Archaic Words

I would go with "amazement", just because it's the most generally known. Unless you're going for a weird/literary/etc vibe (which I love personally), and use other similar words in your prose.

I have personally never heard of "amaze" as a noun, and I'm a historical fiction writer. But of course, maybe I just haven't heard of that one!

First and foremost, you don't want to confuse your reader.s If even a person like myself who's familiar with archaic usages isn't aware of this one, then your readers are pretty likely to just think it's a typo. You need to know exactly who your audience is (hist fic people? fantasy readers? general audiences?) and how much archaic language they are willing to grapple with. Second, there is a certain rhythm to archaic language. If you get the right rhythm and your readers get used to it, then you can work in more archaic usages and it will feel natural. For instance, most people find Shakespeare difficult to digest, but I think that the more you read of it, the more you get into the rhythm and the more it makes sense. Third, you clearly are using this to help build a world where people use archaic language. You want it to be a little different from the world your readers are used to.

The key is balance. You want to create an interesting and believable world, but one that is accessible to your audience. It's a balancing act, and getting more eyes on it (the eyes of people in your target audience especially) is really the only way to know whether you're hitting the mark.

to my amaze sounds kind of like a doge meme to me, if I'm being brutally honest. It's not wrong, by any means, but much wow. I always liked 'astonishment' better than 'amazement' so that might be a thing. That's just my personal preference, though. I say go with your gut.

Nightd said:

I assume as a published author, I might have more say and get away with small things like this right?

Or am I completely wrong in the usage, and should just stick to "amazement"

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You're certainly within your rights to use "amaze." But unless you have a really good reason to use it, and your character is prone to using archaic words and expressions, it's going to be a stumbling block and a distraction, which you don't want anywhere in your story but especially not in the first chapter.

Amaze has been used as a noun in the past, but it's not only archaic, it's a dialect use, so yeah, unless you're writing a historic speaker of that particular North Midlands dialect, use amazement.