'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

[th-esaurus.livejournal.com]

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.

[rionaleonhart]

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'?

[th-esaurus.livejournal.com]

'Study', I guess?

[linakitten.livejournal.com]

Argh, Americanisms in British fandoms drive me NUTS. Especially in fantasy, oddly enough - I guess it's because Americanisms are so jarringly -American-.
I wonder if Britishisms annoy Americans as much?

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

For most of my fanfic-writing I'm busier worrying about things like getting the language as a whole right rather than the Americanism/Britishism thing.

Of course, before Top Gear I never even really had a beta, and I was in American fandoms like Stargate SG-1, so I don't really know how Americanised/Britishised my SG-1 fics are in comparison to the Top Gear ones.

[http://users.livejournal.com/shadowkittykat_/]

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.

[amy-wolf.livejournal.com]

You're generally quite good at avoiding unintentional Britishisms. We don't revise, though. Where I'm from, mostly we study for exams. Also, while the word exam is used sometimes, it's far more common to call them tests. So we study for tests.

The main thing that stuck out was the pie thing (pie in the US generally meaning a dessert with a filling of fruit or something, and pie in the UK generally meaning meat pies), and that got sorted out. You've got a good eye for detail, which helps.

[amy-wolf.livejournal.com]

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?

[rionaleonhart]

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.

[rionaleonhart]

That is reassuring; thank you! (By which I mean 'you're generally quite good at avoiding unintentional Britishisms', not 'it's far more common to call them tests', which isn't reassuring at all. See, the thought that 'exam' might not be commonly used in America hadn't even crossed my mind. It's so easy to forget to think 'wait, could this be a word that isn't used over there?' (In England, 'test' implies something slightly less formal than an 'exam'.))

[timydamonkey.livejournal.com]

Personally I don't mind too much if people use Americanisms in British fandom or vice versa provided it's not in speech (seriously, very few people in Britain say "mom", guys). I suppose if it was some sort of interior monologue/first person fic it would bother me a bit too - a bit like if you wanted to do a first person POV of an intellectual character (let's take Hermione from Harry Potter) and then make them think things such as "oh my god, he's like totally hot!" It just doesn't suit the voice - using different words because of Americanisms/Britishisms also don't suit the voice.

But in description or whatever it doesn't really matter as long as people can follow along (so basically it's not being written in rhyming cockney slang :P).

Something not on the word choice front!

You can totally make somebody Zuko on account of a scarred face! If people can make Cloud a super saiyan because he has yellow spiky hair, ANYTHING to do with appearance is clearly justified!

[http://users.livejournal.com/shadowkittykat_/]

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.

[http://users.livejournal.com/shadowkittykat_/]

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!

[rionaleonhart]

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.

[proleptic-fancy.livejournal.com]

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.

[rionaleonhart]

I'm sure Britishism annoy Americans. I've certainly seen Americans commenting on the fact that British writers, here on an island the US could swallow whole forty-seven times, often can't comprehend the scale of the United States and get the amount of time it would take to get from one place to another dramatically wrong.

[shark-hat.livejournal.com]

drop_the_u?

[shark-hat.livejournal.com]

(Sorry, hit submit too soon, just wondering if you knew about the comm for furriners writing in USglish.)

[rionaleonhart]

'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.

[rionaleonhart]

Thank you! I've seen that community before, and it looks very useful, especially for cultural differences. I suppose a beta looking through the entire fic would be better for linguistic differences, though, because it's so easy to write a word without even thinking 'Wait, is this used in America? Should I ask drop_the_u?'

[rionaleonhart]

Wow, yes, writing natural-sounding dialogue for English-speaking characters, no matter what their origins, must be very difficult for non-native speakers. I'm very impressed by how well you manage it.

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

*is flattered*

I think that it's not just American-English versus British-English, it's the whole package of talking.

Everyone has different speaking patterns, so even if you stayed in a British-English fandom but went from Top Gear to Merlin, you'd still have to adjust to a different way of talking, because it's not like Merlin or Arthur are going to talk in ridiculous metaphors like Jeremy (or James, for that matter, with his car-cheese comparisons).

So maybe American-English versus British-English makes getting used to writing different speaking patterns a bit more difficult, but if you used all the right American terminogy but had someone like Jack O'Neill talk like Jeremy Clarkson in every other way, it'd still be completely wrong.

[rionaleonhart]

That's very true, of course, but it is possible to have a character's voice down in most respects and yet use the occasional word in a sense in which it isn't used in his country, or to use words that aren't location-appropriate in the narrative (which might not be written to exactly mimic any one character's voice). Jack O'Neill talking like Jeremy Clarkson would probably bother me more than Jack O'Neill saying 'aeroplane', though.

[rionaleonhart]

MY NEXT FIC IS GOING TO BE WRITTEN ENTIRELY IN COCKNEY RHYMING SLANG.

Americanisms don't bother you in description for British fandoms? Hmm. You make a good point about the difference between character voice and narrative, but they do still bother me; if no character present would think of Character A's handbag as 'a purse', should the narrative really call it a purse? Also, third-person narrative is often still portraying the world through a character's eyes, even if it's filtered through non-first-person pronouns. andtimetravel (sorry to use my own writing as an example, but it was the first thing that came to mind) is written in the third person, but it is still entirely from Derren Brown's point of view, and American terms would jar.

[timydamonkey.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I consider third person POV fic an interior monologue, so yeah, it doesn't work there either (though I'm probably guilty of failing at Americanisms myself). But if it's one that jumps around and isn't really supposed to be in anybody's point of view it doesn't bother me - that's a personal opinion though. Some people can be more or less pedantic about it.

Though just to be complicated some things don't even work in description for me - to use Harry Potter as an example again, things such as late passes (which doesn't really have an equivalent here) or referring to what year you're in as grades can grate because the meanings aren't the same (like you'd be a different age in first grade in America to year one in the UK).