Let’s Talk About Writing: Ngrams

by | Nov 27, 2021 | Let's Talk About Writing, One Writer's Journey | 18 comments

What’s Ngrams you might be asking? If you don’t know, don’t feel bad. I didn’t know what it was either…until I had the pleasure of listening to Iona Wishaw’s Crime Writers of Canada webinar on historical research. Iona writes the Lane Winslow historic mystery series and while she had a number of great tips, there was one that I’ll use over and over again: Ngrams.

Here’s how it works:

Go to https://books.google.com/ngrams

Replace the pre-filled text (Albert Einstein, Sherlock Holmes,Frankenstein) with the expression of your choice. The example Iona gave was “Cannot wrap my head around that.” It’s definitely an expression we use today, but when did it start?

According to Ngrams, it peaked in popularity in 2019. An interesting bit of trivia, yes, but it also serves as a reminder NOT to use that expression if your book is set in 1995. You can thank me now 🙂 And maybe check out Iona’s fabulous series while you’re at it.

 

 

18 Comments

  1. Noelle Granger
    Noelle Granger on November 30, 2021 at 8:38 am

    Fascinating and useful. My writing group is always wondering if something we write is not appropriate to the time!

    • Judy Penz Sheluk
      Judy Penz Sheluk on November 30, 2021 at 11:13 am

      Thanks Jemima! And it doesn’t have to be historical. Using a phrase that was popular 5 years ago and now fallen out of favor is also not good!

    • Judy Penz Sheluk
      Judy Penz Sheluk on November 30, 2021 at 11:13 am

      Thanks Noelle. It could be a fun exercise for a writing group. Each member picks a phrase!

  2. Jemima Pett
    Jemima Pett on November 30, 2021 at 4:44 am

    Fascinating! I don’t write much historical fiction, but it’s always useful for distinctive languages patterns in scifi 🙂

  3. Vicki Batman
    Vicki Batman on November 29, 2021 at 11:19 am

    wow, that’s so cool. Thank you.

  4. Janet Alcorn
    Janet Alcorn on November 28, 2021 at 3:44 pm

    Oh, my gosh, thank you for this! Usually I log into my university library’s subscription to the Oxford English Dictionary, but this is faster and better for slang and colloquialisms.

    • Judy Penz Sheluk
      Judy Penz Sheluk on November 28, 2021 at 4:38 pm

      Glad it’s helpful, Janet. Yes, dictionaries are great but they don’t really help us with when a phrase or word came into popularity (or fell out of it).

  5. Karen Neary
    Karen Neary on November 28, 2021 at 1:05 pm

    Thanks, Judy, for a very useful tool!

    • Judy Penz Sheluk
      Judy Penz Sheluk on November 28, 2021 at 1:28 pm

      You are welcome, Karen!

  6. Shari Held
    Shari Held on November 28, 2021 at 7:56 am

    What great fun! The danger is staying on the site longer than I anticipated!

    • Judy Penz Sheluk
      Judy Penz Sheluk on November 28, 2021 at 9:29 am

      Definitely a rabbit hole, Shari!

  7. Kaye George
    Kaye George on November 27, 2021 at 3:08 pm

    That’s very useful! Thanks!

  8. Diane McGyver
    Diane McGyver on November 27, 2021 at 3:04 pm

    This is very useful. Thanks for sharing it.

    I entered ‘catastrophe’ and see the word was in regular use in the 1820s, but went down hill from there. It’s use has increased in the 2000s.

    • Judy Penz Sheluk
      Judy Penz Sheluk on November 27, 2021 at 3:05 pm

      Hi Diane,
      I found it fascinating (and a bit of a rabbit hole). I checked for Have a Nice Day and then Have a Nice One (the latter drives me a bit nuts… a nice one what?)

  9. Carolanne J. Papoutsis
    Carolanne J. Papoutsis on November 27, 2021 at 9:08 am

    Very helpful. Thank you!

    C.J. Papoutsis

    • Judy Penz Sheluk
      Judy Penz Sheluk on November 27, 2021 at 9:38 am

      Thanks for reading it, Carolanne!