tone so that it was only influenced by the author’s unique voice and its setting in ancient Egypt. The style was truly immersive, and coupled with a well fleshed-out setting and rich research, it truly felt like being transported to ancient Egypt.

While there are a lot of things that contribute to keeping your book’s style timeless, there are four major trends I saw in this book that I see a lot of similar books miss, which can lead to a less immersive and believable style.

1. Character’s Expressions and Exclamations

This has got to be one of my biggest pet peeves in writing. If you’re writing in a different time period, culture, or world, take time to learn the expressions and exclamations those people actually used (or come up with your own.)

Writing exclamations not only avoids taking your readers out of your story, but also adds richness and character to your world. It will show your readers what was considered sacred in the culture your characters live in, or what is seen as so low and base that it is used as a curse. And you don’t need many of these for it to be believable. Just two or three can be used throughout your story to show there’s a unique depth and richness to your world.

2. Word Choice and Vocabulary

Along a similar vein, choose words in your characters’ every day speech that reflects the culture and setting they were raised in. Certain words have a timeless quality to them — they were used two hundred years ago and they will continue to be used for the foreseeable future of the English language. Those should be your staple choices, the “bread and butter” of your style.

But you can once again enhance your writing and the immersive quality of the story by adding phrases, unique words, or terms that might not be typical for everyday speech but absolutely suit the style and culture of your story. If you’re writing about a royal court in a medieval-inspired fantasy, add refined and lofty terms that you wouldn’t use otherwise. The same idea goes for a poor, futuristic village or a historical novel set in the 1800’s along the Oregon Trail.

3. Perspective and Worldview

Multiple chapters in Mara, Daughter of the Nile, open from the perspective of Egyptian gods or goddesses. That unique frame functioned as yet another tool to deepen the complexity of the story’s tone.

The worldview of your characters is going to affect every part of their lives. Whether they’re an atheist, deist, or monotheist is going to change how they cope with stress, understand suffering, and solve problems. Whether they see themselves as anarchist, authoritarian, or libertarian is going to change how they address political problems. Their culture’s beliefs about education, art, and government will play a significant role in what spheres they choose to interact with.

Don’t just understand how the culture your characters exist in has changed their vocabulary, explore how the underlying foundation of that culture’s religion and worldview has changed how the society as a whole understands everything else about your story.

4. Learn From Other Writers

The last tip I have for honing in on your tone is to immerse yourself in the writings of other authors. Read in the particular genre and setting your book is (or in settings as close as possible to yours) and note what word choices draw you in — and which ones pull you out of the story. Notice both patterns (consistencies that you can imitate) and differences (inconsistencies to avoid) in the style of different writers. Leverage those and learn to write in the dialects and style of those works. 

Ultimately, learning from other writers is going to be what gets you the furthest. I’ve mentioned some of the most noticeable changes you can make to help your writing style stay immersive, but every word has a thousand alternatives. You can make a thousand micro changes to your writing that subtly shift the tone of your whole world. So learning to think, talk, and ultimately write like an author who has gone before is one of the most effective tools you have in making sure your prose is both immersive and timeless.

Let us know:

What stories have you noticed use timeless prose? Do you plan to incorporate that idea in your WIP?