I suppose it was inevitable . . .
Feb. 11th, 2009 11:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dbskylerIt's hard to be an American writing fanfic for a British show. You start out thinking that we speak the same language over here that they do over there. Slowly you learn differently. You find out about a few different terms -- "lift" instead of "elevator," that kind of thing. Maybe you knew a lot of differences already from having spent time in the UK. Maybe you even once had a very surreal experience at the London Zoo where you tried to order a popsicle and the guy selling them had no idea what the hell you were talking about. ("Ice lolly," who knew?) But you still think, "How many differences can there be, really?"
Then you start to write. And you want to be conscientious, so as one of your editing passes you look over your story and you try to catch the "Americanisms." Some of them are easy -- "bonnet" instead of "hood" for the car. Others you think to question, and so you look them up -- "jump leads" instead of "jumper cables." And you make the changes and you go on your merry way, feeling proud of the care you've taken to keep the Americanisms out of it.
Which works well, except for the Americanisms you never even knew were there. To wit, in the random course of reading a stray post about American vs. British terms, I've discovered that there has been an Americanism all this time sitting in my story "Miles from Aberdeen." Apparently in the UK they say "fire engines" instead of "fire trucks." That's not something that even occurred to me to try to look up. Not even though I already knew about the truck / lorry difference. It's just that, well, fire truck is such a normal thing to say. Why would it be called anything else? Popsicle, popsicle, what's wrong with you, don't you understand English?
Which makes me realize (no, not realise, realize) that as hard as I try, it is inevitable that there will be occasional mistakes. At least, until I get a regular Britpicker, or until Microsoft invents a "British checker" that works like a spellchecker.
So, I just need to do the best I can, continue to educate myself on the differences and fix whatever comes to my attention after the fact. And on that subject, if there are any British people out there who've noticed other Americanisms in my fic, please, please do tell me, especially if it's thrown you out of the story (and sorry about that in advance). I do really want to know. If you don't want to go public on it, just use the "contact" link on Teaspoon or here on my LJ -- both of those methods will reach me.
Then you start to write. And you want to be conscientious, so as one of your editing passes you look over your story and you try to catch the "Americanisms." Some of them are easy -- "bonnet" instead of "hood" for the car. Others you think to question, and so you look them up -- "jump leads" instead of "jumper cables." And you make the changes and you go on your merry way, feeling proud of the care you've taken to keep the Americanisms out of it.
Which works well, except for the Americanisms you never even knew were there. To wit, in the random course of reading a stray post about American vs. British terms, I've discovered that there has been an Americanism all this time sitting in my story "Miles from Aberdeen." Apparently in the UK they say "fire engines" instead of "fire trucks." That's not something that even occurred to me to try to look up. Not even though I already knew about the truck / lorry difference. It's just that, well, fire truck is such a normal thing to say. Why would it be called anything else? Popsicle, popsicle, what's wrong with you, don't you understand English?
Which makes me realize (no, not realise, realize) that as hard as I try, it is inevitable that there will be occasional mistakes. At least, until I get a regular Britpicker, or until Microsoft invents a "British checker" that works like a spellchecker.
So, I just need to do the best I can, continue to educate myself on the differences and fix whatever comes to my attention after the fact. And on that subject, if there are any British people out there who've noticed other Americanisms in my fic, please, please do tell me, especially if it's thrown you out of the story (and sorry about that in advance). I do really want to know. If you don't want to go public on it, just use the "contact" link on Teaspoon or here on my LJ -- both of those methods will reach me.