rionaleonhart | 'I'll Leave Lolita On Your Bed. ...The Book.'

Something I've been wondering: when I'm writing fanfiction involving American characters, does my Britishness show? I've been reading a bit of Merlin fanfiction and RPF recently, and much of it has been wonderful, and it's clear that the American writers make a great effort to use British terminology, but so often there's some tiny thing - 'principal' instead of 'headmaster/headmistress/head', 'subway' instead of 'tube', 'pants' used to mean trousers instead of underwear, 'airplane' instead of 'aeroplane' (it's illogical - we don't have 'aeroports', after all - but it's what we say!), a 'stick shift' instead of a manual car, 'purse' used to mean a bag, 'cell phone' instead of 'mobile phone' - that gives a writer away as American and pulls me out of the story a little. I don't mind American spellings in British fandoms (I would be a hypocrite if I did, because I cling desperately to my 'u's and '-ise's no matter what I'm writing (WHO SPELLS 'COSY' 'COZY'? 'Z' IS NOT A COSY LETTER, AMERICA. IT HAS SHARP EDGES)), but when a British character uses a word or phrase that that character simply wouldn't use I find it quite jarring.

I suppose I have a cultural-exposure advantage, as American television is more popular over here than British television is in America, but I don't understand half of what Dean Winchester says, so how can I be sure that I'm writing him accurately? I'm sure I forget to use 'gotten' on occasion when I'm writing from the point of view of an American character, and I've unthinkingly used 'leant' instead of 'leaned' and other '-t' participles in some of my older American-fandom fics (not such a problem now that I've started writing mostly in the present tense), and there are times when the possibility that a word isn't used in American English simply doesn't occur to me (is it true that you don't 'revise' for exams?). In my Supernatural fanfiction, is the fact that I am not American glaringly obvious?

Ah, writer's insecurity. Perhaps I should just use a cultural beta when I'm writing for American fandoms.

Speaking of giant mechanical spiders: I would very much like to see a Merlin and Avatar crossover. I think the tones of the two canons would mesh well. UTHER HAS OUTLAWED BENDING. MERLIN IS THE AVATAR.

Alternatively: everyone, perhaps including Merlin at first and certainly including Arthur himself, believes that Arthur is the Avatar, but in fact he is just a bloody good Earthbender. Merlin, travelling around with him in the Sokka role, comes to realise that he himself is, in fact, the Avatar. Whoops. He tries to conceal the fact that he has any bending skills at all, for, er, no doubt very good reasons. 'Protecting Arthur's ego' does not count as a good reason. I'm going to have to think about this. (They travel with Gwen and Morgana. Gwen is a Waterbender, Morgana a Firebender.)

THEIR MODE OF TRANSPORT IS A GIANT WINGED UNICORN.

POSSIBLY A GIANT SIX-LEGGED WINGED UNICORN.

YES.

I'm not sure of what to do with Gaius. He is not quite awesome enough to take the role of Iroh, and, besides, one cannot have an Iroh without a Zuko, and the only character of whom I can think to play Zuko to Gaius' Iroh is Merlin. Having Merlin striving to capture himself would probably be slightly too confusing.

I suppose Edwin could be Zuko. The question: would it be too silly and superficial to cast Edwin as Zuko purely because one half of his face is scarred? The answer: yes. Yes, it would.

(Perhaps Arthur could be a sort of blend of false-Avatar and Zuko, trying to get back into his father's good graces after he was banished for bending.

OR SOMETHING. I DON'T KNOW. ALL I KNOW IS THAT THE MERLIN AND AVATAR WORLDS NEED TO MEET.)

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I too have been worrying about giveaway Britishisms in fic of late! It's taken me long enough to start using 'Mom' over 'Mum' and remembering Americans don't actually say 'trousers' very often, but yeah, it's very easy to worry about what you're overlooking.

is it true that you don't 'revise' for exams?

I discovered this some time ago! That phrase just doesn't seem to be used in America. I found it massively odd.

The trouble is that, whilst American television or books can indicate what Americans say, they can't tell us what they would not say under any circumstances. BECAUSE THEY DON'T SAY IT. Argh, linguistic differences. I mean, I love linguistic differences, because they completely fascinate me, but they are also hugely frustrating.

What on Earth do Americans do when an exam is approaching? Do they 'prepare'?

'Study', I guess?

Hi! Clueless American over here (who wishes we spelled things The Cool Way with u's and such). While we do "prepare" and "study", I think the other most common word would be "review" for tests/quizzes/etc. I remember being puzzled when I first stumbled across revise in the British sense, actually (oh, UK Harry Potter books. so unintentionally educational. I learned about biscuits actually being cookies.) Over here, it's mostly used in the sense of "revise this essay, then re-submit it, I know it can be better" rather than "go look over your notes".

it is occasionally puzzling when I find a random Britishism in my Supernatural/J2 fic ("flat" for apartment, anyone saying bloke ever, etc" but it's pretty much ok except for dialogue. It's always v weird to read J2 fic from various places, because I actually am from Texas (originally. I left as soon as possible. eurgh 110 F in the summers do not want) so hearing certain bits of Northern/Eastern US or UK localisms are always a bit strange.

also, on a further studying note, we "take" exams, rather than "sit [for] them". I dunno if that's just a Canadian thing, or if y'all did that too, but I figured it's worth a mention.

