How can you keep your writing from sounding dated? I am reading a book that is so dated it’s almost too jarring to keep chugging forward. Granted it’s from 2002, which I didn’t realize when I’d gotten the book. I actually flipped to the copyright to check when it the references made my eyebrow raise the forth or fifth time. Ten years by itself doesn’t seem *that* old, but I’d swear to you the author had to have written it a good ten years *before* that even judging by the references she’s using. There’s a lot of celeb name dropping and not one has really even been relevant this century (and as it’s on every other page practically, it stands out). I want to like the book, I sought it out after reading a blurb of it somewhere, but the dating...

Sometimes, writers add topical points in their story to ground the reader be it with a culture reference or current event. Some stories hinge on that as their plot or the whole of the background. But when a reader picks it up years later, will it still make sense or be relevant?

I try not to add very specific culture references for just that reason. Sure it’s fun to put something in that will make a reader giggle or gasp because they know exactly what you’re saying with just that little blip. At the same time, you want your story to be timeless. Something that can be read now or twenty years from now and it’s not pulling you from the story because you have to stop and figure out “why” that was relevant when the book was written.

I am only two chapters into the book I mentioned above. And I might not finish it because it’s getting annoying. And for me not to finish something... it takes a lot for me to put a book down. As a reader does that even bother you, the dating? Or do you take it for what it is and keep on keeping on? And if it’s not a brand spanking new release, do you go in a check out the date to be prepared? I will say, I go through a ton of books and often have no idea when they’re written. 99% it doesn’t even strike a note of being off in the least.

As a writer, do you find yourself not putting a reference in that in a few years may leave someone scratching their head, or do you plug along and hope that it makes sense down the road? Is it hard to resist a topical zinger that will kill now whether or not it will ever make sense again?