Americans....

[meridian_rose]

I received a review on an older fic - it's always nice to get comments on older fics, and fics in small fandoms, and this was both. However the writer was under the impression that there were "minor spelling and grammar" errors. Now this is a fic that I edited before posting to AO3, but which has never been beta read. So I copied and pasted the AO3 version into Word to have another look.

I found I'd used portacabin when I mean the propriety term Portakabin. Fair enough. Maybe it was because I used some non-standard words within the dialogue, "lemme see" rather than "let me see" as a nod to a character's speech patterns. I couldn't find any other errors. Then I thought, oh-oh.



Changing the text from UK to US in Word showed up a whole lot of "errors", eg favourite, neighbour. However these are not errors in my work. I try to have characters use the correct terms "elevator" rather than "lift", for example, if the character is American. But I'm British, and I write a variety of characters, fandoms, and original works, and I am not going to start spelling words without a u in them "Because America".


Team America: World Police. "It's okay, we got the terrorists!"

Do I need to have the spelt vs spelled debate again?



#yesIknow #notallAmericans #BritishEnglish

Comments

[et-tu-lj.livejournal.com]

Ugh, how irritating.

When I write British fandoms, I always put in an author's note saying I'm American and spell that way, but have tried to avoid blatant Americanisms. If it's a true cultural difference and you're a native of the culture I'm attempting to write, please give me the specifics and the background and I'm happy to learn, but otherwise don't pester me. I've gotten into several helpful discussions that way, like explaining the British school system, or the scarcity of handguns in Britain.

I think it's far easier for an American to write in a British fandom, as so many are dominated by American writers. In those fandoms, I've found a high awareness of the differences because so many writers are trying to cross the same cultural divide. The actual Brits within those communities are highly valued as Britpick betas.

Going from British to an American fandom, there's so much less awareness of the differences. Some American readers/writers who know only American fandoms seem completely oblivious to the differences, and much less likely to understand what they're seeing. You have my sympathy.

[meridian_rose]

Yes to all of this! Thank you :)