[ SECRET POST #2797 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2797 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 085 secrets from Secret Submission Post #400.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Er... how well do you think you pull that off? I'm genuinely curious. I'm American and while I like a lot of British shows, I avoid writing for them because I don't think I'd get the culture right. (And because I see a lot of Americans try and fail miserably, per the less diplomatically worded comment upthread.)

[(Anonymous)]

Not OP

To be honest, even most of the best American fic writers can't pull it off entirely. There's always something that gives it away. There are a few exceptions. Irisbleufic writing for Good Omens and Hot Fuzz fandoms is probably the most notable. Katie Forsythe writing for Sherlock Holmes too (if she is American, not sure on this point). In the case of IBfic though, she lived over here for a long time, so I don't know if that strictly counts?

I'd be interested to know whether you think Brits suffer the same problem when they write for American fandoms? I never know how well I manage to carry off American characters, and I worry that people are too polite to tell me! I suspect it's easier for us because we have so much American media over here.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah. Even published work set in England but written by Americans seems a bit off to me. Obviously I'm not an expert since I'm also American, but I figure if *I* think it sounds funny and not quite right, it must be really glaring to a Brit.

I've got limited experience reading fanfic set in the U.S. but written by British authors, but yes, sometimes I can tell. It comes out in idioms, certain phrases or syntax, or the occasional cultural goof. One huge one is the kettles (electric or otherwise) are not as common here, and when someone visits you, it'd be unusual to say something about putting the kettle on. Then there's the confusion about English biscuits vs. American biscuits.

[(Anonymous)]

I knew about biscuits but I didn't know about kettles. Out of interest, what do you guys boil water in for coffee? A pan? The microwave? *head scratch*

See that's exactly the kind of thing I love to have pointed out to me. But at the same time, I've noticed that different Ameripickers will contradict each other because they come from different areas of the US. It makes it difficult to get an idea of what is or isn't going to fly.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

Coffee is usually brewed in a coffeemaker (an appliance that boils water and then directs it through a filter where the coffee grounds are located). Or, if you're using instant coffee, I've always seen people microwave a mug of water and then mix the coffee in.

[(Anonymous)]

Coffee gets made in a coffee maker for the most part, and if you need to boil water for something else most people will use the microwave. More significantly, though -- although this varies by region -- there's not the hard-coded "people came over, so there will now be hot beverages" assumption. You don't automatically "put the kettle on" in most parts of the States just because someone showed up at your house.

[(Anonymous)]

I have two electric kettles because in the last ten years or so they started making them with the right plugs. But we have teakettles that go on the stove (not the cooker) or a person could use a saucepan or the microwave. It depends on what's available. They could even have a special hot water heater as a sink attachment if the house is new or yupscale enough.

[(Anonymous)]

Coffeemaker. Most people don't just boil water and pour it over the grounds themselves. The exception might be if they're using a french press or something.

Yeah, you're right. There's a lot of regional variation that not only would you need a fic American-picked by an American, but by an American who's at least somewhat familiar with any region-specific quirks of language and customs.

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe kettles are a Southern thing because every southern grandma I know has one.

[tweedisgood]

Even Katie Forsythe (yes, she is American) makes obvious errors; obvious to me at least. Unless you get an eagle-eyed Brit to go over every phrase, it will happen.

I'm certain it applies in the other direction too - when I used to write in a US fandom, I always had my work Ameri-picked and they always found multiple things.

[(Anonymous)]

Brits need americheckers, just as much as the reverse. Just the other day I saw a zimmer frame in a Supernatural fic. (Here they're generically known as walkers.)

[(Anonymous)]

Generally I don't care either way, as long as the author is open to being told that they are wrong. It's common courtesy to acknowledge that you got a detail about someone's homeland wrong.

[(Anonymous)]

Nor can some American pro writers.

Outlander *shudders*

sorry for derail but that's a particularly egregious example.

[(Anonymous)]

Outlander is an egregious example for a lot of things, though. ;D

[(Anonymous)]

DA

I can usually tell when a Brit is writing in an American fashion, even when they do it really well; it doesn't bother me, it's just a "oh, this person is probably British" realization and then I move on. It's little things, like habitually writing "they've/I've not" instead of "they/I haven't" (I didn't realize how I've never heard an American say it that way until I started reading fic with British characters or by British writers).

[(Anonymous)]

See one of my Ameripickers okayed 'I've/they've not'. This is why it's a little difficult.

[(Anonymous)]

A while back a Brit responded to one of my stories to tell me there would never be a Catholic church in a small town in the Scottish Highlands. I didn't have the heart to reply that the church in the story was a real one, in the real town I'd established the characters staying near. I actually even knew the name of the priest! (I make enough mistakes readers kindly ignore, I figured I owed them one.)

[(Anonymous)]

I'm British and I say "they haven't". To me, "they've not" is actually wrong. So you can't really generalise.

[rosefyre]

Definitely possible to tell. It comes out most in the little idioms, the way people speak, turns of phrase that don't have simple factual differences you can learn like truck = lorry, jumper = sweater, underground = subway, etc., and I've gotten to the point that that sort of thing doesn't throw me out of the story - whether I'm reading British characters written by an American or American characters written by a Brit. We're not paying for fanfic, after all, and the point is enjoyment, so if the story is good, the grammar/spelling are generally decent (if not necessarily from the country they should be), and I'm having a good time, I will let that sort of thing go.

What DOES throw me out are things where it's like "...did you even research the location you're writing this about?" And I've definitely found it happening more and more with Avengers fic, because, as a native New Yorker, I constantly see glaring mistakes that are just like "...no, no, New York City DOES NOT WORK that way." I think the one that threw me out the most was actually written by an American author, since I don't remember any weird grammar/spelling stuff in the rest of the fic, but it was so clear that the author just looked at a map to pick a place and didn't research at all as to where the sort of thing he/she was looking for would actually be located. I still won't abandon stories just because of stuff like that, but I will roll my eyes and probably be more inclined to abandon the story if I see more egregious mistakes.

[(Anonymous)]

^SA

Oh I meant to say! Don't let it stop you writing though, anon. Maybe get a Britpicker if you're really worried about it, but hell definitely don't let it stop you writing. :)

[lunabee34]

Frankly, a little using the wrong idiom doesn't bother me. If I'm reading a good story and Sam says to Dean, "We're meant to turn right here," I just chuckle and move on. If Harry tells Blaise he loves his sneakers, I just read on.

These kinds of errors are only a problem for me if they are pervasive and occur continuously in dialogue (because then it's not a Brit-pick or American-pick issue but a characterization one) or if the story is shit. If it's a good story, I can take a handful cultural mistakes.

[alexi_lupin]

Can I ask, what would be the proper alternative to "We're meant to turn right here,"? It certainly doesn't sound like a totally Sam thing to say but is it a UK/US thing?

[tree_and_leaf]

You don't 'turn right' in American, you 'make a right'.

[lunabee34]

Americans might say, "I mean to X" although many of them might say, "I intend to X" instead.

But Americans do not say, "I am meant to X." They say, "I'm supposed to X."

:)

[(Anonymous)]

Well most Brits don't get American culture right either, so I guess both sides of the pond are even.