(no subject)

[sealie]

I’ve been musing on this topic a wee bit as of late. Brits writing Americans and Americans writing Brits, we can a soupçon of Canadian to the mix.


I’ve had US born and bred beta readers since I realised that there was a significant difference between the UK and US use of the English language back when I was writing ‘due South’ fanfic. I genuinely didn’t realise that there was a difference. I admit it: I had Benton Fraser wearing a white woolly jumper. He looked very pretty too.

But phrases, words and terminology that aren’t ‘right’ still make it through to the final edit of my stories. Some rules are pretty straightforward but other are fluid. I’ve discovered that an editor/beta from a northern state of the US will give you a different edit to someone from a southern state. I’ve ran into confusion, for example, over the use of certain words, e.g. house shoes/slippers and the usage turned out to regional. And I’m still not clear which is correct, so characters go barefoot. In SGA, dialogue-wise/POV should you have to have an individual beta for each main character e.g. a British person (ideally Scottish) for Carson, a Canadian for Rodney (should they be Toronto–based?) and a Texan(?) and/or Californian for Sheppard et cetera? I’m not saying that that’s not impossible and to be frank it’s desirable (and any Canadian beta readers out there, please make yourself known – I’d love to meet you). But confusion for the reader and the writer still happens. If you have a scene in a restaurant in Carson’s POV you’d pay with a wad of notes, but in Rodney’s POV you’d pay with a wad of bills. Theoretically. But I’ve been told that if you’re writing an American/Canadian based telly series your base of the story (e.g. terminology, text, descriptions et cetera outside of actual dialogue) should be North American. Plus again which North American usage should you use Seattle-esque or Floridan or a local from Vancouver? Is there a generic base? Damn those bloody house shoes or is it slippers?

Comments

[gillyp.livejournal.com]

I understand that syntax and word usage should be consistently American - when writing for a US based show, as they should stay British when writing Doctor Who or HP; but I see no reason at all why *spelling* has to change. It has no impact on the way the story reads. I can cope with a Doctor Who fic with American spelling so long as the Doctor doesn't fill his glass from a faucet or open the trunk of a car (unless the car has an actual pirate's chest or massive luggage item in it). I write in a US fandom that has many Brit/Aussie?Kiwi and Canadian writers - they all have good betas to pick the language, but they all spell colour with a 'u'.

[celtic-tigress.livejournal.com]

jimandblair just asked sort of the same question. Look at that reply, por favor. I don't want to clutter up her thread by saying the same (kind of wordy) thing twice. :)