Melissa Moschitto
Making a Dark Corner for Exploration

While working on a historical fiction short story, I found myself stuck. It had been about two years since I had written the first draft of the story and I was struggling to capture my protagonist’s voice. It was also written  in first person, which I don’t typically work in. I needed a way to rediscover and galvanize this voice. 

The character is from Iceland. I turned to Google, a handy way to both research and procrastinate from writing. I entered my search terms: “unique words in Iceland.” Google did not disappoint. 

In my research notebook, I carefully entered the words that I found to be the most evocative. I found I was less interested in the literal definition of the words, and more interested in the etymology of the word and its colloquial, or the feeling that Icelandic speakers were attempting to convey with the word. 

For example: 

“Bita a jaxlinn,” which translates to “bite the molar.” It was defined as “grit your teeth and carry on with something even if it gets tough.”

As my protagonist is a Viking explorer, this spirit of grit really resonated. I could picture her clenching her jaw as she gave birth on a new continent or while traveling for many weeks over open seas.

Some words helped me to think about place from a slightly different angle, for example, “skumaskot” or “a dark corner.”

“Truno” is defined as “showing yourself in a long and intimate conversation with others, often late in the evening.” My protagonist speaks about the power of gathering around a fire and telling tales, thereby creating history. “Truno” both reinforced this instinct and pushed me to deepen my use of this setting. What other secrets could be revealed by the fireside?

Once I had collected 17 words, I set about writing, using the words to prompt freewriting in the voice of the character. I did not use any of the actual Icelandic words or phrases, but rather, allowed the syntax and emotional quality of the translated definitions to guide how my character spoke.

This was a fun and engaging exercise that propelled me out of stagnation. It helped me to enter the psyche of a culture and provided an excellent springboard.

Telling a story that uses another language provides a direct entry into finding such vocabulary, but I think there are many different ways you could approach this. For example, you might search for geographical terms or features related to the physical setting of your story. Other examples could be the fauna and flora of a location, types of architecture, or even regional dialect and slang. 

Try it! P.S.. my favorite source for Icelandic words was this site.

Melissa Moschitto (she/her) is a fiction writer and investigative theatre maker lifting up feminist narratives to catalyze conversation and change. She is the Founding Artistic Director of The Anthropologists, dedicated to the creation of devised research-based theatre. Her fiction writing has appeared in Bright Flash Literary Review and will appear in upcoming issues of Macrame Literary Journal and The Avalon Literary Review. The mother of two dramatic children, she is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at Cedar Crest College.

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