Really? I hardly ever hear 'review'. It's mostly just study. Review is generally like if you sign up for one of those SAT review courses.

Regionalism, maybe?

This very well could be. I'm from the South (Southwest, to be precise) so I grew up (in a teeeeeensy prep school) reviewing for a quiz.

Hello! I don't believe we've spoken before, have we? It's nice to meet you! And thank you very much for this comment, because I'm always interested in hearing about variations of the English language.

Oh, my, that's over forty degrees Celsius. I would not be able to cope. (Fahrenheit/Celsius is another aspect that causes problems when British people write for American fandoms and vice versa, actually. In one fic I betaed, a British character was feeling very cold, and said he wanted to go 'somewhere with a temperature above fifteen degrees'. I assumed that the (American) author was working in Fahrenheit and said 'hey, we use Celsius'; in fact, she had meant Celsius, not having realised that fifteen degrees (sixty degrees Fahrenheit) is a lovely warm day in England.)

In the UK, we can either take or sit exams, I think. 'Sit' is possibly more common in formal contexts. In casual conversation, I think we mostly just 'have' exams.

I... have lurked around, mostly, I think. I have the unholy triumvirate of you-wanttobeatree-missyjack friended, for all my SPN needs (with futuresoon on top 'cause she's awesome) but I think I've mostly only commented on wanttobeatree's stuff, 'cause of Unalliterative Tuesday [which, by the way, your Derren Brown fics are always ridiculously awesome in. I barely even knew of the guy, now I am vastly interested in his life and work, all because of you :)].
It's very awesome to meet you too!

And yeah, 110-112 F when sometimes the air conditioning craps out on you? Is not fun. I moved somewhere sensibly Northern as soon as possible ;) And temperature is indeed one of those weird things to have to deal with. 20 C is... what, about 70 F, I think? which is more our idea of a lovely day, but that could well be regionalism. I'm sure the Canadians would find that positively sweltering.

This having/sitting/taking important to know for future DW stuff. Thanks!

Hee, I'm glad that you enjoy my Unalliterative Tuesday fics! If you're interested in Derren Brown fanfiction and Supernatural, you should definitely read

the_funmonkey's He's Not the Messiah, He's a Very Naughty Boy: Part One, Part Two.

Twenty degrees Celsius is about seventy in Fahrenheit, yes. There's a useful converter over here, if you ever need to know the Celsius equivalent for fanfiction or something.

Another American chiming in here. I've always studied, or possibly crammed for exams, which everyone called tests until I got to college. Now it's exams or finals at the end.

And Z is a very cozy letter, but that might have something to do with pronunciation too. I guess the expression "catching some Z's" is not as prominent in Britain?

Sorry, kinda fascinated by cultural/language differences. I'll stop now.

'Z' has angles! 'S' is a curvy letter, and one could easily curl up and go to sleep in its lower half. Therefore, 'cosy' is the correct spelling. MY LOGIC IS UNASSAILABLE. Also, it should always be handwritten, because handwritten 'y's tend to be curvier than typed ones. 'U' IS QUITE A CURVY LETTER AS WELL. LET US SPELL IT 'COSUY'.

Ahem. (I really do think that 'cozy' is an odd spelling, though. It just looks sharp!)

We do use a repeated letter 'z' to indicate sleep, but I don't think I've ever heard a British person say 'catching some Zs'. You may have a point when you mention pronunciation; 'catching some zeds' isn't quite as easy to say as 'catching some zees'.

You are very welcome to talk about cultural/language differences! I am enormously interested in the differences between American and British English.

Pronunciation could be the case. In America, 'Z' is a lovely relaxing buzzing sound that's just soothing. No need to stick 'ed' on it. 'S' is more snaky, which tends to freak people out.

And if you weren't utterly wrong about how cozy a good z is, I'd advise you to spell it 'cousy'. Instead, it should be spelled 'cozy' because it's pleasingly small and has a lovely relaxing 'zzzz' sound.

I know, right? Fortunately my beta for the latest thing I was writing didn't find anything to Yankpick, phew. (Considering I was writing from the POV of a FDNY firefighter from Brooklyn.)

I revise for exams! =O And so do most of my friends! Would it socially inacceptable for me to speculate that perhaps this is because we go to rather prestigious college which perhaps has leanings towards the slightly more eloquent persuasion?

On the other hand, I was once informed, upon saying that I needed to revise for an exam, that "revise" is something one does to a paper because it implies reworking/editing of some for. So one cannot actually revise for an exam; one reviews.

In conclusion: I don't know?

'I'll Leave Lolita On Your Bed. ...The Book.'

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