This is for the lesbian romance, right?
It's a story about lesbians, and there are some love affairs in it that form and end, but it doesn't fit the genre conventions of romance. But ... yes.
Actually, the only thing I've ever considered writing outside sci-fi/fantasy was going to be historical queer fiction. And the reason I ended up deciding that it would never be an option for me, was specifically
because of anachronisms. The more I studied queer history in the US, the more I discovered that people within the queer community were EXTREMELY ignorant of the difference between drag-queens/butches and trans folks. Like, to the point that lots of people who would identify as trans now were basically pigeon-holed into identifying as gay/lesbian by default back then
it's still a thing these days, even in the queer community, but at least we're starting to figure it out.
I'm not sure I would call this ignorance, so much as existence within a different social milieu with different social constructs. I believe that it is problematic to overlay current notions of gender on the interior life of people who lived then based upon their behaviors and the things they said within that milieu. You can't really know how someone would have identified if they had a different range of self-conceptions available to them. In a sense, this is the same thing you are saying, when you say you struggle with writing about people in the 1920s whom who you would conceptualize as trans, when they wouldn't have used that framework to understand themselves and their relation to others.
At any rate, all of this is exactly what interests me about the era and makes me want to write about it. The project began with exactly that question: What would these women have lived like? How would they have thought of themselves and their situation? I want to get inside the heads of my characters and understand how they perceive themselves within the world. The conversations I write between my lesbian characters, how they understand and talk about themselves vis-a-vis the rest of society - yes, absolutely, scrubbing these of my modern viewpoints is deeply challenging. The very challenge is what engages me most about the project. (Nothing wrong with responding differently to the challenge; each of us should write only what moves us to write. There are plenty other challenges I don't want to take on, myself.)
I originally intended this thread to talk about more minor anachronisms (such as a character I saw in a recent movie who mentioned "the Interstate" when the movie took place before the Interstate highway system was established) than the deep conceptual ones you have raised; however, these are important and more difficult and I'm glad to ponder them in discussion.
As I LIVED through the McCarthy era, might I suggest something like "Not my first time 'round the block?" "Not still wet behind the ears?" "Wasn't born yesterday?" "Didn't just fall off the turnip truck?" ---or, as you suggested, cutting such expressions, though they do add flavor when used wisely.
Thanks. Yes, I know there are alternatives. It was not just the one line but the entire exchange, which doesn't adapt as well to these other choices. But yeah, as I said I will mostly cut these sorts of folksy colloquialisms as I am finding them grating and too-frequent on reread.
All of that said, I might just have to add you to my list of people to poke when I have questions about authenticity of speech or address.
This happens to me all the time when writing fantasy. I can't remember a specific example, but anytime I go to write any kind of colloquialism, I have to stop myself and come up with something else. A character wouldn't say "I don't know him from Adam" if the Bible was never written in this universe, y'know? Coming up with my own colloquialisms, slang, and cuss words was the funnest part of my world building, though.
That's hilarious. I can see that happening and also that it would be fun world-building to come up with your own (not just 1-1 substitutions like "I don't know him from Zythrax" or whatever) and convey their meanings to your audience.
In terms of anachronisms, pockets are the bane of my existence. Pockets didn't begin to be sewn into clothing until the 18th century, and when you're writing fantasy that's "around" the 15th century, well... no pockets. I decided I didn't care, because it's fantasy and I doubt anyone would fact-check me, but I had a bit of a procrastination crisis over it.
I am learning a lot about girdles and stockings and hats and hair curlers and the differences between wool and crepe and gabardine and worsted and all sorts of things I never thought I would have to think about. I am always on the lookout for ways to convey period flavor without always resorting to cheap tactics like name dropping. ("Edith switched on the radio. 'My Darling, My Darling' was playing. 'Oh, I just love Jo Stafford, don't you?' she said." BARF.)
