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

[rionaleonhart]

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.)

Comments

[vzg.livejournal.com]

Honestly I have the same paranoid feelings, and I've never to my knowledge been called out on my Americanisms, though I'm pretty sure my fic is littered with them.

At first I was okay with it so long as my dialogue wasn't overtly American, but apparently that is not okay at all. Pretty much the result has been my not writing a lot of Harry Potter fic that I would have liked to simply because I feel like it's going to become hated even if beta-ed or something, and my reluctance to step into Merlin fic writing.

[rionaleonhart]

Don't let it keep you from writing fanfiction! That's awful! As I've said, much of the British-fandom fanfiction I've read by American writers has been wonderful; I may notice things like 'cell phone', and they may bother me a bit, but they're not enough to keep me from enjoying a good story. If you're really worried about Americanisms, just get a British person to look over your story before you post. Why 'even if betaed'?

[vzg.livejournal.com]

Reactions from others (see the thing above, with with fanficrants experience) have made it out to seem like if you're not British yourself, or intensively studying the differences between British and American English, you will just suck at writing a British fandom no matter what. It doesn't matter if you're story's form has a neutral narrator (because those apparently never exist ever), you'll just be awful. That or you have to get ten billion different betas to transform your fic into something truly British! And it just feels hopeless, like the mere knowledge that I am American is going to turn people away.

Oddly, few people seem to have this problem between different American dialects, short of a New Englander saying "ya'll." Although I suppose I might end up being conscious of that if I got into True Blood or something; most of our television is pretty non-dialecty, unless it's a character thing.

[vzg.livejournal.com]

Also, I should add, I get worried about it because most of the time I don't really notice it in fanfic, unless it's either someone who is really obvious because they made no effort whatsoever (and they tend to be the same writers who fuck up other story aspects anyway) or because they overdid it in a huge way (like the sort who write mostly well but make every character say "bloody" all the time). If I can't tell when they do I, I'm certainly going to miss it in my own stuff. Although I suppose it's possible that I just rarely read anything from non-Americans, except I know that's not true because I've read tons of Merlin fic, and other large fandoms where the source material is popular overseas. Also, yours and th_esaurus's stuff.